Tired of hearing the screen door slam? Want to prevent crushed fingers and dog tails? Here's an inexpensive but effective solution!
Here at the cabin, I have two wooden screen doors with spring hinges that pull them shut. Before installing these Door Balls the doors would slam with a deafening ‘BANG!’
Recently my Dad spent a few weeks with us. Dad is a mechanical engineer and loves solving problems so I told him about the slamming doors. I wanted to eliminate the banging noise without having to get those ugly aluminum piston-style screen door closers. Dad reached back into his memory and told me that my Great Grandpa Cooper had this same problem. Nearly a hundred years ago, Grandpa built a cabin on Fish Hook Lake in northern Minnesota. As a kid, Dad used to visit there in the summer. The screen door had a very simple rubber ball gadget that kept them from slamming. Using Dad's description, and after making numerous prototypes, I created what I call the Door Ball, my modern interpretation of the vintage door damper that Grandpa Cooper used.
How the Door Ball Works
The Door Ball is a rubber ball that swings like a pendulum on a stiff wire. It is attached with a single screw to the inside of the non-hinge side of the screen door. When the door is closed it simply hangs straight down (see pic 1 below). But when the door is closing, centrifugal force makes the ball swing outward (pic 2). The pivot device allows the ball to swing out only enough to come between the door and the door jamb (pic 3). Acting like a bumper, the ball is quietly squeezed between the door and the door jamb. Then the door recoils a few inches, the ball falls back into its original position and the door and closes gently (pic 4). It's an elegant solution to an irritating problem.
I’m really happy to have these Door Balls on my screen doors because they serve as a reminder that simpler is often better. One of my favorite authors, Eric Sloane, put it this way: "It is a serious thing that so many of us have lost the ability to look backward intelligently, and that we think the only kind of progress concerns looking forward. The old ways have so much to offer besides age, but age, which is repulsive to the times we live in, is all some see in them."
This Door Ball kit includes everything you need to silence one door, including detailed installation instructions. Please be aware that this is not a screen door closer. It's a screen door damper (or dampener) that's made to work in conjunction with a screen door spring or spring hinges. I guarantee the Door Ball unconditionally for life.
