Your sliding screen door keeps coming off its track or sticks: what to check

The symptom

The insect screen on your sliding patio door drags, sticks partway, or comes out of its track at the top or bottom. This guide covers the screen only. If the glass door itself has come off its track, read sliding door off the track instead, and do not try to lift the door back on.

The short answer

Start with the track, then look at the rollers.

• The track. Andersen says operating problems with its gliding screens are often caused by dirt or debris in the screen track, and to clean the track before inspecting the rollers.
• The rollers. JELD-WEN's sliding screens run on rollers with an adjustment screw at each corner. Andersen says a screen that is still stuck after cleaning may need its rollers adjusted or replaced.

Why a screen leaves its track

A sliding screen is held at the top and the bottom. On Andersen's 100 Series, two rollers sit at the top and two at the bottom. Andersen says those rollers are adjusted to add enough tension so the top rollers stay on the track. JELD-WEN gives the same kind of setting for its screens: as low as possible but just high enough to avoid drag, with the top rollers adjusted, if needed, to apply slight tension.

Both makers tie a screen staying on its track to how it is set. Andersen ties keeping the top rollers on the track to roller tension. For its hanging screens, which run on guides, JELD-WEN says to adjust the guides so that they do not rub on the sill or come off the track.

Andersen sorts it by where the screen sticks. For its A-Series, 400 Series, and 200 Series screens, a screen stuck at the top of the frame is lowered, and one stuck in the bottom track is raised. Both are done with the screen's adjustment screw. JELD-WEN adds a check for a screen that sits crooked: note whether the top or the bottom of the screen touches the side jamb first, because that decides which roller is extended and which is retracted.

Which screen do you have?

The steps differ by door and screen, so the makers' instructions are not interchangeable.

• Andersen says its A-Series, 400 Series, and 200 Series screens use spring guides or spring-loaded rollers at the top and bottom, and that those directions do not apply to its E-Series or 100 Series screens.
• Andersen's E-Series screens have no rollers. They hang from the top of the screen track on glide hooks, and Andersen asks E-Series owners to contact it.
• On Andersen's A-Series, 400 Series, and 200 Series screens, the adjustment screw is on the front of the screen on screens from 1982 to 1991, and on the side of the screen frame, toward the bottom, from 1991 on.
• JELD-WEN says its screens have adjustment screws at each corner, on the end or the face of the screen, and that on some rollers the screw turns the opposite way to move the roller in the same direction as the others.

If you do not know who made your door, the door record card lists where to look for a label.

What you can check safely

These checks are done with the screen in its track.

1. Clean the screen track. Andersen's method: close the glass door, slide the screen away from it until the lower track is visible, vacuum or wipe away the debris, then slide the screen back and latch it.
2. Clean the screen. Andersen washes the mesh and frame with a garden hose and mild soapy water, rinses, and lets the screen dry before using it.
3. Check for the wrong products. Andersen says not to use oil-based cleaners or lubricants on its screens, because an oily film can stay and collect dust. It also says not to paint screens or any surface that has sliding contact. JELD-WEN's vinyl door guide says the sill can be lightly lubricated with silicone, if necessary, when its screen is installed. Follow your own door's guide.
4. Watch where it sticks. Slide the screen slowly. Note whether it sticks at the top, drags along the bottom, or rubs at one side first.
5. Look at the rollers. With the screen in place, look at the top and bottom corners. Note any roller that is missing, cracked, or not sitting on its guide. Andersen's check for a stiff screen is that its rollers sit correctly on the guide.

Both makers' guides describe taking the screen out of its track to work on its rollers. This site does not give removal steps.

Andersen recommends having screen rollers inspected at least once a year, and at least every three months in coastal, industrial, or agricultural areas. It also suggests checking that the screen is installed correctly when you put it back in spring after removing it for winter.

One safety point from JELD-WEN: insect screens are not security devices and will not prevent a child, another person, or a pet from falling through.

When to ask for a repair

Ask for help in any of these cases:

• the screen still sticks or comes out with the track clean;
• a roller is cracked, broken, or missing;
• the screen frame is bent;
• the screen track on the door is dented or damaged;
• you do not know who made the door, so you cannot find its screen instructions.

Andersen recommends replacing screen rollers that look damaged, and sells replacement screen rollers through its parts store. Other makers have their own parts routes.

What a technician does

A technician checks the screen track and cleans it, looks at the screen frame and its rollers, and sets the rollers so the screen is held in the top track and clears the bottom one. Damaged rollers are replaced with parts that fit that screen. If the screen problem comes with a glass door that drags or will not close, the technician looks at the door as well.

Where to go next

• If the glass door is also hard to slide, read why a sliding door is hard to open.
• If the glass door will not close all the way, read sliding door won't close all the way.
• The track repair page covers a damaged track on the door itself.
• If the door opens onto an apartment or condo balcony, the balcony door roller repair guide covers who arranges a repair there and what to photograph for the property manager.

To ask about a repair in Plano, Allen, McKinney, or Frisco, describe what the screen does on the contact page. The photo guide lists what to photograph first. The operator reviews every inquiry and replies with the next step. Sending the form is not a booking.