The bifolding door market now consists of many quality and highly engineered bifolding door systems. Not only is the design of current bifolds great, but components, reliability and the overall product makeup are excellent. There isn’t a bad bifolding door on the market.
How bifolding doors are supplied to end users or the trade has also changed. Notably, suppliers have improved lead times and colour choices; service levels are better than ever, and there are plenty of good brands and systems to choose from.
The Alufold Warmcore bifolding door from Aluhaus of Nottingham.
Another change in recent years is the experienced aluminium manufacturer that has taken a bifolding door from an existing system and has rebranded or re-engineered it to make it better than the original version.
Dekko windows have Reynaers under the Raum brand, Vuelite by Aspect Windows of Exeter is also Reynaers. The Evolution bifold is available for fabricators to market under their own name, and Duration has versions of the AluK and Smarts systems. Expert fabricators see a niche, invest and capitalise on it.
Aluhaus of Nottingham has done just that with their Alufold bifolding door. Based upon the Warmcore system, Alufold bifolding offer enhancements and service levels that are impressive. The Alufold bifolding door is supported with a residential hinged door, called Aludoor and by the Aluframe Warmcore aluminium window.
Why change and re-engineer an aluminium system?
No bifolding door is perfect. Often systems companies design a product and with the best will in the world cannot come up with something to please and meet the requirement of every fabricator, salesperson, fitter and end user. Even the bifolding door systems perceived as ‘the best’ through reputation or sales have their shortcomings.
This is not to say Synseal got Warmcore wrong. Far from it given the vast number of very well known fabricators and installers that sell Warmcore today. Warmcore is not as slim as a Schuco door with 121mm meeting stiles, the Comar folding door with 120mm or the new Visofold 5000 with 108.5mm.
What Aluhaus has done is to be admired. It takes time, commitment and enormous investment to re-engineer an aluminium system. The advantage of bringing out a new bifolding door in an already successful growing market is that you have had plenty of time to see what the industry and the customer want from a bifolding door.
Talking to your customers provides invaluable feedback on what they know sells a door and what features make it easier to fit and what improvements systems companies often miss out for often unexplained reasons.
You can also learn what elements appeal and help sell a bifolding door outside of just good security and accreditations. Then you set about creating a product that takes the best the bifolding door industry has to offer in design, hardware and production methods.
Alufold Warmcore Doors have features many leading brands do not.
Our research into the Alufold Warmcore bifolding door reveals a product with several key innovations by Aluhaus that few other doors possess. Aluhaus has taken the best in current bifolding door technology, improved it and added it to the Warmcore system. Alufold has several cosmetic, performance and design enhancements to make it even better.
Aluhaus say on their marketing materials that the Alufold door is probably the best on the market. Having examined how Alufold came about and what the current product provides, they could well be right.
You can find out more information about the many individual features of an Alufold door just some of which include:
- A new method of fabricating bifolding doors that move away from mechanical joining.
- A bifolding door with a mitred outer frame where others use square cuts.
- Alufold doors finally give the homeowner weather rated low threshold.
- Colour matched Q-Lon seals exclusive to the product.
Alufold is marketed as the best bifolding door. Is it the best?
In reviewing the Alufold Warmcore bifolding door, one thing that is apparent is the thought that has gone into the product as well as a clear vision of who the target customer is. The trade counter cut-price bifold is not sold to appeal to the more quality-conscious buyer. The cheaper supply only bifold is there to fill an aperture for a builder.
When we first reviewed the Warmcore bifold we said it offered a different sales proposition because of how it looked, its thermal performance and its construction. It shifted away from the polyamide systems giving an end user an alternative aluminium door to consider and installers an entirely different non-polyamide system to sell.
We think Alufold has many new features in a bifold that make it a very credible and different bifolding door for installers to consider adding to their range. Alufold also places a new product in the eye of the clever consumer that likes to research their bifolding doors and dig deep into what door is right for them. It is clear the Alufold door is on the market as a credible and different proposition for an installer and a homeoner to consider.
