XENLITE roof lantern review

Made by Alufold Direct, one of the leading aluminium trade manufacturers in the UK, the XENLITE roof lantern is ultra slim, contemporary in appearance and with a quality build, fit and finish. XENLITE provides homeowners with a stylish all-aluminium roof lantern with exactly the modern look new extensions or flat roof renovations demand. Installers benefit from a remarkably easy-to-fit product taking less time on site.

What is the XENLITE roof lantern

XENLITE is the latest aluminium lantern roof to enter the market, made by Alufold Direct, one of the biggest and best-known aluminium trade suppliers. Alufold already provides a large range of fabricated residential and commercial door and window products, predominantly in the excellent AluK system, and now they’ve designed their own lantern roof.

The design of XENLITE

The XENLITE roof lantern uses a similar principle in its design as facade glazing, where the roof bars comprise the primary profile, giving a square and sleek appearance from the inside. The same square or box-like appearance is visible from the outside once the hidden thermal insert, glass and final capping are fixed. Overall the XENLITE roof lantern is a very smart-looking product when finished. The thermal break is simple to clip in place, and the positioning of the glass and final capping again provides a fast installation with a very smart finished product.

There is a lot of competition in the lantern roof space with numerous established systems and independent manufacturers and designers. Few of the lantern roof brands on the market cater to the homeowner’s needs, choosing instead to market their products’ manufacturing or installation benefits – two things arguably of little interest to the end user. End users care about the look and overall styling of a product and that it meets their functional or performance requirements.

From the inside, you get a flat appearance to the aluminium roof bars, and the glass looks seamless because it’s glazed from the outside. As a result, there are no visible glazing beads that you’d see with an internally glazed door or window.

Companies providing lantern roof products, accompanying their broader range of doors and windows, invariably choose a product based on its styling, reliable supply and ease of installation. Alufold has taken their installer-customer feedback on board in the design of the XENLITE roof lantern and created a deliberately designed product for the installer whilst also having the look and feel end-user clients want.

The only drawback to the design of XENLITE is it’s designed around a 24mm double-glazed unit. A 24mm glass thickness is fine, but it would have been good to have a triple-glazed option. That aside, Alufold does reassure its customers that the product is Part L compliant straight out of the box.

Installer benefits of XENLITE

You can view the full installation details showing just how easy XENLITE is to fit. It’s excellent that Alufold has designed the product suitable for one-man installation and designed it in such a way as to make fitting the product at roof height safer.

The glass retention system is one of the best features when assembling the XENLITE roof lantern. The bottom part of the glass unit inserts into an aluminium profile that clips onto the roof frame or ring beam. This benefit is a faster glazing time, easier glass positioning and no risk of the unit falling through the cavity. It just clicks into position on the ring beam reassuringly.

Whilst many of the current generations of lantern rooms promise an easy installation, XENLITE will be better for installers than Atlas or Korniche, arguably its two biggest competitors.

A typical standard-size roof comprises around seven packages, cleverly colour-coded. Even the cleats, screws and finishing screws with cover caps are colour-coded, making identification of the required parts easier on site. In fitting the roof, installers will find the ring beam cleats pre-inserted and the fixing holes machined and countersunk as necessary.

Overall, the entire installation is as easy as the company says, with glazing and adding the final capping fast and simple. The only small criticism is the external screw end caps, which are only visible from the outside and when very close to the roof.

Technical Information

The full technical information on XENLITE is available on the company website, but most noteworthy are the 38mm sightline, self-cleaning high-specification glass units available as standard and its Part L compliance.

Alufold states that U-Values are as low as 1.3Wm2K depending on the glass specification and overall roof size. The profiles come with a professionally applied powder-coated finish, with white, grey and black available as standard. Other RAL colours are available on special order.

U-Values and Energy Efficiency

Other products to compare with XENLITE roof lantern

With many different lantern roof products on the market, homeowners and consumers certainly have a lot of choices. Invariably the homeowner looking to buy from a professional installer will come across the two most popular lantern roofs. XENLITE is slimmer than both of these.

Atlas Lantern Roof

Probably the most widely used by installers and the longest established in the market is the Atlas roof product, now on its second version. With the same contemporary styling and box-mullion design, Atlas will continue to appeal and comes in larger sizes up to 6m long.

Korniche Lantern Roof

The Korniche lantern is another favourite with installers and worthy of comparison with the XENLITE roof lantern, although it’s slightly bulkier and not as modern looking. Korniche is another roof marketed as being very fitter-friendly with no cutting, trimming or silicone required whilst assembling the core structure, and available in simple kit form.

Conclusion

When it comes to choosing a lantern roof as a homeowner, the inside styling you get is very similar across most of the good aluminium systems. And the better brands have embraced the box-mullion design as the one that creates a slimmer look inside and faster installation.

The benefit of choosing XENLITE is slimmer than its two obvious competitors, Atlas and Korniche. Any of these three lantern brands provide a high quality solution in residential or commercial projects. However, where homeowners want their builder to fit their new lantern roof, XENLITE makes a lot of sense because it’s so easy to fit.

Where buy to or enquire about XENLITE

The XENLITE roof lantern is available to buy direct from Alufold, who also has a nationwide network of installation partners for retail projects. Or you can get in touch for more information and where to buy.