In October 2023 I shattered the stationary part of my sliding glass door by trying to drill out the pin hole larger. Apparently this drilling hit the glass envelope (so that's why the pin was so hard to get in) and shattered it.
I had to seal up the back with plastic sheeting until I could get repaired, which I did pretty quickly. I also complained about the sliding part dragging and advanced that I needed new rollers (and so they also replaced them). The rollers were the originals, now 40 years old. (I wasn't sure afterwards if that was really necessary, perhaps cleaning and lubrication would have been sufficient, the original rollers looked like they might have been better made.)
The door worked great for awhile, and I am convinced now that the pin locking method, combined with some house settling, forced the wheels down into a lower position where they started dragging. So possibly you should not use pin locks for windows with rollers, and especially not where there is known house shifting.
But without regular cleaning (and "lubrication" ?) a year later the door was getting increasingly difficult. I tried vaccuming and olive oil (which oxidized right away) and then I tried adjusting to make it better. I tried to adjust the opening gap as you are supposed to, but it was hard to get there. Then for awhile I was simply cleaning the track with isopropyl alcohol, which seemingly needed doing each time. Finally, after a last bit of adjusting, the door completely froze up. I called the sliding door company again. For nearly a week I couldn't use the back door at all, which meant I didn't go to the backyard or to Lyndhurst. I didn't refill the birdbath. Oh, sure I could use the side gate, but I'd have to get dressed and bring my Zap cane in case of dogs (there have been dogs on the street and walking by my house these past few months).
The sliding glass door company came out and fixed it for free (apparently there was a warranty of some kind for a year or so, I didn't even know). Two strong guys lifted the door out of the track (it was not easy and I don't think I could do it myself as I had been planning to before) and found that one of the rollers had been adjusted too far so it came out of it's thread and was now just dragging. They adjusted the opening (but in the end, I think they simply had to adjust the back up all the way and the opening wasn't really any better than before). I did some more track cleaning while they were busy. It wasn't clear if they used some kind of lubricant (but I'm thinking they did on the door wheels axles themselves, which is where it really counts).
They told me I should keep the track clean and lubricated with Silicone Spray. My friend Noelia is always telling me I should "just use Vaseline and that will fix it). Some experts say track lubrication isn't really necessary, it's the wheels that need lubrication and the track is supposed to stick just a little so the wheels turn--and that was my go-to opinion until now.
I continue to believe now my biggest failing was not keeping the track clean. When I started working on the door, and prematurely adjusting the wheels first, I found the rack was full of cat hair and dirt which took multiple cleanings to get off.
But I decided to research the lubrication question. Silicone Spray is indeed what most manufacturers and installers recommend. Some recommend graphite. Just a few recommend Vaseline or oils, but Vaseline and oils are more often criticized for attracting dirt.
I began to wonder, "What if I could do the cleaning and lubrication in one go, that would make sense." And indeed there is a product just like that, recommended by more than Vaseline. You may have heard of it. Pledge.
Now some picky furniture people say to NEVER use Pledge and the stuff should be taken off the market. It seems some fancy wood finishes (and not bog standard Urethane) are made cloudy by repeated use of Pledge. (Actually, many commercial polishes also contain a bit of silicone too, for a smoother finish.)
But on Urethane coated wood, which is essentially sealed in plastic, you can use anything, even water (if there are no gaps...). So Pledge should be fine with that, Pledge will make it nice and slick.
It turns out (and I knew this before) that the old fashioned Pledge formulations contain silicone! That's what gives the smoothness and shine--silicone in the form of Dimethicone. This is the same stuff that's in silicone spray.
Now you should never use standard WD-40 for any lubricating purpose (it's a protectant and water displacer) but the same company, under the label "WD-40 Professional" makes a Silicone Spray which is "perfect" for sliding glass doors. If you go to Lowes looking for a Silicone Spray, that's what you will find.
Now that's what the installer might recommend (and maybe what they used on the wheels, but I didn't see them use anything) but I got to thinking Pledge would be better, as I could do the cleaning and "lubricating" in one go, every week or so.
If you ask google AI, it will tell you Pledge is a fine way to lubricate your sliding door track, but there are other options. (In a long thread I read, some manufacturer recommends Endust, which has no silicone but another kind of polishing ingredient.)
I had a new liquid pledge on hand but it turns out it's a "cleaner" only with no silicone (Everyday Clean Multisurface PH Balanced cleaner). SC Johnson has now bifurcated the Pledge products into two kinds, the cleaners and the polishes, and only the polishes contain Dimethicone, so that way you can easily avoid it (though I see no reason to).
Then I started looking at the ingredients in these products. I quickly came to the conclusion that the Dimethicone (which is used in many personal care products and cosmetics) may well be the safest ingredient there. Dimethicone is used in drugs too, and it's the core ingredient in stomach gas relief products.
It's the other stuff in the Pledge products I have more concerns about. In future, I see no reason not to use HEB Field & Future cleaner, which seems to have the safest list of ingredients of all, be non-acidic, available without fragrances or dies (why can't we get those out of everything!). The Pledge multipurpose cleaner is better than many previous generations of cleaners, just not quite as good as as Field & Future in terms of ingredients, in my judgement. But no reason not to use it up either.
Then I looked at the WD-40 Professional Silicone Spray, but it's worse. Sure the Dimethicone is there and it's safe, but the rest of the stuff is a pile of awful petroleum based propellants.
I then decided on an all new approach (still not tried as I've been sick for a few weeks and haven't actually cleaned the sliding door track weekly as hoped or even monthly yet--it's just about a month since the repair and the door still slides like glass). First I'll do the cleaning, with any cleaner safe on aluminum and steel (even that Pledge multisurface cleaner, or the HEB "Field & Future" brand household cleaner (which, btw, is excellent and about the safest cleaner you can get, even safer than the Lemishine cleaner I used to get because the latter contained a chemical now banned in EU). Then, after the cleaning, I'll lubricate by rubbing in a few drops of dimethicone spaced along the track.
It turns out you can simply buy pure "Cosmetic Grade" Dimethicone in a bottle, and I also got a dropper for it.
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