Why Egress Comes Up When the Power Goes Out
Storms knock out power across central Arkansas a few times a year, and when the lights go, your automatic entrance goes with them. Staff and customers still need to get out — through the same door that was gliding open a minute ago. What that door does next depends entirely on how it was built and set up, and most building owners never think about it until the power is already off and someone is pushing on glass that won't move.
What a Slider Does With No Power
Sliding automatic doors are built to fail in one of two ways, and the setting matters:
- Breakout sliders: the active panel and often the sidelite swing open on hinges when pushed, so people can walk straight through even with the power dead.
- Non-breakout sliders: the panels stay put unless someone manually pulls or slides them along the track, which can take real effort depending on the hardware.
Both setups exist for good reasons depending on the building, the entrance, and how it's used. The problem is when staff don't know which one they have. If your slider is supposed to break out and hasn't been tested in a while, a stuck panel or a frozen hinge won't show up until someone needs it most.
What a Swing Door Does With No Power
A power-operated swing door is really a regular door with a motor attached. When the power drops, the operator stops driving the door, and the door should be able to swing open and closed by hand like any other door. The catch is push force. If the door is heavy, oversized, or the operator's resistance hasn't been checked in a while, "swing it open by hand" can be a lot harder than it sounds — especially for an older customer, someone carrying a tray, or anyone in a wheelchair.
This is exactly the kind of adjustment that belongs to a certified AAADM technician with the right testing equipment, not a maintenance trial-and-error fix. Force settings are a safety-critical setting on both the motorized side and the manual swing-through side, and they're easy to get wrong without the proper gauges.
Break-Out Panels Aren't "Set and Forget"
Break-out hardware only works if it's free to move. Over months of normal use, a few things quietly get in the way:
- Paint, caulk, or flooring buildup along the panel edge that binds the hinge
- Added hardware, signage, or a kick plate that wasn't there when the door was installed
- A hinge that's stiffened up or a latch that's started catching
- Furniture, merchandise displays, or planters pushed up against the swing path
Any one of these can turn a breakout panel into a wall during the thirty seconds it actually matters. None of it shows up on a quick glance from across the lobby.
Manual Push Force Has to Be Checked, Not Guessed
Whether it's a swing door being pushed by hand or a non-breakout slider being pulled along its track, the amount of force a person needs to apply is set at the operator and verified with a gauge. That number can drift over time as hardware wears, rollers stiffen, or weather seals change. A door that opened easily by hand last year can be noticeably harder to move today, and nobody finds out until they're leaning into it mid-outage. Adjusting that force is operator-level, AAADM-technician work — not something to test by having an employee shove on the glass and call it good.
Test Egress on a Schedule, Not During an Outage
The only reliable way to know your entrances will work when the power drops is to check them on purpose, before you need them:
- Have a technician cut power to the door (or simulate it) and confirm breakout panels swing freely and manual operation works as designed
- Check that nothing — new signage, furniture, displays — has been added that blocks the breakout path since the last visit
- Have push and pull force verified with proper gauges rather than a hand-feel test
- Walk every automatic entrance on the property, not just the main one — side doors and loading entrances get forgotten
Finding this out during a scheduled visit costs you a few minutes. Finding it out during a power outage with customers in the building costs a lot more.
Have CSC Check Your Doors Before the Power Does It For You
CSC Automatic Doors has been serving businesses across central Arkansas since 1976, and we send AAADM-certified technicians to test break-out hardware, verify manual push force, and make sure your automatic entrances actually work the way they're supposed to when the power goes out. If you're in Little Rock, Conway, North Little Rock, Benton, Bryant, Maumelle, Jacksonville, Searcy, Russellville, Cabot, Sherwood, or Hot Springs, call us at 501-548-2374 to get your entrances checked before the next outage finds the problem for you.
Frequently asked questions
Will my automatic sliding door open if the power goes out?
It depends on how it's built. A breakout slider swings open by hand on hinges even with no power. A non-breakout slider stays in place and has to be manually pulled or slid along the track, which can take noticeable effort. If you don't know which type you have, that's worth finding out before an outage, not during one.
Can a swing door be opened by hand when its operator loses power?
Yes — a power-operated swing door is built so the door can swing open manually once the motor stops driving it. How easy that is depends on the door's size, weight, and how the operator's resistance has been set, which is why push force should be checked by a technician on a regular basis rather than assumed.
How often should break-out panels and push force be tested?
There's no single answer for every building, but waiting until something goes wrong is the wrong approach. Having an AAADM-certified technician check breakout hardware and verify push and pull force on a routine schedule is the only way to know those entrances will actually work during a real outage.