Sliding vs Swing Door: Which Automatic Entrance Fits?

Sliding vs swing door is usually the first real decision on a new automatic entrance, and it is often made for the wrong reason. People choose the look they like and discover later that the wall beside the opening is too short, that the leaf sweeps into a queue, or that two-way traffic keeps bumping into each other. The right answer comes from the doorway, the people using it and the building around it.

This guide works through the sliding vs swing door question for commercial pedestrian entrances in South Africa: offices, shops, clinics, hotels, schools and public buildings. It uses the published specifications of our two operators, the MC-125 sliding door operator and the MCW-100 swing door operator, so every figure here is one you can check. It does not cover wardrobes, showers, gates or garage doors.

The short answer

An automatic sliding door suits a busy main entrance with two-way traffic and enough wall beside the opening for the leaves to park. An automatic swing door suits a single existing door, a narrow corridor, an internal office or a doorway with no wall space to spare. Most buildings end up with both: sliding at the front, swing on the internal and secondary doors.

The rest of this sliding vs swing door guide explains why, and how to settle the cases that are not obvious.

How each door uses space

The biggest difference in any sliding vs swing door comparison is where the leaf goes when it opens. A sliding leaf moves sideways along the face of the wall and parks beside the opening. A swing leaf rotates on its hinges and sweeps an arc into the room or the street.

• Sliding. Needs a clear stretch of wall beside the opening at least as wide as the moving leaf, and a structural header above to carry the track and operator. It takes almost no floor space.
• Swing. Needs no wall space beside the opening, but needs a clear floor area in front of the door. A 1,200 mm leaf sweeping 90° covers about 1.1 m² of floor, which is simple arithmetic on a quarter circle.

That swept area is the real cost of a swing door, and it is the figure most sliding vs swing door comparisons leave out. Nobody can stand in it, queue in it, or put a display or a planter in it. In a narrow lobby that rules swing out. In a corridor with walls tight on both sides, it is the sliding door that cannot fit, because there is nowhere for the leaf to park.

Traffic: who is going in and who is coming out

Traffic is the second test in the sliding vs swing door decision. A sliding door opens symmetrically. People can walk in and out at the same time, side by side, and nobody is standing where a leaf is about to arrive.

A swing door opens one way. Someone approaching from the swing side has to wait while the leaf comes towards them, and the door needs presence sensors on the swing side to stop it opening into a person. On a busy entrance that pause happens hundreds of times a day.

That is why sliding is the default on shopping centre, hospital and transport entrances, and why swing is usually reserved for doorways where traffic arrives one person at a time. If you are planning a shop, our guide to automatic doors for shops and retail stores works through the trading-hours side of this.

Opening width and leaf weight

The published limits of each operator set the boundary of the sliding vs swing door choice before any preference comes into it.

• MC-125 sliding. Single slide clear opening 1,450 to 3,100 mm, bi-parting 2,500 to 5,000 mm. Leaf weight up to 150 kg single, or 2 × 120 kg bi-parting.
• MCW-100 swing. Maximum door width 1,200 mm and maximum door weight 150 kg, with the two limits interacting. A pair of leaves can be driven with two operators.

In plain terms, in any sliding vs swing door comparison a wide opening is a sliding opening. Anything over about 2,400 mm clear is beyond a pair of swing leaves and comfortably inside a bi-parting sliding door. A single narrow doorway, under about 1,200 mm, is a natural swing door. The middle range is where the other tests decide it.

For the full sizing method, see what size automatic door operator do I need.

Existing doors and retrofits

A large share of the sliding vs swing door questions we get come from buildings that already have a door. Here the answer usually leans swing, for a simple reason. A swing operator fits above the door you already have. The leaf, the frame, the hinges and the glazing stay, and only the automation is added.

Turning an existing hinged door into a sliding door is a different job. The hinged leaf comes out, and a new sliding leaf, track, floor guide and header detail go in. Sometimes the wall beside the opening has to be cleared as well. It can be done, but it is a refurbishment, not a retrofit.

The MCW-100 is 475 × 81 × 98 mm and weighs 5.5 kg, which is small enough to fit above most office and reception doors. Our guide on whether an existing door can be automated covers the checks we make first.

Accessibility

On accessibility, the sliding vs swing door answer is that both types can serve an accessible entrance well, but they do it differently. A sliding door gives a wide, level, obstacle-free opening, and nothing moves towards the person using it. For wheelchair users, people with walking aids and anyone pushing a trolley or pram, that is the easiest door there is.

A swing door can be set up in low-energy mode, which runs the leaf slowly enough to suit accessible entrances without a presence sensor on every approach. The MCW-100 supports both full-energy and low-energy setups. The trade-off is the swing path, so the push button has to be placed where the person pressing it is not standing in the way of the leaf.

Requirements for accessible entrances in South Africa are confirmed per project. Our practical guide to automatic doors for disabled access goes further.

Wind, weather and outside doors

Wind matters more to the sliding vs swing door choice than most people expect. A swing leaf presents its whole face to the wind as it opens. On an exposed entrance a gust can push against the operator or hold the door open. The MCW-100 limits were tested without wind pressure, so an exposed swing door near its limit should run at reduced speed.

A sliding leaf moves parallel to the wall, so wind loads it far less while it is moving. That is one reason external main entrances are usually sliding. Dust, rain and coastal air affect both types, and our guide to outdoor automatic doors and the South African climate covers the detail.

Energy and air-conditioning

Energy is a quieter part of the sliding vs swing door decision. An automatic door that opens wider or longer than it needs to lets conditioned air out. Both types can be set to open no further and for no longer than the traffic requires, but the sliding door has an extra tool. The MC-125 has a half-open mode that opens the entrance to a fraction of its full width during quiet periods, cutting heating and cooling losses without locking anybody out.

A swing door limits loss through its adjustable opening angle, from 60° to 110° on the MCW-100, and its hold-open time of 0 to 20 seconds. In a sliding vs swing door comparison on energy alone, a well-set sliding door with half-open mode usually wins on a busy entrance, and a swing door wins on a quiet internal one, simply because it opens less often.

Safety and sensing

Every powered pedestrian door needs sensing that opens it for people and stops it closing on them. The difference in the sliding vs swing door case is where the danger sits.

• Sliding. The risk is at the closing edge and where the leaf parks. Presence sensing covers the threshold, and the closing force and speed are set so contact is not dangerous.
• Swing. The risk is the whole swept area, on both sides, plus the hinge edge where fingers can be trapped. Safety sensors watch the swing path and hold the leaf if anyone is in the way.

A swing door therefore needs more careful sensor coverage than a sliding door, and that coverage is commissioned on site, not taken from a table. Our guide to automatic door sensors explains the types, and automatic door safety requirements in South Africa covers the wider rules. External guidance on standards is available from the South African Bureau of Standards.

Escape routes

Where an entrance is also an escape route, how the door behaves in an emergency is not a sliding vs swing door preference. It is set by the building’s fire strategy and confirmed by the fire consultant or local authority, and it applies to either type. We set the door up to match that decision and demonstrate the manual release at handover.

Cost

On the operator alone, swing is the lower starting point in the sliding vs swing door comparison. The MCW-100 swing door operator is supplied from R15 900 excluding VAT, and the MC-125 sliding door operator from R27 590 excluding VAT, both as published on our sister company Coetz.

The operator price is never the price of the doorway. A sliding entrance usually needs new leaves, a track, floor guides and glazing. A swing retrofit may need only the operator, sensors, an arm and an activation device. Installation, glass, framing, sensors and access control are quoted per site. Our automatic door prices guide explains what moves the total.

Sliding vs swing door: common situations

These are the situations we see most often, and what usually decides them.

• Shopping centre or supermarket entrance. Sliding, nearly always. Heavy two-way traffic and trolleys.
• Office reception front door. Sliding if the wall allows. Swing if the existing door is staying.
• Internal office or boardroom door. Swing. One person at a time and no wall to spare.
• Accessible toilet or consulting room. Swing, usually low-energy, with the push button placed clear of the leaf.
• Hospital corridor. Sliding where beds and trolleys pass, swing on side rooms.
• Hotel lobby. Sliding, or revolving where draughts matter.
• Narrow opening with no side wall. Swing, or a telescopic sliding door if the opening needs more width than a swing leaf can give.

Telescopic: the middle option

When the sliding vs swing door choice is stuck because the opening is wide but the side wall is short, a telescopic sliding door is often the answer. Two or more leaves slide on parallel tracks and stack behind each other, so the door needs less parking wall for the same clear opening. It keeps the two-way traffic of a sliding door without needing the full wall length.

How we settle it on site

We do not settle the sliding vs swing door question from a drawing alone. A site visit checks five things.

• Clear opening width you need at the busiest hour, not on an average day.
• Wall beside the opening, measured, including services, signage and glazing in the way.
• What sits above the door, because both operators need a solid, level fixing.
• Floor area in front of the door, for the swing path, queues and furniture.
• Traffic direction, one way or two way, and who uses the door: staff, public, wheelchair users, trolleys.

From those five measurements the sliding vs swing door answer is usually obvious. Where it is not, we explain the trade-off and let you choose. You can see both systems on automatic sliding doors and automatic swing doors, and the operators on the MC-125 and MCW-100 pages.

Mistakes we see

• Choosing a swing door for a busy main entrance, then fighting queues and collisions on the swing side.
• Choosing a sliding door without measuring the side wall, then finding a column, a downpipe or a window where the leaf has to park.
• Putting the push button for a swing door inside the swing path.
• Running an exposed swing door at full speed in the wind.
• Comparing operator prices and forgetting that a sliding entrance usually needs new leaves and glazing.

What to send us for a sliding vs swing door assessment

You can often get a sliding vs swing door answer before anyone visits, if the photographs show the right things. Send these and we can usually tell you which way the entrance should go.

• A straight-on photograph of the doorway, taken from far enough back to show the wall on both sides. That is the sliding vs swing door question in a single picture.
• A photograph of the header and ceiling above the door, so we can see what the operator would fix to.
• A photograph of the floor in front of the door on both sides, including any step, mat well or ramp.
• The clear opening width and height, measured inside the frame.
• A note on who uses the door and how busy it gets at the worst time of day.

With those five items, most sliding vs swing door decisions take a short phone call. The site visit then confirms the fixing, the power supply and the sensor layout rather than reopening the choice.

Sliding vs swing door: quick answers

• Sliding vs swing door for a busy entrance: sliding, because people can pass in both directions at once.
• Sliding vs swing door for a narrow corridor: swing, because there is no wall for a sliding leaf to park.
• Sliding vs swing door for an existing door: swing, because the operator fits above the door you already have.
• Sliding vs swing door for wheelchair users: both work; sliding gives the easier opening, swing can run in low-energy mode.
• Sliding vs swing door on a windy outside entrance: sliding, because the leaf moves parallel to the wind.
• Sliding vs swing door on cost: swing starts lower on the operator, but compare the whole doorway.
• Sliding vs swing door on energy: sliding with half-open mode on a busy entrance, swing on a quiet internal door.
• Sliding vs swing door on safety: both are safe when sensing is commissioned; swing needs more sensor coverage.
• Sliding vs swing door warranty: both MC operators carry 24 months on the operator and are tested to one million operating cycles.
• Sliding vs swing door servicing: both are serviced every six months as standard, more often on high-traffic entrances.

Sliding vs swing door questions

Not sure which way your entrance should go? Request a quote with a photograph of the doorway, the wall on either side and the header, and we will tell you which works and why. We are on 010 412 0062, Monday to Thursday 08:00 to 16:30 and Friday 08:00 to 14:00.