Sliding doors - help me please

[threeleggedchair]

I really want some sliding doors in my kitchen as opposed to bifolds because I love the uninterrupted sight line.

I went to a showroom to have a look and oh my goodness were they heavy. I was pushing with both arms, full force. I was told by the manager that this is standard across the board.

I was expecting light, glidy doors not this business of heaviness. This puts a spanner in the works for me as the kitchen door will be used a lot so I need it to be easy and quick to operate.

I wanted to check whether anyone else here has sliding doors and if they are indeed all heavy or whether there are suppliers out there who provide lighter models.

I know the sensible thing to do would be to get bifolds with a traffic door but I really really like the large window panes of the sliding doors.

Thanks everyone

We have sliding door and they are NOT heavy to push aside. My 9 year year skinning daughter can operate them. Ours are big besspoke ones too.

Go to more showrooms! Yes they are heavier than our old french doors but definitely not as bad as you described.

Our system is called decalu163 if that might be of any help.
One of the best decisions we have made, the sightlines as you say are ace and this convinced our builder who is putting an extension to his own house to switch to sliding doors as well.

We are also looking at sliding doors, we recently viewed Sunflex which are so light you could push them along with your fingertips (and very slim sightlines, going down to 20mm). Not cheap but they are by far and away my favourite so far!

Hmm ours are heavy ish I guess but my 6 and 8 year olds can open them fine.

They are heavy when you start pushing them from still, but then they gain momentum and get easier, if that makes sense. So the first couple of inches of opening are hard work but the last few feet are super easy!

Our sliders aren't heavy.

we have massive sliding doors from kitchen to garden. They are not light but the 9 year old can open them without a struggle. you do have to keep the tracks clean.

Thank you everyone this has been really insightful. The showroom I visited was for a brand called Express BiFold Doors.

If you could please provide names of some more suppliers that would be really helpful, thanks for the ones you've mentioned so far.

We had some large sliding doors sunflex 7mts 3 pane , we went for these because they flush stack behind each other and were really slim . We have used the company before for some bifolds in our old house .

We had Basfords in Nottinghamshire supply and fit them ,they had the best showroom anywhere in the midlands and we visited many.
Lots of brands there and always have given us good advice .

We have ordered sunflex and they didn't seem that heavy when we tried them out in the showroom.

Ours are big but light to push and made by ALUK

To those that have gone sunflex did you get the ultra slim ones and what sort of price did you pay? I have a 4.5m opening and a 5m opening and wondering on cost. Don't want to waste time if they are uber expensive.

We used 1st Folding Sliding doors as we were on a budget for 4m w x 3m h slimline sliding doors. They look incredible. Not heavy and can open with one strong hand. Would love Maxlight ones but budget didn't quite stretch