Composite front doors - how do they hold up?

[PattyPan]

Trying to get a new front door as we currently have a wooden one which doesn’t fit in the frame properly. It seems like composite is probably the way forward but when we went to a showroom this morning the guy was telling us about how there are composite doors with a foam core and some with a wooden core and because our door gets the sun (west facing, no porch) we would need a wooden core one to prevent it from warping.

Naturally the wooden core ones are more expensive (he said about £2k for them whereas we have been quoted £1.6k for a foam core one) so MNers, can you tell me about your composite door experiences? Do they actually warp? Do I really need to pay £2k for a decent door?

I’d expect a door costing me well over a grand to not warp! Manufacturers don’t make one type of door for north facing and one for south facing walls.
My new door was about £1200. Grey outside, white inside. Including a window above with the number engraved in it. North east facing so gets sun up to around 2pm every day.

I’m not very helpful as we’ve lived here 3 years and the door was already in, plus we’re north and get almost no direct sun at the front, and I don’t even know if mine is wood or foam. Anyway, I just wanted to say you can paint them with frenchic paint in an afternoon so don’t worry about going off the colour (or pay extra). Mine was dark grey. It was one of those houses with grey carpets, grey walls, grey kitchen etc. It makes you feel like your eyes have broken after a while so I painted it. Still got grey carpets everywhere.

I got mine via britelite when I double glazed whole house.

8yrs later and its still good, had a small issue where sealant around the glass panel caused some leaking but thanks to guarantee got it fixed for free. Those extra long guarantees are so worth it.

My door handle and letterbox, the chrome paint has started to come off, also got a free one under the guarantee

Feels like your best option is to compare prices - anything more than £1.5k is way too much! I know you can get a lot of quotes really quickly on something like doubleglazingontheweb.co.uk so that could be useful

Mine was 1.7k with an additional arch window above. The design I wanted made it more expensive, it's also triple glazed. On my last house. I paid about £950. The door held up well. I think that one was a solidor.

I paid around £1400 for a composite door in 2018 looks smart and wipes clean easily , looks like new still , with the hike in prices due to the shortages of materials and labour I doubt you are being ripped off tbh

We were just quoted over £9000 for x 2 Palladio doors. I know they are expensive but surely this is a bit excessive? One door with glazing, glass side panel & a fanlight & the other plain (no glazing) with just a fan light. We may have to rethink!

The prices can vary hugely. I was quoted over 2k by one company for exactly the same thing I got for 1100 by another. I have a solidor in pale grey/green with a small glass bullseye and black door knocker. It looks smart, shuts properly and requires absolutely no maintenance. I love it.

Good to hear so many positive stories, its easy to find the comments where things have gone wrong.