Tell Manufacturing 1000 Series Residential Door Closer Review

One of my greatest fears is that our indoor-only cats will get out of our house through an open doorway. While it could be said that I'm neurotic, my cats are both stupid, adventurous types who always seek out trouble. Recently, two instances of our garage door being left open occurred so close together that I decided we needed to buy and install a door closer as soon as possible, so that I would never have to come home to an open door and a terrifying panic that our cats had gotten out again. We purchased the Residential Door Closer from Tell Manufacturing at Lowe's for under $30.

About the Residential Door Closer
This product comes in ivory or black. It's very similar to the kinds of closers you see on commercial doors. It mounts to the door, and to the top of the door frame, and pulls the door shut automatically after it's opened. The door closer can be adjusted to speed up the closing of the door by increasing the tension on the pulling mechanism. It's also reversible so it can be used on left or right swing doors. The back of the product includes a convenient list of the tools that will be needed to install the closer.

Installation
My husband installed the door closer in well under thirty minutes. While I can't speak to how easy the installation was personally, I didn't hear much in the way of muttered curses from him as he installed it, so it seemed to go easily.

How Well It Works
Once installed, the closer worked its magic immediately. We tested it several times and had to adjust the tension upward because our garage door doesn't latch easily (which is why we've had problems with it being closed all the way). Fortunately, it's easy to adjust the tension and within just a few minutes the door was closing and latching perfectly every time.

Cat's Bottom Line
Since we moved into this house I have become a compulsive garage door checker, making sure that it's latched every time we leave the house, and sometimes going back into the garage to double check it again and again. I'm so relieved we have this door closer installed on this one problem door, and I'm happy that I don't ever have to come home again to see the door ajar and worry about whether or not our cats got out. This product is inexpensive, easy to install and reliable, and I highly recommend it!