Yale P-YSMDC-PC Concealed Door Closer, Fits into the Hinge, Automatic Closure of Doors Up to 50 kg, Electro Brass Finish

This is the only door closer that I could find which is invisible. Once fitted it works perfectly. But thank goodness for P Waldron's review which I had remembered reading when looking at the reviews before buying. His 2" nail method really works, but the difficulty, even then, with fitting is much worse if the door only opens to 90 degrees (e.g. if it is in a corner). Indeed I don't think it is possible to fit if 90 degrees is the maximum the door will open - by removing hooks on the back of the door, I was able to open my door to about 100 degrees and was just able to fit it. Perseverance is the key. I certainly dread having to remove the door again and I certainly do not intend to vary the tension which sounds so simple in the instructions but will entail removing the plate from the door frame.

I bought a pair of these to keep the doors to our living room closed and the heat in. The first thing I noticed is that it says on the pack you need a 26mm diameter drill. I thought I had a good range of drills but not this one. In fact, I went around 4 hardware stores and was unable to find anyone who even stocked a 26mm drill - it's an unusual size and if you need it you'll probably have to order off the internet. When I measured it, the barrel is actually about 22mm across, so a 25mm drill is perfectly adequate and much more common. Be aware however that drill needs to be longer than normal or you need to find a way to extend it so it can make a 150mm hole. I had two 25mm drills but both were too short so I needed to add an extension piece to do the last 10mm. Depending on the width of the doors you have, 25mm is still a big hole and I had to be very careful to drill a hole completely straight so as to avoid coming out on one side of the doors. Even so, the vibration was enough to cause a visible split on the inside of one door which I had to patch up afterwards. Both devices that I received came with the tension set to that I needed a screwdriver to separate the plates or rotate the plates. I was probably being thick but it took me awhile to realise that by simply rotating the plates anti-clockwise, you can release the tension so that the plates are easier to part. That said, the instructions optimistically tell you to pull out about 4cm of chain at one point without giving you a clue how to do that. The spring is extremely powerful and you won't be able to get even a cm pulled out by hand or using pliers. I found that the best technique was to fit the barrel into the door and then use a claw hammer to lever out the chain before using the provided retention plate to hold it there. After that, the rest of the fitting becomes straightforward. As a minor niggle, the quality of the screws provided was questionable. One had a malformed head and was useless and another head twisted off when screwing it in. The good news is that they work well once fitted. I just hope they last.

As previous reviews have stated, this device is excellent but the fitting is very difficult so be warned. An alternative that I have installed on other doors is the "Reilor C10 Gibcloser Auto Door Closer" which only requires x5 screws and took a few minutes to install so it depends on your DIY skills and requirements. My advice is to fully fit the main cylinder to the door by drilling a 22mm hole (as mentioned by Sam). The recess can be chiselled out by first fitting the device and cutting around the rectangular plate to a depth of around 3mm with a Stanley knife, this creates a clean recess for the plate. Adjust the device for the required tension in the chain by rotating the plate, anti-clockwise reduces the tension. I advise adjusting the tension at this point as you can see the device unscrewing at the other end, for which there is no end stop. As others have found, if you go too far the device will fall apart. It's also worth mentioning that I have a 3 year old so wasn't sure what the lowest tension would be, but I can affirm that it is fine and that the door doesn't slam shut but just draws to. Once the cyclinder is fitted the door can be closed to create an indentation in the door frame for attaching the chain retaining plate later on. Now for the bit that everyone has problems with, you will need something metal that will fit through the links to stop the chain from returning, I just used a small allen key but nail or similar is fine (as others have mentioned); in fact probably better as it won't bend your allen key. I preferred putting something through the chain as oppossed to using the supplied plate as it was less likely to fall out, and believe me, you wouldn't want your fingers near it if it goes! Attach mole grips to the metal bar at the end of the chain, pull it out as far as it can go and insert your nail. I had to hold the fat end of the mole grips and put my knee up against the door in order to apply enough force. As previously stated, this isn't easy and I do lift a few weights. Now all you have to do is cut out the recess in the door frame and attach the retaining plate. Voila! I hope his description helps as it really is worth the effort for this excellent, quiet concealed device!

I’m pretty sure the person who designed this never fitted it to a door, and the person who wrote the instructions never even held one in their hand. Let’s start off with the required tools. Instructions say a 26mm flat bit, which is a non-standard bit and most people will have to buy it specially. Don’t bother. It’s too big. A 25mm bit - which is standard in flat bit sets will work just fine, in fact you could go smaller. Next up is withdrawing the chain to fit the anchor plate. The instructions say “Turn the anchor plate 90 degrees to the cylinder face plate. Withdraw approximately 38mm and insert the retainer...” which makes it sound like you just twist and pull. Nah, you don’t. The tension is pretty huge, so you’re going to have to grab with something strong, like a vise grips, and pull hard. Then you’re supposed to insert the flimsy retainer. It will buckle, and I wouldn’t trust my fingers with it. Use the claw hammer/Allen key method another reviewer described. Then there’s the screws, which appear to be made of some kind of shiny cheese. The heads will strip with moderate use of a hand screw driver (see photo) - don’t even think about using a power driver or drill. This is a problem, because you can’t tell what the tension should be before you fit the whole thing and try it out, and you can’t set the tension when fitted, meaning you will have to fit, remove, adjust and refit. The cheese screws won’t survive even the first fitting, so chuck em’ out at the beginning and use your own proper screws that are made of metal. Be careful adjusting the tension. If you loosen it too much, the whole thing comes apart, and you’ll have to undo the whole lot to get it seated again - and risk losing the barrel of the closer inside your door if it’s a hollow door. Got it all fitted, and it works in that it closes the door, but there’s an annoying clink noise off it. I bought this one as a trial on my utility room door, thinking of it worked, I’d get more for other ones. I’m not going to bother. Only saving grace is that it was cheap.

fitted right this is excellent. I bought one several years ago and didn't fit it too well, this time I did much better and it works fine and silent in operation, with the aid of a little WD40.

There is one positive review on this item, with some clarifications on the instructions (which are in parts wrong). That review suggests that as long as fitted in a certain way, this product will still work as intended. It’s the top helpful review. That review persuaded me to ignore all the negative reviews. Unfortunately, the truth is that this item cannot be adjusted for a slow, soft close effect. It forces the door closed aggressively regardless of how much or little you “loosen” it. The loosening function only changes the point at which the spring stops pulling the chain into the barrel. It doesn’t change the pace. In my situation, the door would aggressively slam shut, even if for the last 10 degrees, the spring has stopped pulling. Possibly it’s just the category and none of these would perform a soft close. I don’t know. But this one certainly didn’t work and was scary when fitting. The screws are also (as so often) made of a poor quality metal so will not survive jumping screwdrivers.

I didn't have a major problem fitting, despite what some of the reviews said. I bought the door closer 3 months ago, and have been vacillating over fitting it ever since, concerned about the potential to lose major parts of my body that others have spoken about. I finally decided this weekend to amalgamate all the tips and pull the best bits from each, and it turned out to be not a problem at all really, as long as one is well-prepared. I started by getting a 24 mm drill bit (I thought the 22 mm that some others have spoken of was too narrow, and the 26mm that the packaging speak about is way too big, leaving large gaps at either side of the face plate when put together). I then got a claw hammer and two 2mm allen keys. I also used a Dremel with a mini-router bit, but that's because I'm lazy and didn't want to do the rebating by hand. Once the bits and bats were together, and the door was removed and stood on its "door handle" side, I 1) measured off half the width of the door and drilled the 24mm hole at that point (1 metre from the base was right for my size door) 2) dropped the barrel into the drilled hole 3) marked off around the face plate with a pencil and lifted out the barrel (that's the time where I thought a 22mm hole may have been a problem because of the really tight fit, but with a 24mm hole it just slid out) 4) used a chisel to etch out the edges of the marked hole, and then used the Dremel with mini-router bit to rebate the space for the face plate to fit in the side of the door 5) dropped the barrel back into the hole and rotated the door jamb plate 90 degrees to expose the screw holes for the door plate 6) drilled and fitted the four screws for the door plate 7) fitted the points of the claw hammer under the door jamb plate and levered it away from the screwed-in door plate to expose 38mm of chain. This was the bit that most people said was tricky, with mole grips, knees, and severed limbs involved, so I'm incredibly grateful to the person who suggested using a claw hammer, because that made it quite simple. 8) slid a 2mm allen key through the gap in the chain links nearest to the door, at which time I could safely take the hammer away 9) re-hung the door, with the chain and the door jamb plate hanging free. 10) opened the door to 90 degrees from closed and marked off the position of the door jamb plate 11) used a chisel to etch out the edges of the marked hole, and then used the Dremel with mini-router bit to rebate the space for the face plate in the side of the door jamb 12) drilled the holes for, and fitted, the four screws for the door jamb plate 13) used the second 2 mm allen key to lever the chain a bit further away from the door, such that I could easily slide out the first allen key (that was necessary because the first key was being held tight against the door by the door closer spring, and I didn't want to damage the door at all by just jerking out the first allen key). 14) let the door close, and then felt really smug as it was opened and then smoothly closed itself! I'm really happy with the end result and my wife is now after me to fit them on the other doors downstairs at home in order to save electricity, so I've just ordered three more. I had an old door hanging around in the shed that I was able to experiment on in order to identify the right drill sizes and the easiest way to fit the closer, and that messing about took me quite some time. Once I decided on the approach to take and got going with it, it took me about an hour and a half to do, which was time well spent.

Beware first... 1) Rubbish soft screws with this product. This is all too common with screws included with fittings. Use your own at least while you fit and adjust. 2) suggested drill bit is too large measure the diameter of barrel and choose your bit carefully. 3) the retaining clip provided bent on me and released the chain and spring if my finger had been trapped id have has a serious injury. All that said this device fits discretely and has been adjusted to close the door. It slams hard against two little felt pads which I added when closing from a fully open position. It does not close completely on this setting if coming from about 3/4 open. If it's fire safety you need... Keep the spring tight and add a bit more felt to reduce the slamming Noise. What does that tell you... There is no damping adjustment it's a sound budget product.