Ultra Spring Door Closer, Butterfly Spring (68405)

Yay! Problem solved! In my house, a closed basement door is a matter of life and death, as I must keep my beloved dog out of the basement where my beloved cat resides. (Don't worry, cat lovers, she's well taken care of and a happy camper.) Unfortunately, basements tend to have large, armloads of things hauled in and out of them, which means I have to somehow get through the door and get it shut behind me immediately, armloads of stuff notwithstanding. And if I'm on my way down, that means doing it while balancing on the top step. It's a miracle we've all survived. After three years, it finally occurred to me that there might be some gadget out there that would close the door automatically. Ta-da! For 5 bucks and change, this thing has saved at least two lives (three if you consider that, if I fell down the stairs and broke my neck, the dog would probably starve to death a few days after eating the cat). OK,now practical advice: As some reviewers have said, spreading those wings wide enough is no easy feat. Here's what I did: I pulled the hinge pin out completely, then spread the wings just enough so one was resting on the door and the other was resting on the frame, with the coil positioned just above the top of the hinge. Then I used the heel of my hand to push the coil toward the hinge, which forced the wings out further, and as soon as the coil was directly above the hinge I used my other hand to push the hinge pin through the coil and back into the hinge. Worked like a charm. Can't tell you how great it is to be able to walk through that door and let it dutifully close behind me. I was afraid it would slam, but it's just a good firm close. Yippee!

The media could not be loaded. I have a dog that wants to eat our cat so keeping them separate is a must. This door has made my life so much easier. It closes every time. Lift the door hinge pin and bend the closer the opposite way. It takes effort so it doesn’t snap back but I am a determined petite woman, and did it. I bought it in combination with the magnetic WINONLY Door Stopper which we use to keep the same door open when the cat is safe in the basement. The closer end does dig into the door so if you cover the black plastic with something soft or electrical tape that would help. I also WD 40 it occasionally to minimize noise. It seems quieter than other plastic closer videos I saw on Amazon though. Simple metal mechanism that works. Emphasis on metal. It’s been installed for over a year.

We bought this because we have an internal door to the lower level that the cats had learned how to open with just their paws from the bottom. When the door was installed, it was done so where there was never a door or door jamb and doesn't and therefore doesn't latch where the handle is. So, because we do not want the cats on the lower levels it was difficult to keep them out without physically blocking the door with something and teaching our son to always close the door after himself was proving to be more mentally frustrating than it was that the cats had learned how to open it.This spring has proven to work wonderfully! It's very easy for a human to open with little tension, it doesn't tend to cause any sort of issues or concerns, someone else had said it "slammed the door" very hard and to watch fingers, ours doesn't tend to seem like it's slamming THAT hard, but I still wouldn't suggest putting fingers in the door to test it.The reason I didn't do a 5th star; it sticks out pretty far from the hinge, almost looks like it'll fall off at any time, and isn't that appealing to look at, but it does it's job so I guess I can let aesthetics go in this case, for functionality.Easy! Cheap! Works!

Lots of problems with this product I hoped would be easy to install over one of the pins on the door from my garage. I first had to bend the arms quite a lot so they wouldn't put too much pressure on the door and wall. Got two blood blisters from spring snapping back on my fingers while stretching it apart, even after reducing the spring pressure. Finally was able to get this thing over the raised hinge pin; scraped paint on door and wall in process. Yes, it does close the door but the spring is much larger than the pin which it fits over so I don't know if this device (or the pin which no longer all the way goes through all layers of the hinge) will stay in place.Better solution would have been the door closer device that replaces the orignal hinge pin and tension is adjusted after it is put in place. Unfortunately my door had no clearance for this. My pin is flush with the door frame and I would have had to cut away part of the frame -- which on reflection I probably should have done instead of getting this device.Best solution for me would have been to replace the original door closing hinge with a built in spring (which broke after 25 years of use). However I wasn't certain the replacement hinge would line up in the old holes plus amazon.com was out of stock on the item and I couldn't find it at local hardware stores.So my overall recommendation is get some other product to close your door or just push it closed manually. And I can't figure why it is called a "hydraulic" door closer unless this refers to the increase in one's blood pressure trying to install it.