The Reynaers Hi-Finity Sliding Door Reviewed

The Reynaers Hi-Finity Sliding Door is one of the finest premium aluminium sliding doors on the market. Designed around looks, function, comfort and performance, this advanced sliding door rewards you with wonderful styling with a choice of door designs, large sizes if needed and even manual or automatic operation. Perfect for architect-designed homes and more demanding self-build projects, here is a review of the Reynaers Hi-Finity sliding door.

What is the Reynaers Hi-Finity Sliding Door?

The Reynaers Hi-Finity sliding door is one of the new breeds of minimalist sliding doors. But it is more than that. Hi-Finity comes from Reynaers Ltd, one of the best-known systems companies in the world with an excellent reputation. The Reynaers product range is extensive including windows, curtain walling, all manner of hinged doors, glazing systems, bifolding doors and bespoke glazing. When choosing a Reynaers product, you have one of the premier aluminium systems.

While marketed as the Hi-Finity, this particular sliding door is known in the trade as the Reynaers HFP 147 when double-glazed and the HFP 179 with triple glazing.

The Hi-Finity is an inline sliding door, not a lift and slide. We explain the differences between inline vs lift and slide.   As you would expect from a top-brand sliding door, it has thermally insulated sections, excellent security and impressive weather resistance. It also comes in a wide range of colours and top-end components and door furniture.

You can buy the Reynaers Hi-Finity as a two, three, four or six-panel door. The purpose of the Hi-Finity is to create a door and a home with architectural aluminium sliders giving the best possible view and impressive aesthetics. The Reynaers door is elegant, slim and offers minimal visual sightlines.

What is a structurally glazed sliding door like Hi-Finity?

There is a critical feature around this door.  The Hi-Finity is a structurally bonded or structurally glazed door made around the glass.  This is just like doors from Cortizo, Infiniglide 6, Air SL20, the Origin Inline Slider and many others.  Several essential factors affect structurally glazed sliding doors that new installers and homeowners must know.  Doors like the Reynaers Hi-Finity are not your average sliding patio door.

All the door’s strength comes from the glass’s stiffness and integrity. A composite profile structurally bonds to the glass edge. This composite profile allows the hardware to mount almost directly on the glass. The structurally glazed nature is the primary element, with the aluminium frame a secondary component. The design of this door allows it to be thin and hidden behind a wall when needed. Structurally bonded doors often provide the thinnest possible sliding doors with just the door mullion visible.

Finally, the strength of the glass is evident with just how thin the aluminium sections are compared to conventional sliding doors.

Where can you use the Hi-Finity Sliding Door?

The Hi-Finity sits at the top of the entire Reynaers sliding doors range. These contemporary sliding doors are there to provide a sliding door solution that is elegant and visually appealing, especially for modern houses and new extensions. A bifolding door is heavily marketed to bring your indoor and outdoor areas as one.  However, nothing provides the view of a sliding door. A two-panel door spanning four to six metres has just one vertical mullion (or interlock). A bifolding door spanning a similar size would give you five, with significantly smaller glass sizes.

Choose a sliding door like the Reynaers Hi-Finity, and you enjoy few visual distractions, a glazed or open extension to the outside of the home and a great feeling of space. Thanks to the slimline frames and how you fit it, high and expansive glazing is possible.  You can even have a flush threshold.

As with all these types of structurally glazed slimline sliding doors, how you design them gives you different aesthetics.

• As replacement doors fixed directly to the structure.
• Create exciting new extensions with the door frame hidden in the structure for a minimal appearance.
• Enjoy all the benefits of an open elevation with the sliding doors disappearing into a wall pocket.
• Fixed or open corner sliding doors with a 90-degree arrangement.
• The creation of floor to ceiling glazing.

A 35mm interlock.

The Reynaers Hi-Finity sliding door features a 35mm interlock. It is worth pointing out that the far cheaper Smart Systems Visoglide patio door also has a 35mm interlock, but that is missing the point. Once again the structurally bonded nature of the Hi-Finity gives an entirely different type of sliding door. It is better engineered than a conventional patio door, and the overall look of the product is entirely different. You can only compare this door with other structurally glazed sliding doors.

The Reynaers Hi-Finity is not the slimmest amongst structurally glazed sliding doors. There are thinner versions. Here is how it compares.

SLIDING DOOR SYSTEM	Interlock Sight Line
Sunvista Sliding Door	19mm
Air 20 SL Sliding Door	20mm
Fenster Fabrications Uni-Slide Door	20mm
Origin Inline Sliding Door	20mm
PanoramaH! Sliding Door	20mm
Greenways Architectural Ultraline Sliding Door	20mm
AluK Infinium Sliding Door	21mm
Minimal Windows Sliding Glass Door	21mm
System 22 Fineline Aluminium Sliding Door	22mm
Infiniglide 3 Sliding Door	24mm
Infiniglide 6 Sliding Door	24mm
Alumen Cor-Vision Plus	25mm
Minimal Windows 4+ Sliding Glass Door	26mm
Schuco ASS70 PD Panorama Design Sliding Door	30mm
Sieger 30 Sliding Door	30mm
Solarlux Cero Sliding Door	34mm
Reynaers Hi-Finity Sliding Door	35mm

While the Reynaers Hi-Finity sliding door sits at the bottom of the list compared to other well-known brands (structural and beaded versions) our advice is it does not matter. We have seen enough of these doors to tell you the difference is too small to notice. 16mm does not make any of these doors negatively thicker than the others in the real world.  All of these top brands of structurally bonded sliding doors look great regardless of interlock thickness.

The open or fixed corner arrangement.

The design of this door, just like similar products allows the creation of corner sliding doors. You can have a fixed or fully open corner designed. With the open edge, the roof of the extension appears to float, and the effect is quite exquisite.  The doors sit perpendicular with two opening leaves meeting at the corner. Or you can reverse the arrangement with a fixed glazed edge and the sliding doors on the other side of each elevation. We’ve seen this arrangement many times, and the effect is excellent as an architectural feature.

An attractive sliding door.

By far the standout feature of any slimline, structural glazed sliding door is how it looks. The Reynaers Hi-Finity sliding door is no exception. It is visually excellent, very modern and slides effortlessly.

Other important features of the Hi-Finity Sliding Door.

• Up to six sliding door panels possible with multiple tracks.
• Door sizes up to 3.5 metres high.
• Huge choice of RAL colours including a different colour inside and out.
• Elegant, soft-touch slim-line handle.
• Hidden locking system.

Hi-Finity technical considerations for specifiers and installers.

It is worth discussing some of the technical elements around the Reynaers Hi-Finity sliding door.  Hi-Finity is developed to create a seamless link between the inside and outside of the home. In these installations, the floor, ceiling and the walls house the frame profiles.  Therefore, the builder must prepare a top-notch structural opening in order for these doors to work right and look right as intended. Added to a precise structural opening is the first-class survey. Only with the homeowner, builder and installer working as a team will the minimal tolerances designed into this system work. However, done right, the effect is superb.

This door is powder coated with what Reynaers call a bi-colour process.  Some installers choose to paint their own profile, but on a door like this, it is recommended Reynaers carry out the finishing.  The underside of the door profile where the rail fixes has partial paint for technical reasons that a local powder coater will not be aware of.

The door handle of the HI-Finity comes in RAL colours only. So if you are choosing an anodised finish to the door, you cannot anodise the handle.

With so many homeowners wanting a flush threshold, Hi-Finity doors need to work with a floating teras or other gutter solution on the outside. This ensures effective water drainage to the outside.

Installers tell us this door is easy to fit and build. The system has multiple ways to adjust and fine-tune the sliding door for smooth operation and fast installation.

There is even a 45° angle mitre giving an excellent corner detail and ideal for doors where the doors require no handle.

On installation, the central interlock is adjustable giving an exact fit and ensuring optimum air and water tightness.

Automatic vs manual sliding doors.

We mentioned that the Hi-Finity comes in a choice of manual or automatic versions. Therefore, it is worth telling you the fundamental differences between these two models. With the motorised option, the door leaves open and close automatically. The manual version naturally requires you to move the door via the handle.

Another feature of the automatic version is coming with no handle. It is not needed but comes as an option if you want it.  Additionally, neither are any accessories visible. Just open and close the door with a button, via remote control or wall-mounted switch. Reynaers say that a recent change to their motorised vents means they can handle even more weight than the manual version.

The manual doors work with an electric lock at the tops of the doors. The lock operates with a remote control or a push button. Once the door unlocks, it moves with the handle. The concealed electric lock protects the door against forced entry as well. For installers, a patented adjustment system offers easy positioning of the lock keeps too.

Reynaers has been smart with the design of this door. Both manual and automatic versions have virtually invisible hardware. Even with an open door, only the handle on the manual version is visible.

We have seen an automatic sliding version of these minimalist sliding doors, and they are outstanding. Choose the automatic gearing, and two hidden motors sit above the sliding doors.  As with all these technologies, it is important to think about longevity. Products go out of guarantee. Products are improved and superceded, and hardware becomes obsolete.   As good as automatic sliding doors are, nobody knows whether they will be serviceable ten or more years ahead.  They are too new to know where they’ll stand should replacement parts ever be needed. Our guess is Reynaers has this issue covered.

What other doors can you compare to the Reynaers Hi-Finity Sliding Door?

By their very nature, impressive engineering comes with all structurally bonded doors. However, if we were to choose a comparable product, it would probably be the Schuco Panorama. We say this because the brand perception of both Reynaers and Schuco is so close it is worth comparing one to the other.

Both these doors provide a minimal sightline, similar interlock dimensions and outstanding thermal insulation. They both feature the concealed frame option, similar weight-bearing capability, automation and hidden hardware.

While we say compare this door to the Schuco ASS 70 Panorama, it is logical that any customer spending significant money on this type of door will look at all types of high-end doors including some of the brands we mention above.

Reynaers Hi-Finity sliding door. Should you buy it?

As we said earlier, this is not your typical sliding door. You must admire any door capable of moving nearly half a ton of glass effortlessly.  The attention to detail is excellent, and the design is very clever.  The angled wheel design featuring two six-wheel carriages is impressive too. The wheels take considerable weight while being compact and discreet for minimal visibility.

The door handle is very subtle and intended to merge seamlessly with the thin profile of the doors. Two identical pieces connect, making the complete unit.  Coloured on the visible faces and with a lovely soft touch to the inside of the handle where the contact area for the user is. That too is a great feature.

These doors we know start at about £10000 for a standard size.  As a result, they are not comparable to other regular patio doors. Homeowners ask why these doors are so expensive. Unless you see them made and installed, the price is justifiable.

It is a contender for the customer or an architect looking for one of the latest contemporary sliding doors.  And just like other structurally bonded sliding doors, the Reynaers Hi-Finity sliding door similarly demonstrates the excellence available today in aluminium high-end sliding doors for the home.

Key points of the Reynaers Sliding Door.