Trellis Door vs Hinged Burglar Door vs Sliding Gate

Updated September 2026 by Mikael Harris, Sales & Commercial Manager.

A retractable trellis door for patio sliders and wide openings that must stay clear by day. A hinged burglar door for front, kitchen and side doors with room to swing. A sliding security gate for wide openings with wall run to park the leaf. Robo Door makes all three to the measured opening; the geometry chooses.

The three barriers side by side

	Trellis door	Hinged burglar door	Sliding security gate
How it opens	Concertina, stacks to one side	Swings on hinges	Slides along a track beside the opening
Space needed	Stacking space beside the opening	Clear swing arc	Wall run equal to the leaf width
Typical openings	Patio sliders, passages, shopfronts	Front, back, kitchen and side doors	Wide patios and commercial openings
Product lines	Econo, DuPlus, Deluxe, Alu-Deluxe	Swing Trellis Door (hinged burglar door)	Sliding Security Gate
Manufacturing warranty	5 years Econo and DuPlus; 10 years Deluxe and Alu-Deluxe; Break-In Repair Guarantee on Deluxe	5 years	2 years
Price anchor	From R3,500	Custom-quoted	Custom-quoted

Choose a trellis door when

The opening is wide, used all day and should look open when open. Patio sliders are the classic case. Measure the stacking space as carefully as the opening, and check the threshold, because the bottom track has to sit in the floor line. Deluxe is the only trellis product with the five-year Break-In Repair Guarantee, and Alu-Deluxe is the aluminium choice for coastal sites.

Choose a hinged burglar door when

It is an everyday doorway with a clear swing arc: front door, kitchen door, side passage. A rigid leaf is the simplest barrier to live with and to lock. Single or double leaf, plain or decorative infill, finishes from plain powder coat to hot-dip galvanising. It swings outward or inward as the site allows, and the swing must not cross a step, a passage or another door.

Choose a sliding security gate when

The opening is wide and there is uninterrupted wall run beside it for the whole leaf to park. A rigid slider needs more side space than a trellis door, which stacks compactly. Where wall run is short, or a window interrupts it, the trellis door wins.

Locking on each barrier

A trellis door locks where the leading edge meets the frame, with the number of locking points set by the width; a double-leaf trellis locks in the middle. A hinged door takes a conventional lock in a rigid leaf, which is why it suits a doorway used twenty times a day. A sliding gate locks at the closing post. The locking configuration and the lock type are stated on every Robo Door quotation.

Finish and exposure

All three are steel products offered in finishes from plain powder coat to hot-dip galvanising, with the paint warranty following the finish and the exposure of the opening. A patio barrier under a roof counts as sheltered; a side door that gets sprinkler spray counts as fully exposed. On the coast, the Alu-Deluxe Trellis Door removes rust from the equation for the slider, and hot-dip galvanised steel is the answer for the steel products.

Living with each barrier

A trellis door gives ventilation with the slider open and the barrier closed, which is most of the point of it in summer. A hinged door is the quickest to open in the morning and the easiest for children and visitors to understand. A sliding gate is the quietest on a wide opening but needs its track kept clear of leaves and grit. All three need the same routine: wash twice a year, lubricate moving parts every six months, touch up chips within 30 days.

Common mistakes

Ordering a trellis door with nowhere for it to stack, so it parks across a light switch or a plug point.
Hanging a hinged door that swings into a passage or over a step.
Specifying a sliding gate where a window interrupts the wall run.
Choosing Econo on a main entrance where the Break-In Repair Guarantee on Deluxe was the reason for buying.
Forgetting that a locked barrier is also an escape route; agree where the key lives.

Shopfronts and offices

Shopfronts usually want a trellis door because the whole width must open for trading and close flat at night. A rigid sliding gate suits a loading bay or a wide passage with wall run. Both are quoted with the locking and any access-control preparation stated.

Vehicle entrances are different

None of these three is a driveway gate. For a vehicle entrance, use the sliding or swing driveway gate range, which carries a two-year manufacturing warranty and is built for automation with battery backup.

Compare quotations on the same basis

Measured opening, movement or stacking space, product line, material, locking, fixing, finish, installation scope and named warranty. A Robo Door quotation states all of them.

Next step

Measure how much space there is beside and in front of each doorway; the consultant will match the product to it. Request a free quote, WhatsApp +27 82 888 1919 or call 082 888 1919.