I am starting the third winter in my current home, which is in Saskatchewan, Canada.  When I bought the 40 year old house, it was heated with a 40 year old oil burning furnace.  New windows and doors were added before the first winter.  Also the attic was brought up to R60.  The exterior of the house was insulated and sided.  I went though the first winter with the old oil burner and the door knob on my main entry door was fine.

Before the 2nd winter, a geothermal heating system was installed.  One morning I went to head out to walk my dogs and the knob would not turn.  It was frozen in place.  I removed it and let it warm up and all was fine for a few hours.  Then it froze up again.  In the end I went through that 2nd winter with the door knob permanently removed and used a flat bladed screwdriver to insert and turn the mechanism to go in and out.  Duct tape on either side kept the cold air from blowing through. 

That summer I had storm doors installed, expecting that would protect the mechanism from the worst of the cold and prevent the problem.  The guy who installed the doors also has geothermal heat and he said my problem was due to no longer having a chimney exhausting air from the house, removing humidity and causing slight negative air pressure in the house.  Positve inside pressure and higher humidity caused inside moisture to get into the door knob mechanism and freeze it solid.  So I got a dehumidifier and thought with this and storm doors I would be fine. 

No such luck.  Winter # 3 is here and the door knob is still freezing.  The inside of the storm door gets coated with lots of condensation which freezes.  The dehumidifier is removing 1 to 2 liters of water daily.  The humidity in my house is generally at or just under 50%.  It is really unhandy not having a properly functioning door knob.

Any suggestions out there?  How to seal the mechanism to keep moisture out?  Maybe a better quality door knob, etc?

Wow, I would have thought that the storm door would have taken care of things. Does the storm door seal pretty well?

In 2006 we had a new home built with geothermal to heat and cool. During the first winter the door knob froze up too. Never thought it had anything to do with the geothermal. The next summer we installed a storm door and the problem went away and we haven't had a problem since. We are from Yorkton so our winters are at least as cold as yours if not colder. I thought the problem may be associated with new construction, humidity in the walls/floor etc. Also thought it might be due to having a metal door-maybe wood or composite would have been better.

What the relative humidity inside the home? That much humidity in the winter months can cause issues if you are not careful.

Posted By bobalan on 03 Dec 2011 11:34 AM
I am starting the third winter in my current home, which is in Saskatchewan, Canada.  When I bought the 40 year old house, it was heated with a 40 year old oil burning furnace.  New windows and doors were added before the first winter.  Also the attic was brought up to R60.  The exterior of the house was insulated and sided.  I went though the first winter with the old oil burner and the door knob on my main entry door was fine.

Before the 2nd winter, a geothermal heating system was installed.  One morning I went to head out to walk my dogs and the knob would not turn.  It was frozen in place.  I removed it and let it warm up and all was fine for a few hours.  Then it froze up again.  In the end I went through that 2nd winter with the door knob permanently removed and used a flat bladed screwdriver to insert and turn the mechanism to go in and out.  Duct tape on either side kept the cold air from blowing through. 

That summer I had storm doors installed, expecting that would protect the mechanism from the worst of the cold and prevent the problem.  The guy who installed the doors also has geothermal heat and he said my problem was due to no longer having a chimney exhausting air from the house, removing humidity and causing slight negative air pressure in the house.  Positve inside pressure and higher humidity caused inside moisture to get into the door knob mechanism and freeze it solid.  So I got a dehumidifier and thought with this and storm doors I would be fine. 

No such luck.  Winter # 3 is here and the door knob is still freezing.  The inside of the storm door gets coated with lots of condensation which freezes.  The dehumidifier is removing 1 to 2 liters of water daily.  The humidity in my house is generally at or just under 50%.  It is really unhandy not having a properly functioning door knob.

Any suggestions out there?  How to seal the mechanism to keep moisture out?  Maybe a better quality door knob, etc?

The guy who installed the storm door is probably right. With humidity and a positive pressure the keyway is letting the moist air out and as soon as it hits the cold metal it condenses and freezes. What are you doing for ventilation? How are you bringing fresh air into the house? Normally on the Canadian Prairies even a little bit of of ventilation will clear the humidity issue as the cold air coming in is already very dry. It looks like either you have a moisture problem i.e. ground water or you are over humidifying or you are sealed with no ventilation. I assume the water is pooling at the bottom of the windows or icing up when it reached minus 20 or lower?<

+1

Crawlspace?

You mentioned a lot of insulation/air sealing type stuff, but no mention of installing an HRV. 50% humidity in the winter is going to cause problems. Install an HRV, run it. You'll still have issues with frost buildup on exterior door edges I imagine, but it should be manageable. Winter up north is awesome.

I am going to agree with FBBP analysis.You could install heat trace cabling in door . This is a common problem in refrigeration walk in freezers.

As was said above, the problem here is moist air escaping through the door handle and freezing inside.  A simple fix for this problem, besides the installation of a storm door, is to stop the passage of this air and this can easily be done using a plastic bag and duct tape.  Just tape the plastic bag over the handle, make sure it is loose enough that you can still operate the handle.  It may not look pretty but it solves the problem.

My parents had this same issue when they bought a house that was about 50 years old. The storm door didn't fix the problem as it wasn't installed properly the first time. (my dad Mr. Fix-it did it himself) They had a professional contractor come out and look at it and reinstalled it properly. The problem was fixed from then on. Hope you get this problem fixed before next winter!

Perhaps the storm door was not installed properly and isn't sealing as well as it could. I would have someone different come out and look at it for a second opinion. As far as your door knob, it might be a good idea to just go ahead and get a new doorknob just in case that is the real issue, it can't hurt and it might even be as simple as that. Hope this helped and good luck!