Lumps in Dark Wood uPVC door

Our front door is a dark wood uPVC, with glass panes top and bottom. At the bottom outside of the door a lump has appeared on either side. Also the moulding around the glass panels has cracked. The door is south facing, I'm wondering if the damage is caused by heat expansion?

We're looking to get the door replaced before the winter comes. Our windows are the oak wood uPVC colour, no problems with those, so we'd probably look to get a matching door but I'm slightly concerned that we might have the same problem at some point with the new door. Not knowing what's caused the lumps and cracks, can anyone suggest if we'd be likely to have the same problem with an oak finish door, or should we be ok?

Its caused by a build up of heat as you rightly suggest, being dark woodgrain it absorbs more heat that say a white door, technically it should still be able to withstand the heat. Every door panel i go to look at to do a report for the insurers is either bubbling or cracking and are always woodgrain, the odd one may be the oak colour but not many.

My panel supplier will not guarantee the replacement panel now if its south facing, unless its just a plain flat panel and not raised.

Where abouts are you in Derbyshire, just roughly, no specifics. Have you the option of claiming on the installers guarantee? It would save you some cash!

Hi, we're in Ilson

No chance of claiming off installer's guarantee, it was supplied and fitted at cost as a favour, the panel that has the bumps has been replaced twice before and it's not going to happen again. We just want to be sure of making a good decision re the replacement.

You will almost certainly still have the same problem, maybe it won't bubble as quickly as the darker woodgrain but eventually it will. Even light oak composite doors do it, i have 2 ongoing as i type, just waiting for the insurers to process the claim.

Great, so what're uPVC or wood? Neither fills me with joy if I'm honest.

sorry i am a bit late to reply to this but as a professional installer with my own business of 20 years, we stopped using full wood effect panels 12 years ago because of the problems. we now split the woodgrain doors up into several apertures usually putting glass in the tops (to pack correctly and hold the door in position) and then installing either half panels or flat panels (usually split into 3 sections with a higher midrail to give a 1930s look). we have found over the years that this gives a lot less hassle. the odd half panel cracks but not many. hope this is of some help. let me know if you need some photos.