Talk: Vault door

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Fallout 1 Vault Doors[]

Why is it that Vault 13 was the only vault in Fallout 1 that actually featured its number on the blast door and hatches?--Chipgambino 02:43, 8 August 2009 (UTC)

Maybe black isle didn't have the time to make 3 new sets of sprites for the other vaultsAryeonos 01:48, September 14, 2009 (UTC)

I watched Monster Jam just recently and discovered that their timer that was counting down to the end of the run, looked just like the Vault blast door from FO1/2, with the door and the slide. Kalalokki 23:34, October 25, 2009 (UTC)

black~beth[]

I know that bethesda and black isle are different but what is the poin t of changing the entire design and opening of the vault doors from a smooth outwards opening via arm to a grating terrible inward opening door via drop down hydrolic arm? its not at all nessassary! - Bio Enhancment 411 13:37, 27 August 2009 (UTC)

Is not the new, Bethesda, style "safer" for the inhabitants? Its locking "cog" design and heavy sliding capability lend it to better protection to the the thinner F1/F2 style. Or at least thats my opinion. --174.103.224.13 03:46, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

What? Are you nuts? The original design is *far* better. Apart from the fact that the door is thicker (about by 50%), it also features a locking cog design and is far more failproof - the door, instead of sliding, rests on a hydraulic slide that opens the door outwards, where another hydraulic arm rolls it sideways. It's far more efficent and more reliable - you have two independent parts that open the door with less force used, whereas the primitive East coast design relies on a single hydraulic drop down arm which has to forcefully open the door before it slides to the side. As far more force is required, the chances of it breaking down increase and the chances of the Vault failing. _Tagaziel ^(call!) 16:59, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

See Grizzly, this is why you're awesome. Spoon 17:03, 28 August 2009 (UTC)

That description is fail. The east-coast doors are actually thicker, the inward opening mechanical screw is of much heavier construction, it actually looks like the door weighs something and could repel a nuclear explosion. Not that weird cartoon robotic hand that gently grabs the door and roles it aside like a tin garbage can lid. The whole point of the Fallout 3 door was to reflect a heavier sturdier door model that reflected some hatchway designs of the fifties. The art direction reflects 50's sci-fi novels and comics far better than the pseudo cartoon door of FO1. I've never played FO2 so I can't comment on that. The airlock chamber is actually heavily constructed too, in FO1 it looks like an empty corridor with a few pipes, granted they had limited rendering capabilites when FO1 came out but still, it lacks any form of equipment, precautionary measures, anything it's just a bear chamber.Aryeonos 01:44, September 14, 2009 (UTC)

So instead of countering my arguments, you're attacking the art style? You're an idiot. An even bigger one, considering that the intro movies for Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 clearly show that the Vault Doors of the West Coast are undoubtedly thicker, better functioning (as I wrote, a hydraulic press that unseals the Vault and a robotic arm that rolls it to the side, rather than a crude method of forcibly sliding the door in and out). The second part of your reply is even more stupid, as you seem to have missed the memo about the function of airlocks. They are not staging areas, they provide a method of entrance without exposing the Vault to external contaminants and that's precisely the function the West Coast airlock serves - sealed on one end with a sturdy blast door (quite a bit thicker than the East Coast model) and on the other with a special security door with double layers of steel and a slab of lead in the middle to further secure the interior of the wall. Far better than the tin door leading to the atrium on the East Coast.

In summary, you should stop wanking to Fallout 3 and start thinking. _Tagaziel ^(call!) 08:44, September 14, 2009 (UTC)

No I completely countered your arguments, alas you seem far too dense to notice. Though looking back at the corridor connecting the Vault 13 door and Vault door it does appear a tad more rugged than I had originally memorized it to be, and there does seem to be some form of water tank or something in there ( hopefully for an anti chemical emergency shower, though there do not appear to be any nozzles, spigots or faucets...). Interestingly enough the first door that we see the vault dweller emerging from appears to be of far better design than the actual vault door itself. Not only does the vault 13 door feature an internal 3 pin locking mechanism, to prevent direct inward force from buckling the door, but also has two sliding doors instead of one. The outer door with the 13 emblazoned upon it most likely being of steel construction, the inner part with the three point lock hopefully lead and sealants. Interestingly, neither east nor west coast doors are adequately equipped to deter a thermonuclear explosion, or even direct energy concussive explosions. As neither door designs feature any locking pins, both seem to be held in place by their own weight, and if what you say is true and the east coast doors are mounted on a Hydraulic Press that would make them even more unstable. You would need either a large gap for the door to be lifted upwards, or a large amount of wall missing to move it outwards, a hollow spot for gamma radiation to more easily penetrate. But, in the intro video, there is no such mechanism only a reused sound effect from "Star Wars" or some older Sci-Fi movie or show; in no part of the video does it reveal what pulls the door outward, with no overhead mechanism in the cave either. When the vault dweller finally reaches the doors former resting spot a catch between the two tracks can also be observed, a large lip the same height as the vault door's gear teeth, which the vault door magically jumps over faster than the eye can see- or more simply clips through. When the steely arm reaches outward with extended fingers to wheel the door aside it's thin fingers grasping at pre determined slots in the door it gently pulls the door aside. Regardless of the fact that the door is supposed to weigh 13 tonnes or something, and somehow also be 4 yards of steel though it only appears to be a twelfth of that, and the arm being only about a foot tall and half as thick. Even so the arm could not possibly be solid as that would leave no room for mechanical components to operate the hand. But there is a track cut out of the wall for the arm to run through, which would halve the wall's thickness making it even more unstable. Strangely though the east coast door opening is quite narrow, and in the technical manual for the vault it states that there is supposed to be

"Complete construction equipment,

hydro-agricultural farms, water purification from underground river, defensive weaponry to equip 10 men, communication, social and entertainment files (for total duration)"

Now how would we fit "Complete construction equipment..." through an opening just wide enough to fit a person? Now from the outside it might seem more plausible because you can only see the door, from the inside you have a hallway, about 50% wider than an average corridor in an apartment, which in no way could fit a forklift, auger, bulldozer, or even a Volkes Wagon Bug. On the west coast you can clearly see after stepping into the "Staging area/airlock" a few medium sized sealed containers resting to the right of the door control panel, that would fit through the doorway. I could go on about the west coast doors too but I'd hate to "Wank to Fallout 3 and stop thinking" Aryeonos 10:43, September 17, 2009 (UTC)

First of all, you should stop confusing sides of the world. California is the West Coast, while Washington is East Coast, just shows how much attention you pay to what you write. Now, to begin with, I hope you got the memo that the Vault doors were not meant to withstand a direct nuclear hit, which is why the entrances are in sheltered locations, such as Barstow sewers, Cathedral's basement, deep inside a mountain or otherwise underground. Their only function is sealing the Vault and protecting it from external factors, such as radiation or biochemical weapons.

I'd like to see the design documents you base your pseudoscientific drivel on, as we have absolutely no information on the internal construction of the Vault door. Now, if you paid attention (something you fail to do repeatedly), you'd notice that from the inside, there are no cogs. The diameter of the opening is smaller than that of the exterior of the gear-shaped door and designed to fit perfectly to the rounded rear of the door. It's obvious that it is a pressurized seal, something noticeably absent from East Coast doors, where the cog openings extend all the way through the door, rather than about halfway through.

This construction is far, far more reliable, as the force of the unlikely blastwave would be distributed to the entire door frame thanks to its shape, rather than be taken by the door entirely (since the East Coast cog openings extend all the way in and the doorway has the exact same shape as the door, the force would not be distributed to the frame).

Last, the issue of equipment, which is pathetically easy to answer. You obviously haven't thought that equipment not needed for years to come might be stored as parts to assemble, right? _Tagaziel ^(call!) 12:05, September 17, 2009 (UTC)

No, I actually did take into account prefab parts for construction vehicles, but you would still need an amazing amount of extra space for all the assembly tools needed for the construction gear, and there is no way they hid a fully equipped assembly line in 13. But somehow the process is too complicated to reroute/fix/whatever the water chip in 13, implying that they don't have those tools.

• Confuse sides of the world issue... Hemisphere actually, yes I do, allot and in infuriates me to no end.
• "pseudoscientific drivel" - is that seriously the only semi intellectual phrase you know?
• And yes the east coast door lack pressurized seal, and so does the 13 door, both are held in place by their own weight. but seriously have ever even watched the opening video in Fallout one or do you just obsess about FO1 to attempt to sound original?
• The west coast door frame holding back a nuke, not even- did you see how thin it was? barely thicker than the vault dweller, the east coast's wall is 3 people thick at least. Seriously vault 87's door was hit directly, and while damaged beyond repair, still held. The people at Vault 87 would still be around as long as 101 if it were not for the FEV testing.Aryeonos 13:34, September 17, 2009 (UTC)

Because obviously technology can't be modular, no sir, everything has to be bulky and in one piece. Nothing can be assembled from small, modular parts. Regardless, why do you claim that "complete construction equipment" has to include bulldozers and diggers? You have absolutely no basis for your speculation, the VDSG doesn't mention Vault-Tec's criteria or the intended effect, so you can't make the assumption that complete construction equipment automatically means they have bulldozers. Vault City's the model post-Vault community, while Shady Sands is a perverted version, as they had a GECK, but no Vault. In both cases I fail to see where they'd be using bulldozers or why - both communities are what a dedicated team of people with the right construction equipment can erect in a reasonable amount of time.

Which brings me to the next point, since you like to make baseless assumptions. As I pointed out, the construction of the West Coast door is similiar to how a cork on a champagne works - wide top (external portion of the Vault door) with a slimmer neck, designed to seal the interior. You claim there are no seals, yet provide absolutely no proof to substantiate your claim that the West Coast design provides no protection.

Even more silly is your claim that the West Coast doors "rest on their own weight". That may be true for East Coast models, as they are forcibly slid into the frame, but you can not prove that there are no magnetic seals embedded into the Vault door frame on the East Coast or a similar method of preventing the door from falling out. I guess baseless assumptions are your middle name, ey?

Furthermore, the door thickness. This is quite possibly the silliest claim you make and indicates that you really don't pay attention to dimensions or what happens around you. Because if you did, you'd understand the construction of the West Coast door (cork) and comprehend that it'd do a far better job at dispersing the power of a blast wave than the East Coast version, precisely because it's constructed like a cork.

Then again, I may be expecting intelligent thought from you. Sorry for demanding things so extreme. _Tagaziel ^(call!) 14:00, September 17, 2009 (UTC)

Yeah seriously, fuck constructive though when you can make stuff up, and then insult the one person who does think. Okay so lets start with magnetic seals... yeah resonable enough I was thinking of it, but except for the garbage compacter from star wars there aren't doors like that. Think about it, how much power would it take to keep an iron bar a 30cm long and 4cm thick suspended from an electromagnetic plate on the ceiling for 1 year. Okay now take the entire vault door (14 tonnes was it?) place an electromagnet around it and make it hold for 100 years. Oh wait not all steel is magnetic is it? MKM steel is, but they never say what kind of steel it is. OR why it's steel, steel being not a radiation repellent, or much of a chemical repellent either. Maybe it was the Hydraulic press you added in that holds it in place? But hey I don't really have to use reason with you because you kinda blow it up, make something up, create a claim a "solid fact" without basis. At least the weight of the door is a constant. Seriously though why a cork, it doesn't screw in (that's why we need bottle openers), it doesn't have unequal air pressure on either side. it doesn't swell up on the bottom from moisture to keep it in place like a cork, It's not a fucking cork. it isn't held in place by magnets that would wear out, the circuitry would degrade rapidly. if it were impossible for weight to hold a door in place they wouldn't be able to recover things from tombs, or catacombs, or caves where a big fricken rock is in the way, hermetically sealing the entrance. Until you can get off your ass and use reason to make the doors make sense with what is provided and not unexplainable bullshit I don't want anything to do with your vacuous stupidity.Aryeonos 14:26, September 17, 2009 (UTC)

Wow, even your real life knowledge is sorely lacking, corks (for example in champagne bottles or wines) are not screwed in or on in any way. I am amused by the fact that once you completely run out of options you resort to infantile-class insults. At least I put some effort into deriding you.

Furthermore, you still don't pay any attention to what is said to you, nor do you have any idea that this conversation is pure speculation. I have proposed a theory, accounting for the fact that the technology of the world of Fallout is not only different from ours, but also far more advanced, by some 68 years. Instead, you reply, again, with baseless assumptions, for instance, that the door is made entirely out of steel (for which you have absolutely no proof) or that it is completely solid, made of one metal only (again, completely baseless). Your only method of argumentation is "No, you're wrong because I say so."

Oh, and here's why I know that the Vault door is operated in the first stage by a hydraulic press: Chris_Taylor_interview_for_Vault13.net

Now, once you start thinking, feel free to call me. _Tagaziel ^(call!) 14:56, September 17, 2009 (UTC)

So you're saying in 68 years steel evolved into some all powerful corklike material and by paraphrasing what I have said, somehow invalidated my argument.

-Tagaziel: "corks (for example in champagne bottles or wines) are not screwed in or on in any way"

-Aryeonos: "Seriously though why a cork, it doesn't screw in (that's why we need bottle openers)"

Though for being the "Fallout 1 fan" it is apparent that have made the egregious error of never reading the Fallout 1 Game manual, then trying to form an argument on material you don't know. I'm not going to hope for an intelligent argument from you, because I know you're just going to skim this, then paraphrase me and proclaim yourself the one intelligent authority on Science, Medicine, and Engineering. By the way you spelled "infantile" wrong, if you're to insult me "speak the kings english". Aryeonos 07:56, October 4, 2009 (UTC)

I am, at least on Fallout. If you had a brain, you'd understand the key word, that is "shaped like". Then again, you're the same person who tried to make Fo1/2 Radaway a footnote to Fo3's RadAway, so the very assumption that you might have a brain is unfounded. And I know the manual by heart, what was your point? _Tagaziel ^(call!) 14:33, October 4, 2009 (UTC)

Oh yeah, well if ya' know it by heart explain to me why you don't know that the manual clearly states what the vault door is made of. Now Shhh!Aryeonos 21:51, October 6, 2009 (UTC)

Clearly, the East Coast Vault Door would be "pushed in" and broken, or even collapsed if, for example, the bomb from Megaton was detonated in front of the wooden door to Vault 101. The mechanical arm isn't durable and will break easily, and the door itself will be hit by the force created by the explosion, and without anything to support it, will be forced in, initially breaking the door. However, the nukes were tactically dropped in populated and military areas, whereas many Vaults are located in far underground or deserted areas far from any settlements. (Yes, Vault 21 is an exception). Without the arm, the East Coast Vault door is just a cog shaped metal piece in a cog shaped metal slot that is the entrance to the Vault.--Zigzag338 05:45, July 18, 2011 (UTC)

wording in this article[]

Is it just me or is the descriptive nature of this article seems a bit remedial. I'll see what I can do and post a rewrite for evaluation before taking any action.Aryeonos 01:58, September 14, 2009 (UTC)

'Unspecified model' Paragraph[]

The wording seems a bit biased as it makes a few assumptions. I'm wondering if this can be re-written at all? As quoted: "This manner produced an extreme amount of unhealthy grinding noise during opening, easily damaging one's eardrums. " Where does canon state any of this? This all seems to be the opinion of the editor. Trizzip 03:20, December 11, 2010 (UTC)

Why would they..?[]

Why would Vault-Tec decide to design two different type of Vault blast doors? Wouldn't that slow down production and construction, since there is the difficultly of having to design different types of Vault entrance areas for each section of USA. This is just a guess, but maybe the Seal n Safe design, like the Vault 13 doors, were designed in a different way to be extra durable and safe for the experiment on keeping in residents for a long time. But then, wouldn't Vault 101 (which studies small communities staying in the vault for an unspecified amount of time) and Vault 112 (which permanently connects all residents to a VR program) have Vault doors like Vault 13? That was probably a logical reason, since from the description of the designs, the Vault 13 and 15 doors were WAY safer than the East Coast doors. Door closing failures occuring in many Vaults is one of the proof for that. (the inability to crush the plants and close the door of Vault 22, for EXAMPLE). Or maybe there are different doors because the Vault door creation facilities are different in each section of the country?--Zigzag338 05:31, July 18, 2011 (UTC)

Different subcontractors, I guess? _Tagaziel ^(call!) 08:24, July 18, 2011 (UTC)

The most logical answer would be that it was an oversight by the creators of the game. 08:25, July 18, 2011 (UTC)

Different subcontractors, I guess? _Tagaziel ^(call!) 08:24, July 18, 2011 (UTC)

Perhaps it was decided to switch designs at one point due to the drawbacks of have an external mechanism for opening a blast door weighing (approx.) 13 tons. The problem with this theory being the fact that having the door open inward creates further issues considering it's meant to withstand a blast of (approx.) 10 megatons from the outside. Unfortunately, you cannot fix either problem without the other being created while using the Vault-Tec, Cog-style, blast doors. Personally, I just assume the creators ran into some issue with the doors and went with the new design to overcome this problem.TractionEra 08:38, July 18, 2011 (UTC)

Completely unworkable design[]

Actually, the door as shown in FNV and F3 is completely unworkable. The door itself isn't actually supported by the frame - it's definitely just the same size that frame, and grooves for "gear" cogs are through all frame! The overpressure from the blast would just push the door inside Vault like a cork in a bottle. There is nothing that actually hold the door in the frame, exept the weight (and it's completely unsufficient to hold against blast).

The actual blast door always bigger than frame - so the overpressure would just press them toward frame, helping to pressurize the interior. And they NEVER OPEN INSIDE, like on the F3-FNV doors. It's just useless - to build the blasd door, that OPENS in the same direction as the shockwave would go!

Fonzeppelin (talk) 20:23, June 4, 2015 (UTC)

Vault 111's Elevator[]

Is it worth mentioning that as an additional layer of defence, Vault 111's elevator only actually appears to be connected to power when the vault door is open? You can see this when entering the vault at the start of the game, as a pair of umbilical tubes are connected to machinery beside the elevator. There's a possible error however, as upon re-opening the vault door after unfreezing, the umbilicals do not reconnect, not sure if Bethesda just didn't think to animate this or there's some reason for it (elevator stores enough power for a few uses only?). -- Haravikk (talk) 11:16, February 17, 2019 (UTC)

Fortified Model Rewrite[]

It looks like the Fortified Model section could do with a rewrite, as the description seems confusing; in the middle of the paragraph there's mention of a dome but it's not clear what this dome is, and towards the end it mentions the vault door being rolled aside with a mechanical arm (but this isn't the case for the vault doors in Fallout 4, the hydraulic device that unseals and pulls the door inwards also rolls it to the side, there's no separate arm like there is for old-style vault doors that open outwards).

Has this section maybe gotten confused with notes about other unique doors (I sort of vaguely remember there was a vault with a dome in one of the early games, or maybe a scrapped game, but I can't find it)? -- Haravikk (talk) 14:14, 6 March 2021 (UTC)

It would be amazing to see a rewrite, I appreciate those who have the knowledge. Please have a go at it, and thank you in advance! -kate (kdarrow ^{take her for a spin!} 14:19, 6 March 2021 (UTC))