For most of us, the garage door bears the brunt of the traffic that comes in and out of our homes. All that use means your doors are in need of some love and attention. To make sure your operators and springs last, it’s important to do some preventative seasonal maintenance on your hardware. Lower temperatures mean the operators and springs are working harder to keep the doors moving at the same rate that they did when it was warm outside. We’ve compiled a list containing three of the most crucial maintenance procedures you can do to help ward off the deterioration of your door.
1. Lubrication:
The easiest and most straight forward thing for any homeowner to do is to spray lubricant on any and all moving parts of their door. The tricky part is that not all moving parts require the same lube. I can’t stress this enough, DO NOT use classic Multi – Use WD 40 on your garage doors. Although it’s great at removing water condensation and moisture, it can also repel or wash off other lubricants. It may seem to work just fine initially, but in the long run this will cause your rollers to dry out. For lubricating your doors and hardware we recommend “WD 40 Specialists : White Lithium Grease”, “WD 40 Specialists : Water Resistant Silicon Grease”, “Blaster Garage Door Lube”, or “Blaster White Lithium Grease”. These are a few examples of good quality door lubricants/greases that you can find at almost any hardware store (I’ve linked them to Amazon for your convenience).
2. Door Balance:
An unbalanced door adds extra strain on your opener as the weight of the door is not being compensated by the springs properly. Over time this can result in a motor going bad. By keeping your garage door balanced, the strain placed on your opener is minimized as it’s operating within the proper weight parameters it was designed for. If you have a manually operated garage door, a properly balanced door would allow for an easier lift and close with less effort exerted on your behalf.
To check and see if your door is properly balanced, begin with the door in the fully closed position. If attached to an operator, release it by pulling down on the cord connected to the release lever. Raise the door about half way up and if it stays there without shooting up or falling down then it is probably pretty good and in proper balance. If not, please don’t try to adjust the tension yourself, it’s very dangerous. Doors are heavy and therefore the springs are wound very tight. Don’t place yourself at risk, give us a call at (586) 726 – 1100 and we’ll be more than happy to come adjust it for you.
3. General Operator Safety:
By operator safety we mean making sure that if something is under the door, it won’t close, or if your door comes down on something, it immediately reverses back up on contact. The easiest and safest way to do this would be first to place an object large enough to block out the path of the eye beams under the door. When you try to close the door using either the wall mount or car remote, the door shouldn’t move.
To check if the reverse function is working properly, place an obstacle roughly 1.5 inches tall (just below the eye beam sensor level) underneath and in the way of the door. Press either the wall mount button or one of your car remotes to close the door. If the door immediately reverses back up to the fully open position on contact than everything works properly. Especially in the cold winter months, a little more force may be needed to move the doors up and down. If it takes a bit to reverse or doesn’t want to reverse at all, give us a call and we’ll come take a look. Your safety and the safety of your family members is our top priority.
Maintenance Summary:
- Lubricate all moving parts with the appropriate kind of lube including tracks, rollers and springs.
- Make sure the door is balanced properly to prevent extra wear and strain on your operator as well as to make for effortless manual use.
- Perform operator safety tests on your door to prevent accidents and avoid future operator issues.
See Also : Garage Door Doesn’t Work in the Cold?
We’re Here to Help!
If you would rather an experienced professional with the proper tools and knowledge take a look or if you have any further questions about your door’s maintenance, our experienced team members here at Motor City Door Company can be reached at (586) 726-1100. Be sure to express that you’re interested in setting up a full preventative maintenance service call and one of our crews will come out and take care of everything for you.
