The elements in Northern Illinois can affect the performance of your garage door and garage door opener. Fortunately, we don’t don’t have to deal with hurricanes here in Northern Illinois and tornadoes aren’t frequent, but storms still can affect us. For instance, our Northern Illinois winters are often vicious and can cause problems.
Polar vortexes, blizzards and ice storms give us enough to worry about each winter. But, with a little planning and care, you can prevent them from making problems for your garage door and garage door opener. Typically, your garage is warmer than outside. This means that each time you open your garage door, the threshold warms up and then gets cold again when the door closes. This warm-cold-warm-cold cycle causes ice to build up. This creates issues for your garage door opener. The opener has a set limit, preset to a range that the door goes to in its closed position. Even a buildup of half an inch of ice can prevent the garage door from reaching its limit to completely close. This in turn tells the garage door opener that something is in the way and raises the door as a safety measure. Taking the time to use your snow shovel across the threshold on a regular basis helps prevent this. Liberal application of ice-melt can help as well.
The cold and the changes from warm to cold and back again, also add stress to the rails, rollers and springs of the garage door opener. Contraction and expansion happen with each of these changes. A little preventative maintenance goes a long way to alleviate issues related to contraction and expansion. Make sure all moving parts are oiled and lubed appropriately. It’s easier to do this when it’s warm, but if you forget and find that you need to do this in the winter, don’t stress, just dress warm so you’re comfortable as you work. Fortunately, it only takes a few minutes anyhow. Using motor oil is effective and a 5W30 is easier to work with in the winter. An oil can will help you to dispense the oil onto the hinges and other moving parts.
Proper lubrication of the garage door’s moving parts will also help in the warmer months. And it does get hot in Northern Illinois, though not as hot as in some other regions. Just remember that mechanical devices generate their own heat when they work. When it’s hotter outside, they heat up more. Again, preventative maintenance goes a long way. If everything is oiled and lubed, this shouldn’t be a problem.
Even though, hurricanes aren’t a concern in the Midwest, the storms we do get can do damage to your garage door and/or upset the settings for your garage door opener. Most often this results in cosmetic damage to the garage door panels. Unfortunately, the solution is generally to replace the garage door panels. If your door is older, with ship lap panels rather than tongue and groove panels, you may find it harder to find replacement pieces. You could find yourself needing a full door replacement.
Lightning strikes can cause issues with your garage door opener. As with most complex devices, it contains a small computer that regulates various functions. A power surge, even from a brown out, can melt important components in the garage door opener. Plugging the garage door opener into a surge suppressor power strip can help prevent this. It won’t protect your garage door opener from all electrical surges, but it will protect it in many instances. In this case, a purchase of less than $20 can go a long way to help you avoid buying a new garage door opener.
Lastly, on a small scale, keep the photo eye devices clean. You’ll find these on attached to the garage door rails near the floor. These tell the computer in your garage door opener if there is something in the way when it is time to close. Anything obstructing the connection between the eyes lets the garage door opener know that it is not safe to close. Leaf build up in the fall, snow and ice in the winter, or spider webs any time of year, can affect this. It’s a good idea to occasionally check for this.
Even though we get some crazy weather in Northern Illinois, even brutal at times, routine maintenance and care can keep Mother Nature from affecting your garage door and garage door opener.
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