Garage door and garage door opener maintenance is critical when you don’t have elves standing by to help

In days gone by, there was a hinged-double-barn door. But, the Big Guy tries to keep up with advancements in technology. And, so, 30 or 40 years ago, he had an overhead garage door installed. Ten years later he updated that with an automatic garage door opener.

This made things much easier. It was a very good idea because, on that one night each year when he uses the garage door, he is very, very busy. He doesn’t have time to waste.

Imagine if you had to circumnavigate the globe, stopping at millions and millions of homes and, at each home, sliding down the chimney with toys for boys and girls to leave under the tree, and all in one night. Clearly, every second counts. Knowing that the door will open when called upon is vital.

Only using the door once each year means that there isn’t the usual wear and tear experienced by most garage doors and garage door openers that are going up and down with frequency throughout the year. However, the conditions by the Big Guy’s place more than make up for the disparity in use. In the winter, the temperature outside his place averages 40 degrees below zero. That’s cold – really, really cold. And then there are the extremes when it can get much colder.

These extremes are very hard on the mechanics of a garage door and garage door opener. The cold effects the lubricants that are used to protect and assist garage door hinges. Of course, the elf who maintains the garage door for the Big Guy uses a special lubricant designed to withstand such extreme lows. But, the cold still plays havoc on the garage door and garage door opener.

Then there is the wind and the snow. The wind often blows so hard up here that the snow seems to find the smallest crack to invade the interior of the Big Guy’s place. Another elf spends all his time identifying and sealing leaks. He is an expert in the installation of caulk and rubber weather stripping. But, the bitterly cold wind is so persistent that his work is never really done.

The good news is that, on that one night, while the Big Guy is loading toys in his Soaring Levitation  Express Delivery system (S.L.E.D), the garage door elves are checking the garage door and garage door opener and checking it twice. If there is a problem, once the Big Guy hooks up the Hooved Drive System and hits the button to open the garage door, the elves are standing by to quickly address any problem.

Few of us have garage doors and garage door openers that have to endure the kinds of temperatures that the Big Guy’s garage door and garage door opener endures. But, even fewer of us have garage door technicians standing by every time we use our garage doors. This makes it imperative that we do timely maintenance with our garage doors and garage door openers so they will work when we need them to work.

Of course, millions of boys and girls aren’t depending on our garage doors and garage door openers to work the way they are with the Big Guy and his garage door and garage door opener.

Army can interrupt garage door opener signals but Ingleside residents don’t have to worry

Lack of proper garage door maintenance is a far-more likely cause if you have problems

A story in a Savannah, GA, newspaper, from a few years ago, discussed a local problem for residents of the Ardsley Park area. Apparently, US Army radio signals were interfering with the operation of garage door openers for area residents.

The military installation to blame was the Hunter Army Airfield. They had upgraded equipment on a radio tower to produce a stronger signal. By chance, the signal transmits on the same frequency as garage door openers.

When the Army turned the transmitters on they started to receive calls from residents in Ardsley Park and as far north as Godonston and as far south as Bryan County. This means that the transmitter was making itself ‘heard,’ so to speak, for miles around. Of course, Hunter Army Airfield is 964 miles from Chicago. Once again, there’s nothing to worry about in Ingleside where your garage door opener will stop working because of the Army’s transmitter.

While military interference isn’t a real concern unless Great Lakes Naval Base adds a new and more powerful transmitter. Still, Great Lakes Naval Base is 20 miles away from Ingleside. But, there are other things that could interfere with the operation of your garage door opener.

You could kick a photosensor for your garage door opener out of position and cause a problem. Or, you could fail to properly maintain your garage door opener, and garage door, and you’ll have trouble.

In reality, it’s far more likely that a lack of maintenance will cause a problem with your Ingleside garage door opener than the US Army. But, you have far more control of avoiding a problem with your garage door opener in the prior case. If you do a good job of maintaining your garage door opener, it should work and keep working. And, if it doesn’t, you won’t be able to blame the U.S. military.

Hinges keep your garage door going up and down

Lubrication keeps your garage door hinges happy

Hinges play an important but almost invisible role in our lives. We don’t think about it but hinges are everywhere. You’ll almost never open a door to walk through a doorway without using several hinges. When you get in and out of the car, you’re using hinges. And, when you open or close your paneled garage door, you’re using as many as 15 hinges or more.

When you open a cabinet in the kitchen, you use hinges. When you open the door to the refrigerator, the washer, dryer or dishwasher, you’re using hinges. There are even hinges on many beer tappers – not all, but many.

Hinges help things pivot. They allow cabinets and doors to swing open. With beer tappers, well, they allow the beer to flow. With a garage door, hinges help the panels of your garage door to roll up and over the turn in the tracks on either side of the door, or down around the bend.

The thing with hinges is that most of them are made of metal and metal can rust. You don’t worry about your kitchen cabinet hinges rusting. They’re indoors and safely protected from the elements of the weather. But, garage door hinges, even though they’re on the inside of the garage door, are not insulated as completely from the elements.

Over time, garage door hinges will gain the brown patina of rust. Rust on the outside of a hinge isn’t such a big problem but there’s no guarantee that the rust won’t work its way inside the hinge. Inside the hinge, it’s metal against metal. A metal pin rotates inside of clasps on either side of the hinge. Rust buildup inside the hinge impedes that movement.

With enough rust, a hinge will cease to rotate. Your hinge will freeze up – lock up – stop working. At a certain point, the hinge is behind hope. Rust has won the battle and the only solution is to replace the hinge. Caught early enough, you can save a hinge by applying a liberal amount of an appropriate lubricant. That lubricant, however, isn’t just for repair of a rusty hinge; it also helps to protect a hinge before rust has a chance to take hold.

Have you ever opened a door with rusty hinges? What was it like? You had to apply substantial additional force to get the door to move, didn’t you? The same is true with a garage door; if the hinges are rusty your garage door opener has to work like the Dickens to get your garage door to open. It puts a lot of strain on the garage door opener and all its components.

With rusty hinges, you can expect your garage door opener to wear out sooner. You can expect parts of your garage door opener system to break. The solution is lubrication. Lubrication is an extremely cost-effective way to extend the life of your garage door and garage door opener. Lubrication is the elixir of life for your garage door hinges.

Photosensors keep an eye out to open your garage door

Their eyes are locked but it’s not exactly romantic. On either side of your garage door, just above the ground, you’ll find them mounted on the backside of the tracks that guide your garage door on its journeys up and down. These are photosensors and their eyes are locked on one another for a very good reason.

Photosensors represent a safety feature provided with your garage door and garage door opener. Not only are they gazing into each-others eyes, they are ready to respond if anyone interrupts their gaze.

Running between the photosensors is an infra-red beam, similar to the infra-red beam you probably saw in one-or-more episodes of Mission Impossible. With the infra-red beams in the movies, as well as employed for actual security systems, if the gaze of the beam is broken, an alarm begins to ring, steel doors slam shut so the perpetrators can’t get away.

The infra-red beam between the photosensors at the bottom of your garage door generally don’t operate the same kind of equipment. Nothing nearly as exciting will happen if the beam between the garage door photosensors is broken. Instead of an alarm, the door simply stops.

When the infra-red beam between garage door photosensors is interrupted, the power to the motor of your garage door opener is cutoff. The motor stops running the garage door stops moving.

The purpose of the photosensors and their infra-red beam is to ensure that the door doesn’t come down on your car or other toys or equipment in the way of the door. It’s also to ensure that the garage door doesn’t come down on you or a loved one.

Even if it isn’t a loved one who is saved by your photosensors and their infra-red beam, the safety is a great feature with your garage door and garage door opener to protect friends who come to visit, too. The federal government agrees. The feds actually mandate garage door companies to install safety features, such as photo sensors, when your garage door and/or garage door opener is installed.

It’s not as exciting a security system as the one built around the Crown Jewels of England, but it is effective for keeping your garage door operating properly.

Lubrication is a friend to your Lake Zurich garage door and garage door opener

Rust has a rich texture that is warm and appealing in many decorative applications. It’s rustic. It’s unique. It’s suggestive of age and endurance. Rust, however, is the enemy of most garage doors, unless you have a heavy, rusted-iron garage that serves a decorative purpose as well as providing a way to close your Lake Zurich garage door.

Rust, in most of its forms, is an inhibitor of the smooth operation of equipment, and that includes your garage door.

Have you looked at the tracks on either side of your Lake Zurich garage door lately? Originally, if the technician who installed your garage door knew what they were doing, those tracks were well lubricated. This ensured that the rollers attached to your garage door panels had a path they could easily roll in while going up and down.

You also want lubricated rollers. These are constructed of pins, that fit into tubes on the inside of the garage door panels, and roller bearings that ride in the track. From the bearings to the pins, lubrication is essential.

Other parts of the garage door that beg for lubrication are the hinges. These are not asked to rotate the way the rollers do but they can still add a creak to your door’s operation and make the garage door opener work harder. Even if your muscles are called upon as the ‘garage door opener,’ lubricated hinges will make the job easier.

Whether your garage door opener operates with a chain drive or a screw drive, lubrication is an absolute necessity. The same holds true of garage door pulleys. Even the torsion spring can do with a good lubrication, from time to time.

Lubrication inhibits the rust that would inhibit the smooth operation of the garage door. It quiets – seriously quiets – the operation of your garage door. And, while lubrication reduces the strain on your Lake Zurich garage door opener, it also extends the life of your garage door, garage door parts, and your garage door opener.

What parts of your Spring Grove garage door are most likely to break?

If you maintain your Spring Grove garage door properly, you can expect to receive years and years of service without major issues. But, mechanical items, such as garage doors and garage door openers, do break. It’s a matter of time and use. The way to delay the inevitable garage breakage is to properly maintain your garage door.

What parts of your garage door are liable to break? Let’s say you’re leaving your Spring Grove home to do some shopping and, halfway up, the door jams. What would cause that problem?

There are a number of possible answers to that question. So, let’s take a look at the parts of a garage door system that break most often:

• The garage door opener breaks: There is a small electrical motor inside that garage door opener. There are springs, bearings, and gears. Sometimes, there is also a drive belt. Eventually, the garage door opener, or one of its parts, will break. However, if you lubricate the garage door hinges and bearings, you can reduce the load on the garage door opener and extend its life.
• Garage door cables break: The cables that lift your garage door are about 1/8th-inch thick. They carry a heavy load and they are used often. It’s a darn good thing they’re made of aircraft-quality cable, the wear and tear will take its toll and they can break. Once again, lightening the load by greasing hinges and bearings will help.
• Garage door rollers can break: The rollers are found traveling up and down the tracks on both sides of the garage door. A good-quality set of rollers will last a long time, especially if you lubricate them with sufficient frequency. Unfortunately, the rollers that come with garage doors are often of inferior quality.
• Garage door springs break: These springs are under so much tension that only a qualified garage door technician should work with them. People have lost fingers, hands and lives trying to replace their garage door springs when they didn’t have the experience required for the job. A spring under that much tension WILL break, eventually. Once again (I know – this is getting redundant), lubricating hinges and bearings will lighten the load on the springs.
• Garage door hinges can break: Garage door hinges can break by coming apart. They can also fail by rusting in place so they won’t turn as designed. You guessed it – lubricating them and they’ll last a lot longer (and all those other parts will appreciate it).

You probably use the garage door and garage door opener in your Spring Grove garage more often than you think about. It can work so reliably that you’ll virtually forget it is there. Then, when it breaks, you’ll remember when you probably don’t have time to deal with a broken garage door. But, maintain it properly and you probably won’t have to think about it too much for quite some time.

Invitation to the wrong sort – Woodstock garage door stuck halfway open

It’s not convenient when your Woodstock garage door stops halfway up. In fact, it’s down-right inconvenient.

You’re in a hurry – places to go and things to do. You rush out to the garage and climb into the car while your mind runs through your to-do list for the 500th time. You hit the button for the remote garage door opener and you hear that familiar sound of the door going up. You start the car and, with your foot on the brake, you put the car in reverse. You’re ready to back out of the garage and … wait a minute. Something is wrong?

What’s wrong is that your garage door has stopped halfway up. If you back out now you’ll rip the garage door of the track and break the door panel into pieces, not to mention the damage to the springs and other parts of the garage door and garage door opener.

Woodstock is a great place to live – The Square, nice neighbors, not too far from work and things to see and do. But, you still wouldn’t want to leave your doors wide open. From time to time, someone may drive, or stroll, down your street who is not that nice. And if your garage door is stuck halfway open, that’s an invitation to the occasional nefarious character who might happen by.

If the garage door is stuck halfway open, you might try to fix it yourself. However, this will require working from a ladder and knowing how to identify the limit switch adjustment, for a start. Adjusting the ‘down’ adjustment may solve the problem. Then again, it may not.

You may have to go up and down the ladder several times to find the sweet spot where the garage door works again. In the process, you may overheat the motor in the garage door opener. This isn’t necessarily catastrophic – if you leave it alone for 15 minutes, or so, it should work again.

You can also lubricate the hinges and the bearings in the track. This is part of the standard process of garage door maintenance, but there’s no guarantee this will work either.

You can also look for debris that is blocking the door’s safety eyes. But, what you don’t want to do is walk away with your Woodstock garage door stuck halfway open.