Oh, the unquestioned convenience of a fully functional garage door. Until one day, that’s no longer the case. Often, we take our garage doors for granted, assuming they’ll forever and flawlessly open and close at the touch of a button. And then reality hits. If you’ve ever been caught in the midst of garage door malfunction, you know just how frustrating, time-consuming, and potentially dangerous attempting to locate and fix the issue can be. The garage door experts at Door Power, in Norwood, MN discuss how routine garage door maintenance can help you avoid unexpected garage door failure.
Tighten Up the Hardware
The average household opens and closes their garage door approximately 1500 times per year! That’s a hefty dose of potential wear and tear over time. With all of that opening and closing and the associated vibrations, various components can loosen, potentially resulting in damage to your garage door if you’ve neglected proper maintenance. Fortunately, keeping those components in top working condition requires just a few minutes and a socket wrench. Simply examine your garage door’s brackets, fasteners, and bolts to locate any loose parts. If you find any, tighten them until secure using your socket wrench.
Examine the Rollers
With all of that opening and closing each year, your garage door’s rollers can also undergo extensive wear and tear. Rollers, which guide your garage door through its tracks, typically have a life of about seven years, but experts recommend inspecting them twice annually. If you observe any cracking, chipping, or extensive wear, it’s time to install replacements. Because the replacement process can be quite involved, its best suited to a trained garage door repair technician.
Put the Safety Features to the Test
If you have a manual garage door manufactured after the early 1990s, chances are it came equipped with several safety features. These might include safety sensors, auto-reverse, and manual override. These critical features were installed with the safety of you and your family in mind, so keeping them in top working condition is paramount. Pro tip: If your door does not contain any safety features, it’s time for a garage door replacement.
To test the auto-reverse features, place a solid object on the ground directly in the path of the garage door. Using the opener, close the garage door. When the door comes into contact with the object, it should automatically reverse. If it doesn’t, call a garage door repair technician. To test the safety sensors, first, measure their height. Then, find an object that reaches higher than the height of the sensors. Place the object in the path of the safety sensors and attempt to close the door using the opener. If the sensors work properly, they will detect the object and immediately stop the door from closing. Again, if this feature malfunctions, it’s time to call your local repair technician.
To test the manual override, obtain a ladder and place it beneath the chain that controls your garage door. Here, you should find a red, manual override cord hanging from the chain. Give the cord a forceful pull to lock it in the appropriate position. You’ve just activated manual override mode. To test it, attempt to open the door using the garage door opener. If it fails to open with the electronic opener, but you can lift it using your hands, your manual override is fully functional. Pull the cord once more to unlock the mechanism and restore automatic opening.
This post first appeared on https://www.doorpower.com