Like most things in life, a garage door requires regular TLC to ensure it is operating at its best.
Signs that your garage door is not operating as it should include slow response times, noisy operation, vibration when opening and closing and higher energy bills if you have a fully automated model.
Some things you can do to extend the life of your garage door and help keep the bills down are relatively straight forward whilst others are best left to the professionals.
Some key areas to look out for are:
- Has dirt or other debris accumulated and reduced its ability to perform as it should?
- Have the moving parts been lubricated recently?
- Has movement in the door or any of the moving parts started to affect its performance?
- Has the alignment of the door changed over time?
- Does the spring tension and door balance need to be checked, as they will inevitably change with constant use?
As with anything with moving parts, the longer you leave it, the more expensive it will become to fix down the line.
Things you can do yourself to help maintain your garage door
The first thing to do is look to see if any dirt or wind-blown debris is starting to block the channels or affect any of the moving parts. This is probably the easiest job of all. It is amazing how much dirt, leaves and twigs get blown into the base, where the door is trying to create a seal against the elements.
Regularly sweep out, or vacuum, around the base of the garage door, paying particular attention to the corners.
A poor door seal will affect the door’s ability to keep out the rain and wind as well as causing it to bind at the end of its travel.
Then look and listen for signs of binding or vibration, often caused by a lack of lubrication. If the door is noisier than when you had it fitted it is usually alignment or lack of lubrication that is causing the problem. If it has electric motors, these will be working harder than they should. That means they will be using more electricity than is normal and they will have a much shorter life.
The motors are usually one of the first things that fail on a garage door particularly where cheap Chinese motors were used to get the price down. If you start to have problems with the motors, check your warranty to see if they are still covered. Higher quality models will often come with a ten-year warranty.
Lubricating the running gear
You will need two different types of lubricant to keep things running smoothly. A thin spray grease (or an oil like 3 in 1) for the bearings and any metal-on-metal components. Then a silicone spray for everything else. Silicone spray is dry, which has the advantage it will not get clogged with airborne dirt and the like.
When our service teams carry out an annual maintenance on a garage door we use Windsor Wurth’s HHS2000 which is readily available online.
Avoid using WD-40 which is not a great lubricant. It is really designed for repelling water and helping to release seized components, not for lubrication. Although WD-40 will often get rid of any squeaks in the short term, it will dry out very quickly and the squeaks will return.
Garage Door Spring Tension and Balance
One area you would probably leave to the experts is checking the spring tension and making sure the door is balanced correctly.
This is one of the major reasons that your door is not working as well as when it was first installed.
Over time, the spring tension will change and natural movement in the frame will mean the system will benefit from a professional check-up. Adjusting the spring tension will ensure that the system opens and closes easily and with minimum effort. If you have an automatic system, it will ensure the motors have a long life and that the system is not drawing more electricity than is necessary to operate.
Checking the Operation of the Safety Features
A professional service will also ensure that all of the safety features are working correctly. This is essential to make sure that the door will react to anything in its path when it is trying to open or close.
It will also be a chance to check all the seals and rubbers which tend to deteriorate over time.
If you are looking for a professional service for your garage door, whether manual or fully automatic, we can help. At Garage Door and Automation, we have five garage door showrooms in the South West of England. We are based in Bristol, Exeter, Newton Abbot, Plymouth and Truro. Our service teams will be delighted to book you in for an annual service to make sure everything is working as it should and catch any issues before they become expensive.
This will not only extend the life of the door and all the moving parts but it will save you money by ensuring the motors are not working harder than they need to and make sure that the door is sealing correctly to keep out the rain and cold.