|
When was the last time you performed regular preventive maintenance on your garage door or your garage door opener? Even though your garage door opener is a big convenience and works well, virtually all house homeowners take it for granted. Most people use their garage to enter and exit their homes. In addition almost everyone has a garage door opener that they use to open and close their garage doors. That makes your garage door and its opener a very important part of your home. Just like all mechanical devices there comes a time when your garage door opener will not work. Unfortunately it will probably take place at the most annoying time. That is why a little preventative maintenance can be a fantastic method to make sure that you find out problems with your garage door before something breaks. It would seem like there's adequate evidence to prove to anyone about the value of regular upkeep for their garage doors and openers. An important thing to consider is that a garage door opener can without difficulty raise a 450 pound double residential door. Since a door may reverse as it is closing, which requires many foot pounds of force, it is logical that the door opening apparatus should be completely maintained. Do you have children around your home? Are they inquisitive? Be carefull not to let them turn their questioning nature toward the operation of your garage door. A child repeatedly pushing a wall button or remote for a garage door can stress the door and the opener enough to cause it to fail. Here are several important routine preventative maintenance tips. Semi-annually, you ought to deactivate the automatic opener while the door is closed. This can be accomplished by means of pulling on the red cord or pull rope. Do a balance test. Open the door approximately half way. Then let go of the door. First, it should be easy to pull the door up. Secondly it should stay at the half way position when you let go of the door. If it doesn't meet the aforementioned criteria, you may have an impending cable or spring malfunction. Visually inspect rails, chain/belt and mounting brackets on your garage door opener. Horizontal rails must always be parallel to insure that the door operates correctly. Lubricate all metal parts twice a year with a suitable metal lubricant. The same applies for weather seals. Make sure to make use of a silicone based lubricant. This will add years of worry-free operation to your garage door. Do a reversal test. Make sure that the reversal mechanisms of your garage door opener are functional. Since 1996, all garage door openers are equipped with two safety systems. The primary one is a photocell system that will stop and reverse the action of the door whenever a person or thing passes through the light beam. The second system will stop and reverse the door automatically if it senses any resistance while the door is closing. You're finished! The whole inspection process shouldn't take any more than just a few minutes. Isn't it nice to be ahead of the maintenance curve and know that you've done everything you can to anticipate garage door problems? Check this out. More suggestions
Related Articles -
garage, door, opener,
| 
