Heading home from a long day at work drops your stress level instantly -- at least until you have to face your noisy garage door again. The screeching, banging, and groaning is a chaotic symphony that sets you right back on edge, but that’s just what garage doors do. Anyway, it’s a small price to pay to protect your car from the elements. Ordering the wrong type of lubricant could mean damaging your system. This is a surprisingly common attitude among homeowners with noisy garage doors. They learn to live with the noise because they don’t think there is another choice. Luckily for them, those moans and screams aren’t permanent. In fact, they’re a warning that the garage door is desperately in need of lubrication. Once that noisy garage door is properly lubed, the calm and quiet will return. Of course, the noise a garage door makes is secondary to the problems that are actually making all that tuneless racket. Several parts of your garage door require frequent lubricating -- after all, your garage door is one of the biggest moving parts on your home.
The springs, rollers, tracks and hinges all need some attention once every few months to keep the garage door functioning smoothly. Your lubrication process will vary depending on your door’s configuration, but generally, you want to tackle that big problem in this order:Start by cleaning the tracks with a rag to eliminate any build-up that might be interfering with your door’s gentle glide. Don’t lubricate the tracks, but ensuring they’re clean is essential to your door’s functioning.Spray down the springs that lift your garage door day in and day out. Again, you want to only lubricate them enough that they move better, without a lot of extra lubricant dripping out.Lubricate steel hinges at their pivot points, but don’t mess with the plastic ones. Plastic doesn’t need lubrication -- it can actually cause the hinges to break down over time.If your rollers have nylon wheels that make contact with the track, make sure to only lubricate the bearings without getting any lubricant on the nylon itself.
All-metal rollers don’t require as much precision, but make sure to wipe away any excess lubricant to prevent it from dripping on the garage floor or your car.If your key sticks or the lock is hard to open and close, give it a good shot of lubricant, too. Make sure you get lubricant into the tumbler as well as on other moving parts. Once you have all your garage door parts properly lubricated, lift it and close it several times to even out the lubricant’s distribution. If you still hear a lot of noise coming from your door, follow that sound to determine if you simply missed a moving part or if more substantial correction will be needed. There’s always some question as to what types of garage door lubricants are okay and what shouldn’t be used at all. Whatever you do, don’t spray WD-40 on your garage door parts. People commonly confuse this product, which has rust-destroying and degreasing properties with a lubricant because it generally helps metal parts move better.
That action is from the cleaning, not from true lubrication.The garage door is the single largest moving part in your home, and should be inspected and maintained every year. Whether you have a belt-drive, chain-drive, or screw-drive opening system, maintenance issues and steps to lubricate garage door tracks are virtually the same: • Inspect the tracks to make sure there is no debris to catch the rollers. Wipe them out or vacuum if needed. • Lubricate the rollers with regular engine oil. Put a drop on each roller and allow the rolling action to draw it into the bearings. Don’t use grease, it will just gum up the tracks and collect hair and debris. • Check cables for any sign of fraying and make certain that springs are tight and connected. • Lightly lubricate any bearings and garage door hinges. • Check the spring to make sure that it is “wet” or lightly lubricated. If it gets dried out, it will clump and jam up your system. With a chain-drive system, check to make sure the chain is greased.
Aside from that, the door is your final moving part and should be checked for tight screws and lightly oiled connections. The garage door opener itself controls a number of features that require monitoring. Basically the system is designed to shut down in the case of malfunction. While this is an opener’s greatest safety feature, the cause may not be readily apparent. Troubleshooting Garage Door Problems Any garage door opener installed today must, by federal law, have optic sensors to detect any person or object in the pathway of the door. This is usually the cause for a non-functioning door. Optic sensors must be aimed at each other so that they can send and receive an uninterrupted beam of light. If these eyes get out of alignment, the system will shut down. First check to see if there are any obstructions or items blocking the eyes. If not, check to see if the eye has become misaligned. Jiggling the eye or rotating it slightly usually brings it back into line with its partner.
The more sensitive the garage door opener, the greater the chance of shutdown. This is intentional, but owners need to know the signs of trouble. Newer openers feature diagnostic lights that flash a code to tell the owner of the problem. Dirty tracks, misaligned rollers, broken springs — all cause the opener to shut down. Get to know your system and check it regularly for force of operation and automatic return. Most garage door companies suggest that you test your system every month or two months to be certain it is functioning properly. The force with which the door closes can be adjusted. To test its sensitivity, place a two-by-four in the opening and close the door. The door should return or bounce back on contact. If not, the force needs to be lowered. This adjustment is usually on the back of the housing itself. Keep in mind that door weight varies depending on temperature and humidity. A door may return safely at a force of 5 in the winter, but require a 4 in the spring.