The extremes of a Janesville WI winter add to the stress on your garage door opener. Repeated changes in temperature, snow and ice are hard on electrical devices. Remote controls, motors and battery-operated systems don?t perform well in snow and ice. A garage door remote that normally activates the door from a block away hesitates or doesn?t work until you?re in the driveway. The battery-operated keypad might not work at all. Even normally powerful electric motors are sluggish as lubricants on chains and belts stiffen.
Snow and ice freeze heavy doors to the ground adding to the strain on motors and drive systems. Spring is the ideal time for opener maintenance checks to promote safe and reliable operation.
Consider Garage Door Opener Use
The garage is the number one entry point in today?s modern home. Keeping it safe and in good working condition is vital to the whole family.
When a garage door won?t move, there?s an obvious problem. However, nagging concerns leading up to a failure are difficult to recognize. A spring checkup begins by using your eyes and ears. Listen for new and unusual sounds. Watch for slower than normal response and operating speeds. After a visual check of the entire installation, take a closer look at:
- Garage door safety devices ? All modern garage door opener installations must include electric eyes and auto-reverse systems. If anything blocks the electric light beam in this system the door must stop. Federal law requires sensors 6 inches from the floor on each side of the garage door. Check these for obstructions and dirt on a regular basis all year long. After heavy snow or ice, check them more often. Dirt, debris and snow ? even a large chunk of road sludge falling from a wheel well ? will block the beam of light and stop the door. Even a thin veil of ice or snow will reduce the intensity of the light beam and bring you door to a halt.
If clearing the light?s path doesn?t solve the problem, check the wiring. The light-weight wires used for the connections become brittle in extreme cold and even the slightest knock can loosen or even break them.
Garage Door Opener Hefts A Lot Of Weight
Your garage door is the heaviest moving part in your home. Taking regular precautions to keep it working is worth the time and effort. An often overlooked and misunderstood performance factor is a door?s down-force. There is another law requiring the door to immediately stop and go back up when it hits something in its path. The amount of force required varies and changes. Controls for the amount of force the door must feel before reacting are on the main garage door opener unit.
Understand, the correct down-force pressure setting for southern Wisconsin in August is wrong for mid-winter. The appropriate adjustments and correct settings are important safety and performance concerns.
Adjust the force pressure three or four times a year is a routine part of opener maintenance. Changes in temperature and humidity affect how the system responds. Daily performance is closely linked to the weather.
The operator?s manual records the correct settings for your opener. That?s also where you?ll find instructions on how to make adjustments. If you have any doubt, give the pros at Country Door Systems a call.
All garage door panels get stiffer and react slower in cold weather. That means it takes more force to move them. If your garage door opener has a standard summer setting of 25 pounds, the setting for a cold winter is more like 35 pounds. Reducing the pressure in spring is a logical step.
When you have a new or replacement garage door installed, or torsion springs replaced, the installation technician will adjust the settings. But, those settings need your attention as the seasons progress.
Opener Maintenance ? Start With The Power
A modern garage opener is electric. Meaning there are connections to check immediately when operation fails.
- Go to the power source. When you press the button on the wall or your remote and nothing happens you have four spots to check.
- Obviously, check to be sure the main garage door opener is plugged in. Usually mounted on the garage ceiling, vibrations and gravity cause connections to loosen. Make sure it?s secure. If it is, check the circuit breaker assigned to it for a failure there, too.
- The second checkpoint is the wiring between the main unit and the wall-mounted on/off switch. Just like the wires to the electric eyes, these connections can loosen or break in the cold.
The most common power failure is an easy fix ? replacing batteries in remote units. Remotes in your vehicles are used several times a day and a keyless entry pad gets a workout, too. The keypad?s batteries are more likely to perform below expectations in the extreme cold because they?re the most exposed to the elements. Garage door opener pros suggest replacing batteries in all your remote units as regularly as you do for smoke detectors. Fresh batteries are a cheap way to avoid the frustrations of a garage door opener failure.
Professional Installation For Premium Performance
What happens when an opener fails? Consider:
- Potentially severe and costly damage to an expensive door and its fittings
- Damage to the garage ? vibrations loosen supports and create problems for walls and ceilings
- Damage to the opener itself ? the motor overheats, chains, belts, connections and systems breakdown
- Injuries or damage to people, pets and possessions
Your family, pets and property are all affected every day by the smooth operation of your garage door.
Reliable installation is the basis for reliable performance. Poor installations lead to excessive wear on moving parts, stress on door components and reduced operating life of safety features.
The skilled professionals at Country Door Systems provide timely service for all garage doors and accessories. Call Country Door Systems at 608-752-9537 or email us to see the latest in designs and styles. Schedule your opener maintenance and repairs. Look to us for the most efficient garage door opener for your Janesville WI home.