The Noisy Garage Door Fix
Fixing a Squeaking and Creaking Garage Door
When was the last time you were hanging out in your garage with a couple friends or family and suddenly, while the garage door was going down, you can barely hear your friend chatting because of the massive noise of the garage door operation? This happens often but gets overseen and doesn’t get addressed accordingly. First and most importantly, that could be the sound of alerting you of danger awaiting to happen. It probably doesn’t sound too pleasant when the door falls on your car. Let’s not wait for that to happen. Okay, so there could be a number of situations that could explain the loud garage door noise. Most commonly, in my years of being a professional garage door technician, the rollers or some homeowner’s would call it “wheels” are not doing it’s job. That job is simply rolling on the tracks. Homeowner tip: most garage door manufacturers comes with low grade quality rollers without any ball bearings. It’s only good for the first couple years from it’s new life and then it starts going down hill. You’ll start to hear loud screeching noises like dragging a fingernail on a chalk board. Next it could be rusted rollers that’s NEVER been lubricated. I’ve been to hundreds of homes and homeowners swear they never lube the hinges because they didn’t know it had to be lubricated. Hinges is a metal object that rubs against each other- this should be lubricated every 3 months for best performance. And lastly, the loud noise problem could be a dry trolley rubbing against the long opener rail. The rail needs to be lubricated and thoroughly spreaded with special garage door grease- another common maintenance that homeowner’s don’t know.
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Garage Door Safety Eyes
Most Common Reason Your Garage Door Won’t Close – Safety Eyes
Sensor eyes are made to ensure your safety. They are normally attached at the bottom of both sides of the vertical track, about 6 inches high. One is the receiver and the other is the sender. The sender eye sends an invisible beam to the receiver. When the garage door is going down and this beam is tampered or obstructed, the door will reverse back up. This smart technology is intended to prevent kids from being crushed.Green eye – the sender
Yellow/amber eye – the receiver
Safety Eye Symptoms:
-When your garage door is fully open, hit the wall button to close the door. Normally the door will go down but instead you see and hear your opener blinking and clicking.
-Your garage door goes down on your command but during on it’s way down, the door reverses and your opener blinks and clicks.
Diagnosing the Safety Eye:
-Position the door up, click and hold the wall button. The garage door will begin to close. Then about half way through, let go of the button. If your garage door reverses back up and you get that clicking and blinking from the opener. You have a safety eye problem. Explanation: holding the wall button down bypasses the safety feature, simply no invisible beam exists. When you let go of the wall button, the invisible beam is turned back on.
Safety Eye Common Problems:
-loose nut- causing the eye’s to be mis-aligned.
-dusty/dirty sensors- the invisible beam can’t pass through the debris
-bad connection- make sure the wires are properly installed; check for damaged wire
-turbulence from loose vertical track or heavy door- the beam is shooting solid
-sunlight shining directly to eye- sun light blocks the laser beam
-the “clogged corner”- we normally store brooms, and long sticks, at the corners by the vertical track.
Fixing the problem:
For safety eyes that are bumped, mis-aligned, or knocked off track, make sure both eye brackets are snapped in at the same height on the track. Then tighten the yellow/amber eye which is the receiver side. Next adjust the other eye so that it is aiming directly with the yellow. You should see a solid green light when you have successfully adjusted it.
If the safety eyes are really dirty, clean with a dry cloth.
It’s common for objects to fall in the sensors path so clear up those corners.
Here is a surprising idea to fix sun light from shining on your sensor eyes – http://ddmgaragedoors.com/blog/2010/09/27/fixing-problems-with-garage-door-opener-photo-eyes-an-idea/
Are you still having problems? You tried all of Pro Line’s tips but still can’t fix it? No problem! We’re here for you. Give us a call at 408-916-4218 and we’ll send a technician out there today. YES. Today. What are you waiting for? Call NOW.
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One or Two Springs?
So your torsion spring just broke and you call a technician and he advises you to replace the broken spring and add another new spring. You’re probably wondering- is he making an honest recommendation or is he just trying to get more of my money?
The truth of the matter is that it’s always recommended to replace both springs on garage doors but there are exceptions. With two springs, you get longer life cycles and a smoother operating garage door. Springs are now being worked less since there is two torque power and the torsion tube is being pulled evenly on both sides. Whereas, one spring will pull on one side excessively, causing other hardware to get damaged.
You also get the benefit of still being able to open your garage door even though one spring is broken. Almost all the time, only one spring will break first and the second will soon follow. When this happens you still have the opportunity to open the door manually. The unbroken spring and your assistant has enough lift to open the door. A garage door with one spring that’s broken will make it almost impossible to open due to it’s heavy weight.
Financially you spend less money in the long run. You may pay more up front of replacing two springs but when you compare that with having a tech coming back and then changing the other spring, the numbers are far greater.
FREE ADVICE. When replacing the springs, make sure they are both the same size in length, inside diameter and wire. Commonly two different springs will have different life cycles; smaller springs have less life cycles. So to get the most bang for your buck, get two identical springs with the same cycles since you’ll be replacing both springs when one goes out.
We, Pro Line Garage Doors, always recommends to replace both springs at the same time as that will extend the life of your springs and door. Also to mention the savings you’re really incurring. So you need a spring change? Give us a call at 408-916-4218. We can be there within the next 2 hours!
There are exceptions for one spring, such as a single car garage door (normally 8×7). Because single car garage doors are smaller in size and weight, even installing 2 of the smallest springs will exceed the door weight. In other words, the springs lift capacity exceeds the door weight, causing the door to jump and having future problems.
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