Article by Gavin Cruise

If you have had your garage door opener for some time, the chances are you’ve had to troubleshoot a few issues with it, and perhaps even had to purchase garage door opener parts in a hurry in order to ease the morning exit and nightly return to your abode. One way that you can avoid having to troubleshoot serious problems is by carrying out regular maintenance on your garage door, as well as your garage door opener parts. Many manufacturers of garage door opener parts, among them Stanley, Sears and Genie, recommend that you regularly update and maintain your parts in order to ensure their best working condition at all times. And trust me – there are few things short of violent crime that are worse than arriving home in the middle of a thunderstorm only to discover that you garage door won’t open automatically because a faulty part has chosen just that moment to bite the proverbial dust.

Indeed, preventative maintenance is the name of the game, the key to having a fully functional garage door opener at all times. You can of course opt to have your preventative maintenance performed by a professional – or you can follow the current homeowner trend, and decide to do it yourself. Some people go for a combination of the two – they hire a professional accredited by the manufacturer of their garage door (say, Sears Corporation) to do yearly maintenance check-ups, but then also do their own preventative maintenance seasonally, as recommended by authorities. In fact, most garage door opener companies recommend periodic, basic check-ups at least every two months. This may sound like a bit much, given that it’s more often than you would visit your GP, but keep in mind – if that garage door falls, anything or anyone under it is going to sustain severe damage or injury.

If your choose to do the preventative maintenance on your own, here are a few of the more important things you’ll want to make sure you attend to do ensure that your check of your garage door opener parts counts as ‘complete’. First, and perhaps most importantly, you need to check the garage door opener’s reverse mechanism. This is the mechanism that automatically stops and reverses the closing of the garage door if it detects anything underneath it. If the garage door’s reverse mechanism is in any way faulty, the garage door will just keep closing, even when there’s a car, or, god forbid, a child underneath it. Testing this is simple. Place a block of wood at least the size of a toaster under the garage door, and hit the close button. If the garage door stops closing and reverses when it senses the presence of the wood, then the reverse mechanism is fully operational and your opener is safe for use. If it keeps on closing, trying to push through the wooden block, then you need to call in a professional repair technician immediately.

Another important factor to take into consideration when performing preventative maintenance on your garage door opener parts is the force adjustment of the garage door opener. Simply put, your garage door will require more force to open and close during the winter season, and less force during spring and summer. The reason for this lies in the wood’s tendency to increase or decrease in size and shape in response to damp, humidity and temperature. Since garage doors become swollen in winter, they tend to stick closed, an annoying symptom you can easily avoid upping the ante of the force settings, which you can change either on your remote or by adjusting a couple of screws on the opener motor (check your manual for details). To avoid the door moving jerkily or at too great a speed in spring and summer, you’ll probably want to turn back the force settings.

Finally, it’s a good idea to make sure that your garage door opener parts are always clean and well lubricated. Particularly important when it comes to regular lubrication are the hinge pins and springs, as these will start to grind without regular grease, resulting in their wearing down, and creating a huge ruckus in the process.