We use our garage doors daily and the opener of the door moves it up and down. This means that regular maintenance is very important to keep the door and its components in proper working condition. The below steps can help you ensure that your garage door is in proper working condition. However, you need to keep in mind that only trained professionals should do some of the important maintenance works.
You should never try to adjust the torsion spring that is mounted above the garage door. In addition, note that any bolt that is painted red should only be adjusted by a technician.
Testing Door Balance
- To test the door balance, you need to close the door and disconnect the carriage form the belt or chain. This can be done by pulling the release handle. If everything is okay, you should be able to lift the door manually.
- Now you need to open the door about halfway and check if it stays in its place. If the door stays there, you can be sure that it is balanced and if it is not, the door is unbalanced and needs adjustment. You will need to call a garage door repair technician to adjust it.
- If your garage door is properly balanced, you can re-engage the carriage by moving it towards the opener.
Safety Contact Reversal Test
- Open the garage door and place a block of wood on the ground approximately at the center of the opening.
- You may now close the door. When the door panel comes in contact with the wooden block, it should reverse direction and should open. If the door is not reversing direction, adjustments should be made to the downforce control limits.
- You may try to set the downforce control limits by following the instructions in the manual. After making the necessary adjustments, you need to perform a force control test. You may repeat the steps until the door promptly reverse direction when it comes in contact with an object on its way down.
The simple tests mentioned above would help you to ensure that your garage door is in proper working condition. If you have any doubts, you can seek the help of a garage door installation service in your area.