Is Your Garage Door Balanced?

Here's a quick maintenance tip for today on checking your garage door's balance. This is important because an improperly balanced garage door will cause your opener to work harder than it should, potentially leading to premature failure and necessitating a costly replacement along with any other emergency measures you would need to take. If this sounds complicated, don't worry! A balance test is one of the quickest, easiest and safest ways to perform self-maintenance and decide if any further action is needed.

To start, locate the spot on the track where your opener is clamped to the door, and make sure the door is closed, then detach the opener from the door. Lift the door carefully up from the middle so as to not cause wobbling, until it's about halfway up. Once lifted, make sure you have someone standing next to the door in case anything happens, and release the door to see what happens.

If the door is properly balanced, there should be very little if any movement. Anything else indicates that the door is in need of either some maintenance or even spring replacement, depending on how severe the symptoms are. A door sliding downwards means that the springs are too loose and are no longer exerting sufficient pressure, and if the door slides upwards, there's too much pressure from the springs. Both can cause the opener to work harder pulling or pushing, which can lead to it breaking down faster.

In the event that your door climbs up on the track, you may be able to add a bit of weight to counteract this. Most hardware stores sell a garage door brace, which is not only used to strengthen the integrity of the door, but also serve as a grip as well as adding a small bit of weight to it. This extra weight may be enough to bring the door into balance if the springs are only slightly miscalibrated. Anything more severe than this would most likely require professional attention, as garage door springs are extremely dangerous to work with unless you know exactly what you're doing.

For more information on garage door maintenance in Temecula, call Afficient Garage Doors at 951-541-0460. We are a professionally licensed, bonded and insured company with over 10 years of experience ready to serve you!