It has been observed that the difference between 2-degrees and
27-degrees is enough to assist an electric garage door in getting the door from half-way up to all of the way up. Closing the door was never a problem. I'm sure the engineers can probably help me understand that a "cold spring" doesn't have as much energy in it. Anyhow, I get to scratch that "problem report" from the list! Maybe this information will come in handy for you someday.Bill
Maybe not the springs so much as the grease in the wheel bearings being some what thick as molasses. Unless you have a Wayne Dalton door that has captured springs inside a lubed up tube.
I doubt that the wheels on the left and right hand sides even have bearings, but I will spray them with silicone on a nicer day. The ones in the middle most probably do, as they are the ones really taking the force. The ones on the side are, more or less, there for guidance, I think.
My problem was the opposite: closing the door in the cold.
When my kids were young, I always kept the down force on my GDO set at the absolute minimum to allow the door to close all the way. I remember that ev ery winter I would have to tweak that setting or the door would reverse in very cold weather. I attributed it to everything being just a little stiffe r, the grease being not quite as fluid, etc. Just a little more down force and the door would close all the way instead of reversing at somewhat rando m points along the downward travel.
I have read about those settings in the last few weeks. Even after replacing the main spring, I have never tampered with them (I didn't even know they were there--and still haven't got on a ladder to check). Thank you for sharing your experience! I've had some temporary "reversing" issues before too, and now I will attempt to be more proactive.
It's a curious behaviour. What size & type of garage door ? .. perhaps a wide, jointed door might suffer from stiffening in all the panel connections < ? > from the cold temps. John T.
--- news://freenews.netfront.net/ - complaints: snipped-for-privacy@netfront.net ---
You may be right. It is a wide, jointed door (with 1 spring). Either way, on one cold night a few weeks ago, I could only get it to go up half-way. And I tested it the other day when it was warmer, and it went all the way up on the first try (bringing a smile to my face!) ; )
If you pull the disconnect lever, how hard is it to raise by hand? If it is really heavy, the spring may need to be tightened (adjusted). If it is a coil spring across and over the door, it can be tightened to counter-balance the door's weight. That is a dangerous procedure, but it can be done. NEVER paint this type of spring. The coils will stick together and negate a lots of the torque. DAMHIKT.
I was in fact thinking of putting oil on the spring--which I did not do when I installed it. I think there are several factors possibly involved. But the spring is high on the list. I don't need to use the garage door bad enough in cold weather to tamper with the spring. Having replaced the spring myself, I know exactly what is involved.
My first thought was grease. I had repaired several doors that folks complained about. They worked for year, they would report. Well, after oiled the wheel bearings, tightening all the loose screws, checking the track for alignment and tightness, the doors worked perfectly. Yes, some had issues with electric eye, and loose wires, etc. but moth were easily repaired with a little overdue maintenance. john
It has been observed that the difference between 2-degrees and
27-degrees is enough to assist an electric garage door in getting the door from half-way up to all of the way up. Closing the door was never a problem. I'm sure the engineers can probably help me understand that a "cold spring" doesn't have as much energy in it. Anyhow, I get to scratch that "problem report" from the list! Maybe this information will come in handy for you someday.Bill
Please try the simple stuff first:
Adjust the up-down force. "...on one cold night a few weeks ago, I could only get it to go up half-way. And I tested it the other day when it was warmer, and it went all the way up on the first try ..."
Classic symptom for the up-down force being just a tad too light. Don't over-complicate this.
Friend has had to replace the spring on his door, problem is the being a wood door.
">Yes, some had issues with electric eye, and loose wires, etc. but moth were easily repaired with a little overdue maintenance."
Actually I have had moths and other bugs cause me problem with the opener, I just found john's typo amusing.
Mark
Those cold weather symptoms are *exactly* what I experienced on my chain-driven garage door! The good news is the fix was easy and very inexpensive. The bad news (for me) was I ignored the symptoms for a couple of winters because when spring/summer arrived the symptoms would disappear, my opener finally failed (stripped gear) in winter
2014. I saved all the web links I used to repair and will make them available to you at no charge... ;-)If you have a Chamberlain, Liftmaster, or Sears/Craftsman chain driven door:
Check the balance of the door, over time the torsion spring(s) loose tension and the door becomes 'heavy' which stresses the crap out of the opener gear.
If your door is not balanced (I'm betting it isn't) adjust it as shown here:
For winding sticks I bought one of these and sawzalled in half:
If you have a Chamberlain, Liftmaster, Sears/Craftsman chain driven door, you will eventually HAVE to replace the $5 nylon drive gear. I got mine here:
The whole kit, which I also bought but didn't need, is here:
I used these videos as guides:
Gear only replacement:
If these folks can do it, ANYONE can do it! lol
Some clarification on that last video. Although they were successful, they did NOT need to remove the whole opener, nor should they have hammered the roll pin out while it was still mounted in the opener!
Thank you. I will watch the video! I believe I do have one of a Chamberlain design.
And Mike M., remember when I first started this thread, I did not post with a problem. But, maybe I have one after all. I will watch the video later today.
Bill
>
Not sure what "set of symptoms" your GDO exhibited before failure but mine was misbehaving exactly as Bill has described, including occasionally reversing directions, mid-cycle, in cold weather only. The 1st winter I ignored it. The 2nd winter I tweaked the force adjustment about a 1/16 of a turn which seemed to help. The 3rd winter it stared doing it again, and I again tweaked the adjustment another
1/16 turn.However, one cold morning I pushed the button to raise the garage door, the door opened about knee high and stopped, but I could hear the motor humming/straining/buzzing until I pushed the wall mounted button again. I tried pushing the button a few more times, I could hear the motor straining but the door was not budging in either direction. I pulled the rope to disengage the trolley, removing any possibility the door rollers were seized. The motor still would not move the chain at all.
Thus began my quest! After several hours Googling, forum reading, youtube watching, I was stumped. I vividly remember reading several forum posts like "Oh, you'll know when your opener gear strips, you'll try to open your door and you'll hear your motor spinning freely but your door won't move." Which was very different from what I was experiencing. My motor was NOT spining freely, it seemed to be seized.
Fortunately, I also read a couple of posts that said to remove the GDO cover and peek inside, "if it looks like someone tossed a handful of snow in there, you know you've got a gear problem." Mine resembled a small blizzard! Here are couple of examples (not mine):
In closing I would just add that I think the force adjustment should be used *sparingly* as it exists mainly as a safety device, used for the initial installation setup. It should not be used to mask symptoms of ongoing mechanical problems.
You made an interesting post Spalted Walt.
FWIW, mine would only go half-way up when it was really cold (0 F.) I have had a few experiences in the summer when it would reverse on me. I don't use it much in the winter.
Depending on how hard it is to get the cover off, I'll check for "snow". "People" have so much "stuff" out there, that it is not easy to get to (an understatement).
Thanks for all of the advise from everyone who volunteered some. I'm that much smarter and wiser.
Bill
BTW...this is not related to your problem, it's just a tip related to hangi ng a GDO:
We have a bedroom above our garage. When they boys lived at home that was t heir room. The GDO was originally hung from slotted angle iron that was dir ectly attached to the joists. Whenever the GDO was used, the noise was tran smitted up into the boy's room and often woke them up.
The brake pads for Soap Box Derby cars are 3" x 3" squares made from rubber conveyor belt material and are very strong.
I cut a brake pad in half and using the exiting holes, attached one end to the angle iron and the other end to the GDO, isolating it from the joists.
The noise reduction was impressive. The same pads has been in place for ove r 25 years and show absolutely no sign of wear. I still have the safety cha ins attached just in case, but I'm not concerned.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.