Garage Door Balancing

I'm preparing to install a new garage door opener on a 2-car garage with roll-up metal door. I'm concerned that the door may not be properly balanced, and that may have led my old opener to wear out (it was a 14-year-old Stanley, so it may have just been old age too).

The new opener instructions states that if I open the door 3 to 4 feet, it should stay open. My door will stay open if I open it about

3 1/2 feet, so it meets that criteria. But when the door is fully closed, I have to pull pretty hard to get it to start to open, and it only starts to get easier when I've raised it a couple of feet. I put my bathroom scale under the door, and I weigh 35 pounds on one end, 42 pounds in the middle, and 44 pounds on the other end.

does this seem normal? thanks, paul

Reply to
Paul
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Sounds heavy to me. Have you ever replaced the springs? They may be stretched and not working the way they should be.

We have 10' high doors at the loading dock at work. I can lift them with one hand.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

On 1 Nov 2004 18:27:10 -0800 "Paul" used 16 lines of text to write in newsgroup: alt.home.repair

Definitely not! You probably need to put a couple of turns on your torsion springs.

Reply to
G. Morgan

Sounds to me like the springs have stretched. If that is true, you may not be able to adjust them, they may need to be replaced.

Reply to
Joseph Meehan

I have found that calling the garage door man in times like these has saved me a lot of headaches. My brother decided to re tension his door and it would not open after 4 hours of both of us screwing with it. On a Saturday the garage door company came out and for $65.00 and 1 hour later it works like a champ.

I know what an when to spend money on. For me this is one. Good luck

Reply to
SQLit

Lucky sod! There is a small, but non-zero, chance that a non-professional will die while putzing with garage door springs.

Specifically, Dr. Joseph Ignace Guillotin discarded garage door springs in

1789 BECAUSE the damned things were a hazard to the operators of his machine.
Reply to
JerryMouse

Reply to
Rich

I used to install doors, openers and do service so please humor me here. First, are the springs above to door on a long circular tube? Or are they on the side of the horizontal tracks? Second, you said that the door blances about 3 1/2 feet off the floor. Does it stay open by itself it its all the way open?

Reply to
John

No that would not be normal. Technically the door should weigh 0 lbs when the door is balanced properly although there will probably be a very small amount of weight pressure. The door should stop anywhere you let go of it, but may drift an inch or two. Sounds like your springs are fatigued to where they should be replaced or the door was never balanced properly to begin with.

Doordoc

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Reply to
Doordoc

John,

My garage door has a metal bar along the top, with torsion springs, and one metal cable on each side that connects to the door. If I open the door all the way, it stays open. So it seems to work fine if I open it 3 1/2 feet or more, but less than that, and it will suddenly become heavy and close very quickly (crash!). I measure 35 to 40 pounds force when it is closed.

thanks, paul

Reply to
Krystonia5

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garagepro wrote: This has to be a command problem because I had the same problem. At first I tried to have a friend who said that they know how to balence my garage door. but once we closed it we could not open at all. I had to call the professional. These were great showed up on time and repair my problem.

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Reply to
garagepro

I've run into a couple good persons or company, that do a great inexpensive service on garage doors.

Greg

Reply to
gregz

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