Garage door maintenance is an important habit to establish in order to prolong the life of your door. Neighborhood Garage Door Service of Cleveland, OH recommends a regular maintenance routine at least annually. Here is a handy checklist of annual garage door maintenance you can perform yourself to keep your garage door working smoothly.
Check Lighting
It’s important for overall garage and home safety to make sure all your lighting is working properly. Check the lightbulbs on your exterior lighting and make sure that everything is properly aligned to eliminate any shadows. Dark spots give potential intruders a place to hide at night.
Make sure all the opener bulbs and general garage lighting are working properly. This is also important for safety as it makes tripping hazards easier to see. It’s also just more convenient when entering your garage at night.
Tighten and Lubricate
Your garage door system has lots of moving parts that rattle and loosen over time. Take the time to go around to all the various nuts, bolts, and screws and tighten them up. If you find any that are broken, be sure to replace them with new parts.
As you’re checking for these loose parts, lubricate moving parts as well. Use a petroleum-based lubricant to coat any parts that are in contact with other parts that move. Also lightly spray a silicone-based lubricant on your bottom weather seal as well as PVC seals between the panels.
Battery Check
There are three batteries you need to check while you’re doing your annual inspection and tune-up:
- Keypad opener
- Remote opener
- Automatic opener back-up
Not every opener has a battery back-up, but they are designed to give your opener power to open during an electrical outage. If your keypad or remote is slow to respond when trying to open your door, you probably need a new battery. Many exterior keypads require a 9V battery, while remotes can take AA, AAA, or even C302 watch batteries.
Safety Check
It’s important to perform a check on all you safety systems as well. Check the safety eye sensors by placing something on the ground between the two eyes. Try to close the door and if it reverses, the eyes are working properly.
Check the auto-reversal function by placing an object on the ground that can also straddle over the eye sensors. Use something like a chair or table that is sturdy. The door should reverse when it bumps the object in its path. If neither of these functions is working properly, call for service right away.
Call Us Today For Annual Service
You can easily complete this annual garage door maintenance checklist yourself. However, if you’d like assistance, or just don’t have the time, Neighborhood Garage Door Service of Cleveland, Ohio is here to help you. Give us a call today, and one of our friendly phone representatives will happily take your call and set up an appointment. We can also set up an annual maintenance schedule with our signature Tune-N-Lube service.
