How to Maintain a Garage Door Opener
A garage door opener calls for regular maintenance work, especially if you plan to extend the life of the door opener. You should make it a habit to perform maintenance work on your garage door opener at least once every month. It should not take more than half an hour and you will not need any specialised tools for the task. A well maintained garage door opener will work better than an ill maintained counterpart. Apart from an extended lifetime, you can cut down repair costs if you regularly do maintenance work on your garage door opener.
Instructions
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1
Before performing any of the maintenance activities on the garage door opener, make sure that you are working in a safe environment. Take off pieces of dangling jewellery such as necklaces and bracelets. In case you have long hair, pull them up to make sure they do not get tangled in moving machinery. Also, disconnect the garage door opener from the power source to avoid the risk of an electric shock.
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2
Remove dead insects, dry leaves or dirt accumulated in moving parts of the garage door opener. Garage door opener parts such as arm and rail guides should be cleaned at least once every month to ensure smooth operation of a garage door opener.
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3
Grime and rust may accumulate on hinges if not cleaned for a long period of time. Wipe clean the hinges with a soft rag to get rid of grime. To get rid of rust accumulations, make use of a steel wool.
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4
Lubricating parts such as the drive chain, hinge pins, wheel bearings and axles comes next. Purchase a bottle of garage door opener lubricating oil from a home supply store and lubricate all the moving parts in your garage door opener. Remember to use just the right amount of lubricating oil because using excess oil will do no good anyways.
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5
If your garage door opener uses stretched springs and cables, making necessary adjustments to the limit screws for such parts to ensure that springs and cables are not overstretched.
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6
Make sure that the garage door sensors are properly aligned and cleaned. To test the safety system, roll a basket ball through the garage door while it is closing. If the door reverses, the system is working fine. In the other scenario, make sure that the sensors have not fallen out of alignment and the sensor lenses are properly clean.
