Garage door repair is a rather complicated and time-consuming process that requires certain skills, knowledge, and experience. Any of the factors can lead to breakage: an attempt to hack, weather conditions, or simply the wear of the product. Therefore, before starting work on the repair and maintenance of sliding garage doors diagnostics are usually carried out to determine the causes of damage and malfunctions. As a rule, only a specially trained master or team, such as Family Christian Doors can do this well. After all, often with such types of work, welding equipment is also required.
Main Types of Faults
Most often, garage door breakdowns are associated with wear and tear of the rollers and a violation of their adjustment. Also, sometimes residential garage door replacement panels are needed to be re-installed. However, the typical malfunctions do not end there:
- canvas damage — dents left by the car during careless driving;
- failure of automation;
- lack of response to commands from the remote control;
- breakage of sensors;
- false operation of limit switches;
- malfunction of photocells;
- distortions of the supporting structure;
- mechanical damage to the gate.
On the gear and rack of the gearbox, the teeth wear out, and the drive is destroyed if its power does not correspond to the mass of the valves — this is thought out at the stage of system installation. Even with careful operation, some elements wear out after a technically permissible number of cycles.
Elements that break more often than others:
- transformer — damaged by sudden voltage drops, from the excessive load on the microcircuits;
- automatics – doors work unevenly, abruptly, get stuck halfway;
- limit switches – gates do not close completely.
Automation, which in most systems is located in the open air, suffers from moisture, dust, and dirt. Over time, the tightness of automatic elements is broken, even if you equip the visor.
Breakdown Prevention
Automatic gates require regular maintenance for their trouble-free operation. Once a month for gates that open more than 10 times a day, at least 1-2 times a year for residential gates. The more intensive the operation of the gate, the more often maintenance should be carried out. Some owners of garage doors mistakenly believe that systematic inspection and maintenance are not required. Relying on the manufacturer, they believe that by default he has incorporated the necessary margin of safety and durability into the design of the gate. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Automatic gates also need regular maintenance, like changing oil, filters, and other consumables for your car. Periodically, they should be examined and diagnosed by qualified specialists.
What Can Be Done?
Many breakdowns are easier to prevent than to fix, and regularly scheduled maintenance of sliding gates is cheaper than repairing them. Prevention of breakdowns is reduced to the following measures:
- Keeping the gate mechanism clean.
- Inspection of the roller bearings of the lower beam, catching and upper rollers for integrity and cleanliness.
- Wiping the lens of the photocells.
- Detection of squeaks, sounds during gate operation, and lubrication of moving parts.
- Foundation displacement control and correction of the latter.
- Balancing and elimination of distortions.
- Lubrication and adjustment of the electric drive.
- Fixing loose parts.
- Installing a voltage stabilizer.
- Electrical circuit diagnostics.
- Replacement of worn parts.
- Strict observance of the rules for the operation of sliding gates.
- Maintenance of rollback systems.
It Is Better to Prevent than to Repair
Preventive work includes:
- system balancing;
- checking the geometry of the valves;
- lubrication of all moving joints;
- cleaning and diagnostics of sensors;
- audit of automation;
- replacement of worn components.
If you notice that the canvases have changed course, the automation works every other time, and the rails are overwritten — do not hesitate to repair them. The longer the system will work unbalanced, on worn parts, the more global breakdown awaits in the future. Timely repairs will cost less than a complete replacement of automation and canvases.
Without the involvement of a professional, you can only perform some visual diagnostics and clean the mechanical parts of the gate. A technically knowledgeable user can tighten loose fasteners. The remaining malfunctions are very difficult to eliminate, even if it is possible to determine their cause. It is best to entrust repairs to professionals. There are cases when attempting to repair or adjust it yourself resulted in additional costs. The same applies to prevention: only a specialist can perform full-fledged scheduled maintenance.
