Your garage door is the largest point of entry to your home and goes through 1,500 cycles every year! While it may seem like a simple machine, there are many moving parts, making your garage door quite complicated. Our team here at New York Gates has put together a guide to help you better understand your garage door.
How Do Garage Doors Open?
Each part of your garage door works in tandem to both open and close. This makes all of the parts of your door integral to its success. However, it’s hard not to argue that the success of your garage door begins and ends with the garage door opener.
Most garage door openers receive a signal from a garage door opener that it’s time to open or close the door. The torsion spring then begins to use its strength to either open the door or close it at a slow speed. Without the torsion spring, your 300-pound door would just fall at freefall speed from the ceiling, leaving you and everyone around you in danger.
The Different Types of Drives
Drive mechanisms help guide the garage door along the track as it closes and opens. If the drive becomes damaged it can lead to slower closing and opening times or worse, no closing or opening at all. There are three major types of drive mechanisms:
1. Belt
This is the most common option in new systems. That is because it is one of the quietest and most efficient methods. The belts Kevlar polymer body is molded into nubby teeth on one side which rotates through a gear on the operator to pull the trolley.
2. Chain
The chain driver is often found in older systems. It is one of the cheaper yet, loud options available. The bike-chain-style chain sits slightly slack when the door is open at least ½ inch above the bottom of the T-rail.
3. Screw
A continuous threaded shaft connects the operator to the trolley, and its arm reaches for the door. Its threads require biannual lubrication with silicone, and it wears out the trolley more quickly than the other options. But the screw is the Goldilocks drive—median price and noise level.
New Garage Door Technology
In today’s day in age, it feels as though everything is interconnected. The same can be said for your garage door. Just like other things in your home, you can turn your garage door into a smart garage door.
New garage door technology allows for garage door openers to be connected to your phone via wi-fi. This allows you to open your garage door when you’re not home, close your garage door if you forgot, or check your garage door’s history. These advancements make it easy to keep you and your family protected.
Are You Protected?
A worry among homeowners when garage door openers became more common in the 1960s was burglars entering through the garage. Burglars could use scanners to eavesdrop on a code transmission between the remote control and a garage door. This allowed them the opportunity to trick your garage door opener into sending the open signal.
With your garage door opener now being connected to wi-fi, it’s easy to think that it’s even easier for burglars to gain access to your home now. However, there are safeguards to prevent your door from opening. Your opener now sends a new code every time it opens, meaning you are protected.
How Long Do Garage Doors Last?
On average, the garage door dies around its 13,476th cycle. As mentioned earlier, the average garage door goes through about 1,500 cycles per year. By this math, your garage door should last around nine years. However, most manufacturers claim that the average lifecycle of a garage door is anywhere between 15-30 years.
Obviously, a myriad of factors goes into how long you can expect your garage door to last. How many times you use it a day, the climate you live in, and how well you take care of garage door will go a long way in determining your garage doors’ lifespan. There are easy steps you can take to ensure your garage door lasts as long as possible.
Regular Maintenance Services
The easiest way to make sure your garage door lives as long as possible is with regular maintenance services. These services will make sure that your garage door is running as smoothly as possible. Maintenance services that accompany these maintenance checks also ensure that your door is operating at full capacity.
Experts recommend that you receive a maintenance check at least once per year. This will ensure that your door is working as it should while also providing the services needed to keep it that way. These checks will also make sure that there are no underlying issues with your door that need to be addressed.
Get Repairs When Needed
If completely unchecked, underlying garage door issues can lead to expensive repairs down the road. Not only that but they can further damage your garage door leading to even more expensive repairs. It’s best to seek expert help if you believe your garage door is in need of repair.
Since the garage door seems like a simple machine, many people think they can fix the issues themselves. However, unless you are trained, it is highly recommended that you seek expert assistance when needing repairs. This is because your garage door is very heavy and items, such as the springs, can pose a serious threat.
We Can Help
If you are in need of garage door maintenance or repair our team at New York Gates can help. We offer a wide range of services to the people of New York. Give us a call today to find out how we can help you.
New York Gates is the leading security gate and commercial garage door supplier and installer in New York City. We service all the 5 boroughs of NYC.
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