Proper Lubrication


Estimated read time: 4 minutes.

If there is one thing that is important in garage door maintenance it is lubrication. Nearly everything involved with your garage door and your garage door opener needs remarkably little maintenance. This is one reason in fact that many people are astounded when their garage door or garage door opener breaks. It is most often after a number of years that your garage door starts to show its age, but there is something that you should be doing the whole time while you use it. Maybe you don’t need to be doing it every day (definitely not), but this one simple trick can help improve the performance and longevity of your garage door and its parts at very little cost to you. I’m sure that at this point you are on the edge of your seat to know what this trick is to get your garage door to work better and last longer at the same time. Well here it is, the best way to keep your garage door working best and longest is to lubricate it. There are a few moving parts in every garage door opener system and they seen a long time waiting for you to come home or leave your home. Then they move a small amount and start the wait over again. In order to keep your garage door able to do this at the touch of a button for a long time you should be lubricating your garage door’s parts.

So now you know the elusive trick to have your garage door last for years on end with little to no problems. It turns out that all your garage door needs is a bit of lubricant love. So now that you know that what should you do? If you have just bought your garage door and had it installed professional then you most likely will be good to go. Forget about your garage door for a year if you’d like, you are most likely set for a while as you have gotten a professional to apply lubricant properly to the right spots, and in the right amounts. If you haven’t just gotten your garage door installed then you might need to do some lubricating. How often you lubricate the moving parts of your garage door depends on a number of factors, but if you do so once or twice a year you should be able to safely know that you are doing the best for your garage’s sake. If you live in a particular wet or dry climate or have an extremely dusty garage you may be better off doing so more often, but for most every 6-12 months is great.

You need lubricant for your garage door, but who knows what type of lubricant works best and where you can get it. What you want is a lubricant that is meant for something like outdoor machinery. In some cases you may even be able to find a lubricant that is specifically marketed and formulated as a garage door opener and garage door lubricant. This is best, but nearly any lubrication is a good idea. Make sure that the lubricant you are using is safe to touch and won’t do anything wrong to any of the metals in your garage door, but this of course is most likely not a risk. When you get your lubricant it is best really slather it on, liberal application is always a good idea because as the parts of your garage door move around the lubricant may shift and you will want to cover as much space as possible.

There are a number of places that may sell garage door and garage door opener lubricant. You may be able to find it at your local hardware store, although it is probably best to ask someone who works there as there is not likely to be a huge garage door lubricant section that will be easy to find. You can also certainly find some online buy looking at a number of stores or simply googling it. You can look at a few reviews, but most likely anything that is made for garage doors will do well enough. Finally you could always ask a garage door professional. They will most likely have a bulk supplier but they may not be in the business of selling directly to you so don’t be offended if they simply point you in the right direction.

You’ve got the lubricant, it’s been over a year since your garage door has been installed and you are looking to really show that you are a responsible garage door owner, so how do you do it? You already know so much about the lubrication of your garage door but you just don’t know what to lubricate. The first order of business is to totally shut down your garage door opener for safety. Then Get in there and just start trowing lubricant on anything you can find. Anything that moves can always use some lubricant. The rollers, tracks and especially the chain if you have a chain drive garage door opener can all be lubricated.

If you really want your garage door and garage door opener to last as long as they can then you should be routinely lubricating the proper parts at least once a year if not more. It is a very small thing to do and can really save you a lot of money and annoyance. Lubricated garage doors open more smoothly, quicker, quieter and more safely. Essentially there is never a reason not to have a well lubricated garage door as opposed to a non-lubricated garage door. A lubricated garage door will not only do all of those things, but it will also last longer by putting less stress on the moving parts of your garage door. If you have not ever lubricated your garage door then you should certainly go out and get some lubricant so that you don’t continue to damage any of your garage door’s parts.

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