garage door is too heavy

ellandoh · Nov 29, 2010

when i bought this house the door opener had stripped plastic gears in it, and i didnt get a remote. bought house out of foreclosure. well, 2.5 years later and many manual openings i have the remote and gears on order. and im sure the springs need adjustment as the door is heavier than i believe it should be for ploastic gear 1/2HP motor is designed for. question is, how light should i adjust it to. or should it be adjusted til the door is actually opening itself and the opener is for pushing it down/closed??

_JOE_ · Nov 29, 2010

As far as I know the springs only assist in lifting. You can't make them open the door. Are you sure the door is't binding in the track? The door should be able to slide side to side a bit. If it's just a heavy door you might want to consider a heavier opener. I have some Clopay doors that feel super light when manually lifting, they're aluminum with foam insulation. I.ve had to make some adjustments to the tracks and springs over the years (they don't like being used as a toy compactor). If you adjust the springs keep the tension even or the door can go up crooked and bind.

ellandoh · Nov 29, 2010

i believe i could stretch the springs far enough that when the door is unlatched it will go up almost on its own, resulting in less stress on the motor.

i guess ill have to go try my parents door manually, to get the feel of how it should be. they have a similar door with the same liftmaster opener thats been working for years

Patman · Nov 29, 2010

What type of spring? Captive on a rod over the door or parallel to the tracks? Ever seen what one of the loose springs can do when it fails? I have and it can go through a wall easily. The captive springs are not as dangerous but do have their limits. Most garage door springs have a life span of something like 5,000 cycles which isn't much when you think about it. After that they get weaker and weaker and the door gets harder to lift. By replacing the crappy standard "wheels: on the door with a sealed bearing type, lubing the pivot points and installing new springs you will have an easy opening door... for a while. I ended up getting a door company to come out and replace everything on mine with lifetime parts so when the super duty springs they installed (15,000 cycles) fail they replace them for free.

whenfoxforks-ruled · Nov 29, 2010

Personally, the torsion bar doors, have way more loaded destruction. BE VERY CAREFUL! Either way. You should be able to lift the door, stress free, and close it, with out forcing it. Then its set correctly. All the openers have ratings for door weights, check the oem. Vintage Bob

whenfoxforks-ruled · Nov 29, 2010

On another note: This is a wood door? Are you certain its not water logged?

ellandoh · Nov 29, 2010

aluminum door, insulated, 3 section, springs are parallel to the rails but are so far out of adjustment they sag and have hardly no tension on them even when the door is down

_JOE_ · Nov 29, 2010

When I bought my house, five years ago, the one door looked like it was installed by an eighth grader. The springs were saggy like you described and the tracks were too close together at the rear. The lift motor died before the winter was over. We put in a new lift and got everything adjusted and it was trouble free until I had kids, lol. I learned fast to go out and check for toys before dropping the doors, haha. It's been going strong for years though.

When I tensioned the springs I raised the door and took all the slack out of the cables until it just started to pull the spring. Seems to work fine.

Patman · Nov 29, 2010

I worked at a grocery store that had a storage facility with a roll up door and the springs parallel to the track. Went to get some stuff out one day, the door starts to go up and then I hear a big bang and the door slam down. I go in the man door on the side of the building and find the floor covered in soda. The spring broke and went thru 2 stacks of Coke, a pallet of paper towels, both sides of an office wall and embedded in the brick wall at the back.

My captive springs on my current home broke one day, they made a big bang and the door wouldn't go up. Took the wife to work, came home that evening and use a jack to lift the door part way until I could lift it and get her car out, then put it back down. No damage, just a busted spring on a steel rod.

Since there is no way to tell when the spring will fail I'd sure want to make sure it will do as little damage as possible to people and "stuff". Replace them it sounds like they are past their service life.

ellandoh · Nov 29, 2010

Patman said:
Replace them it sounds like they are past their service life.

it looks as if the homeowner who went into foreclosure never finished setting this thing up when he put it in. the springs were hanging , waiting to be clipped to the rail when i moved in. i clipped them in and tension was enough so i could open the door. the gear stripped was a result of people hitting the door opener on the wall during open houses(guess) with no spring assist. other than a gear and spring adjustment everything looks new. he left alot of unfinished business. must have been a real genius. he left after paying 147K for the house +35K home improvement loan. left the improvements 1/2 done with most everything i needed to finish them to be found around the home or garage. drywall, carpet, gas fireplace all the way to paint, primer, drywall screws etc.

edit: i in no way mean that folks in this situation are less than smart and not just a victim of the economy. but the neighbors tell me about the guy. also found the worst type of parafernalia hiding in an unfinished closet. :yikes:

wake_rider · Nov 29, 2010

From what I have understood, the springs should neither lift or allow the door to lower. They are simply there to keep the door at a neutral buoyancy and the lift should do the work associated with the raising and lowering of the door. If the door lowers w/o force, your spring might be too light, and adversely too heavy if it raises on its own.

jsantapau · Nov 29, 2010

the way I used to adjust roll up doors on the back or tractor trailers was to have the door open up maybe a foot by itself, that was a captive spring operator as Patman described and no electric opener either. Unless the driver was good for throwing open the door blowing off the top rollers then it would have just about no tension on them.

Obviously you will need some weight on the door for the electric opener to operate on the down side but the less weight you have the easier the motor will work on the up side.My suggestion would be, if possible, is to figure out the manufacture and get the specs for the spring tension.

jsantapau · Nov 29, 2010

wake_rider said:
From what I have understood, the springs should neither lift or allow the door to lower. They are simply there to keep the door at a neutral buoyancy and the lift should do the work associated with the raising and lowering of the door. If the door lowers w/o force, your spring might be too light, and adversely too heavy if it raises on its own.

that is extremely hard to find that sweet spot since depending on how far open the door is the spring will have to support that weight compared to the portion of the door that is parralel to the ceiling that is only resting on its rollers

ellandoh · Nov 29, 2010

wake_rider said:
From what I have understood, the springs should neither lift or allow the door to lower. They are simply there to keep the door at a neutral buoyancy and the lift should do the work associated with the raising and lowering of the door. If the door lowers w/o force, your spring might be too light, and adversely too heavy if it raises on its own.

thats where i m going to get it just needed a 2nd opinion. should be good since the further up the door gets the lighter it gets and the less tension on the spring. i believe it will work out :ride:

if not.....gear sets are only 15$ to try again :uh:

rmc_olderthandirt · Dec 2, 2010

Patman said:
I worked at a grocery store that had a storage facility with a roll up door and the springs parallel to the track. Went to get some stuff out one day, the door starts to go up and then I hear a big bang and the door slam down. I go in the man door on the side of the building and find the floor covered in soda. The spring broke and went thru 2 stacks of Coke, a pallet of paper towels, both sides of an office wall and embedded in the brick wall at the back.

For safety reasons garage door springs need to have some sort of retentive device to keep the spring from launching itself in the event that it breaks. Usually this is something as simple as a steel cable that runs down the center of the spring.

Rod

whenfoxforks-ruled · Dec 2, 2010

Or a rod, Rod. I couldn't resist, sorry!

AlfordGeorga · Feb 4, 2014

I would recommend you to upgrade your motor. Upgrading your motor would sort out all your problem. There should be always a proper ratio between weight of the door and the capacity of the motor. After replacing the motor if the problem is not solved then view my blog.

phonedudekdx · Feb 25, 2014

In my experience, it was best to call a pro as I couldn't get the springs adjusted right. cost around 100 bux.

garage door is too heavy

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