When was the last occasion you completed regular precautionary upkeep on your garage door or your garage door opener? Although your garage door opener is a great benefit and works properly, almost all home house owners take it for granted.

According to a current US analysis, 45% of homeowners who have a garage employ the garage door as the chief point of entry into their house. In addition, a separate survey indicates that 71% make use of their garage door openers to enter their homes. That means that the successful operation of your garage door and its opener can be very significant in your day by day life.

Just like all mechanical devices there comes an occasion when your garage door opener will fail to work. Unfortunately it will almost certainly happen at the most inconvenient time. That is why a little anticipatory upkeep can be a terrific way to make certain that you see problems with your garage door before something breaks.

This appears like sufficient evidence to prove to anyone about the value of consistent upkeep for their garage doors and openers. An important thing to remember is that a garage door opener can easily raise a a four hundred and fifty pound double residential door. For that reason, if a door reverses as it is closing, it is rational that the door opening machinery should be carefully checked out.

Children have a way of becoming enthralled by the action of garage doors. Left to their own devices they can stress a garage door to the breaking point by pushing the remote or wall button during the movement of the door. Therefore it's necessary to keep remote controls away from children and do not permit them to have fun with the wall control panel.

Here are several important routine preventative upkeep tips.

Semi-annually, you ought to disengage the automatic opener while the door is closed. This can be accomplished through pulling on the red cord or pull rope.

Then do a equilibrium test. Once the door is in "manual mode" verify if it is correctly balanced. Open the door half way. It ought to remain there without you touching it. If this is not the situation, you may possibly have a cable or spring malfunction. Telephone a garage door company so that they can further diagnose your problem.

Visually inspect rails, chain/belt and mounting brackets on your garage door opener. Horizontal rails ought to always be parallel to assure that the door operates as it should.

Oil all metallic parts twice a year with a proper metal lubricant. The same applies for weather seals. Make sure to make use of a silicone based lubricant. This will add years of worry-free operation to your garage door.

Do a reversal test. Make sure that the reversal mechanisms of your garage door opener are working. Since 1996, all garage door openers are outfitted with two safety systems. The first one is a photocell system that will stop and reverse the movement of the door whenever a person or thing passes through the light beam. The second system will stop and reverse the door automatically if it senses any resistance while the door is closing.