Here at Garage Door Repair Chicago, our Chicago garage maintenance team recommends that every garage door owner takes an active hand in garage door maintenance in order to ensure that garage doors operate as safely and effectively as possible without experiencing mechanical issues. In this blog entry, our Illinois garage door maintenance team will detail a few easy steps towards garage door maintenance and diagnostics that you can perform yourself.

Balance Testing

This test should be performed on a monthly basis on garage doors that are outfitted with automatic door openers. First, close the garage door and disconnect the automatic garage door opener. Then try lifting the door manually. If you can successfully lift the door without resistance, the garage door is balanced. If you find it very hard to lift the door manually, the garage door is out of balance. Contact the Chicago garage door repair service here at Garage Door Repair Chicago for rapid assistance.

Reversing Mechanism Testing

All modern garage doors are legally required by federal law to have a photo eye or photo edge sensor and reversing mechanism in order to remove the potential danger of getting trapped in a closing garage door. Test this reverse mechanism by placing a piece of solid wood on the floor where the garage door would touch. While the garage door is fully open, press the manual garage door wall button to shut the garage door. The garage door should automatically reverse motion after touching the wood on the floor. If the garage door does not do this, contact Garage Door Repair Chicago to have your garage door serviced.

Force Setting Testing

If your garage door is outfitted with an automatic garage door opener system, you should do a force setting test periodically. Start with a fully open garage door then press the manual garage door operator button to close it. As the garage door is closing, place your hands at the bottom of the garage door and push up in order to keep it open. If the garage door keeps closing, quickly remove your hand, and contact the professional Chicagoland garage door diagnostics testing team here at Garage Door Repair Chicago for rapid service.