In speaking with many of my customers, I realized most of them are not aware that their garage door need to be lubricated occasionally. The few that do lubricate their doors do it incorrectly.
So why should you lubricate your garage door? All garage doors have moving parts such as wheels, bearings, brackets, and hinges. Over time, those parts get worn out and cause friction noises and added vibration to the door when it operates (especially the garage door wheels). Lubricating every few weeks reduces friction and extends the lifetime of those parts.
So, how do I lubricate and what should I use? I often see people lubricate the garage door using WD-40 or greasing the garage door tracks. Although both seem to be a good idea at first, those are not necessarily the right products to use. Although WD-40 is a great product, it’s purpose is not to lubricate parts. And putting grease on tracks is not helpful. It makes any future garage door repair messy and unpleasant t. With time, the grease catches a lot of dirt which is not helpful in smooth operation of your garage door.
The right and easy way to lubricate your garage door is very simple and only takes a few minutes of your time. For a few bucks at any hardware store, you will find specially made garage door lube in a can. When your garage door is down, take the garage door lube and spray each one of the garage door wheels. Spray inside the hinges that hold the wheels and on the brackets. Next, go to each of the garage door tracks, and on the top you will find the drums. Behind the drums there are end plates with bearings. Spray the bearings generously and spray a nice amount on the drums as well. This action will lubricate the cables when the door goes up. Now, go to the middle of the garage door.
Above it there are springs (either one or two springs depending on the garage door) and spray a good amount of lube on them. Although some will say this action is not necessary, I would beg to differ. Since the lube gives some protective layer on the springs this action can only help, especially on the very cold days.
In summary, taking the time to lubricate your garage door only takes a few minutes of your time and it’s very simple to do. It’s cost effective and will save you a lot of money in repairs down the road.