Safety tune-up
Balance, spring, cables, drums, rollers, hinges, track, limits, force and both safety tests. The visit that finds the spring before it goes.
A flat 1½-inch board under the middle of the opening. The door must reverse on contact. Then the photo-eye beam, broken by hand. It must reverse for that too. You watch both, and we would rather you did the second one yourself.
Almost every emergency on this site announced itself first. A cable bird-cages before it snaps. A spring shows a paint line and a rust bloom. A roller skids at the bend for months before it climbs out. This is the visit that finds those while they are still cheap.
What gets checked, in order
1. Balance, by hand
Opener disconnected at the trolley, door lifted by hand. It should feel like eight or ten pounds and it should hold at waist height. If it drops, the spring is weak or wrongly sized; if it climbs, it is over-wound. Everything else on this list is read in the light of that answer.
2. The spring
Looked at for a gap, for corrosion in the coil, and for the paint line that shows whether it has been re-wound. If the rating is on the ticket from a previous visit, we can tell you roughly how much life is left in it; if it is not, we can at least tell you what is up there and write it down for next time.
3. Cables, drums and the bottom brackets
Each cable followed from the drum to the bottom bracket, looking for a lifted strand or rust in the last eighteen inches near the floor. Both drums checked for the same wrap.
4. Rollers, hinges and track
Every roller spun by hand. Hinges checked for elongated pin holes and cracks at the end hinges. Track sighted for a bend, and every lag bolt into the jamb checked for tightness — loose fixings are why tracks drift.
5. The opener
Travel limits checked at both ends. Force checked and, where it has been set too high, wound back to where it belongs and the reason for the original complaint found instead. Chain or belt tension. The antenna wire, which should be hanging free.
6. The two safety tests
The board test and the beam test, both in front of you.
Why the force gets wound back
It is worth being explicit about this, because it is the one thing on a tune-up that can make a door seem worse afterwards.
If we find that somebody has increased the down-force so the door stops reversing, we will set it back to where it should be. The door may then start reversing again — and that is the correct behavior, because it was always reversing for a reason. We then find the reason, tell you what it is and what it costs, and you decide. What we will not do is hand you back a door that has been taught to push through obstructions.
This is exactly the situation behind the refused line on the sample ticket on our home page. It is not a rare scenario. It is one of the most common requests in the trade.
What you can do between visits
Once a month, two minutes:
- The board test. Flat 1½-inch board, or a roll of paper towels on its side, under the center of the opening. Close the door. It must reverse on contact.
- The beam test. Wave a broom handle through the photo-eye beam while the door is closing. It must reverse.
- Listen on the way up. A new noise is information. Grinding, a knock at a particular point, or a squeal at the bend all point somewhere specific.
- Look at the spring once a year. You are looking for a gap in the coil and for orange bloom. Look only; do not touch it.
If the board test fails, stop using the opener until somebody has found out why. That is not us being dramatic — it is what the failure means.
The 1½-inch board reverse test
- 1The door runs down onto the board.
- 2It must stop and travel straight back up the moment the bottom seal touches it.
- 1½ inThe board lies flat on the floor, in the middle of the opening. A roll of paper towels on its side is close enough.
Board flat, middle of the opening
A roll of paper towels laid on its side is close enough. Run the door down. When the bottom seal touches the board it must stop and go back up. If it does not, the door is not safe to use, and the answer is never to turn the force up.
Wave something through the beam
Every residential opener made since 1993 has a pair of photo-eyes low on the tracks, and they are a separate system from the force reversal. Start the door closing and put a broom through the beam. It must reverse for that too.
Two tests, one minute, once a month. On a tune-up we do both with you watching, and the result goes on the ticket either way.
What it costs
- Full tune-up
- $119.00, one door. Includes the balance test, both safety tests, lubrication of rollers, hinges, bearings and the spring coil, and all fixings checked.
- Second door, same visit
- $70.00. Most of the cost of any visit is getting there.
- Written condition report
- Included. Everything found, whether or not you fix it, with the spring specification and cycle rating recorded for next time.
- Parts found on the day
- Quoted before anything is done. Nothing gets fitted on a tune-up without you agreeing to it first.
- How often
- Once a year is sensible for a household door. Twice for a door that is the main entrance to the house.
Example figures on a demonstration site. They are the shape of real pricing — a call-out plus parts — not a quote from anybody.