How to Lubricate a Garage Door Properly

How to Lubricate a Garage Door Properly

Without lubrication, the tracks, rollers, and pulleys of your garage door system will get damaged.

Eventually, this will lock up the system and wear down components to where the door won’t open, not to mention the noise. An unlubricated door can get up to 80 dB.

Check out this handy guide to learn the right way to lubricate a garage door.

Keep a Schedule of Maintenance

Like any routine maintenance, it’s best if you write down when it was last done and keep to a schedule. There are a few environmental factors that affect your systems, mostly temperature changes with seasons.

Routine lubrication is a good time to inspect components for wear so you can get to repairs early rather than risk a total replacement, which can be in the $500 range.

Close and Disconnect

Start by closing the garage doors and disconnecting the opener motor. You won’t be working on the tracks, which need to be cleaned, not lubricated.

Putting any kind of lubricant into the tracks will create dirt traps, reducing performance. Depending on if you have nylon or steel rollers, any lubricant could pit them as well.

What Lubricant?

Before you start spraying all of the door’s assemblage, you need to understand what products are used and why.

Most garage door lubricants are a type of silicone spray. These offer a barrier between the pieces to reduce friction, which reduces heat. Silicone sprays don’t attract dust like grease tends to do.

The other popular option is a lithium-based grease. Unlike oil-based grease, this won’t stick to the kinds of particulates found in a garage.

Where to Apply?

Use a block or a second person to move the door up to get at everything safely.

Hinges

Start by focusing a thin stream of lubricant into each of the hinges along the inside of the door. You get better comprehensive coverage by spraying into the hinges when they are partially open.

Roller Bearings

Next, you attack the bearings within the rollers. As we’ve already specified, you don’t want to lubricate the roller in the track, that will attract grit. Focus on the bearings only and spray carefully.

Springs and Plates

Spray the springs carefully. You want them to have total coverage, but not so much it beds or shows accumulation.

The bearing plates are on either side of the springs. Spray into each side then move the door to spread the lubricant.

Puller Rail

Typically, the chain should ride on the top of the rail. You will see it on both sides, but the top side is the worker. Spray a line and then spread the lubricant along the chain with a rag.

Stay Flexible

The trick on how to lubricate a garage door is about going slowly and working the mechanisms. too many people spray heavy as a shortcut. Working the door as you go works the lubricant in better and uses less product.

If you have further questions about garage door maintenance and installation, contact us.