Posted by Anne Richards on Friday, 26 February 2010
Tags: Garage Door, Garage Doors, Garage Door Opener, Garage Door Openers, garage door installment, Garage Door Repair, Garage Door Services, Garage Door Replacement, garage door insulation
Oh, February- April's got nothing on you. Sleet and snow, icy rain and gusting winds. How is your home holding up against this nasty post-Christmas pre-Spring Break grossness?
If you're anything like most people, you've probably got a few things that aren't working, or are frozen shut, or in general just being a fail.
But there are a few things you can do to make sure this doesn't happen to your garage door! Let nothing come between you and parking inside a toasty, warm space.
The best way to keep heat loss in check during the winter is to install some drywall to the rafters in your garage- heat rises and is likely rising right out of the roof. You should definitely also make sure you have garage door insulation, as that can stop a huge percentage of energy loss.
Another issue to contend with is automatic garage door openers- they tend to get 'stuck' during the winter due to all of the ice. A way to help prevent this is to make sure all of the parts are well-lubricated with WD-40. Anything thicker or stickier will actually cause the door to get stuck in cold weather. It's a fact of life that liquids become more viscous as the temperature drops, and moister as it rises. So invest in a lubricant that won't become a solid at ten below.
Posted by ESP on Friday, 26 February 2010
Tags: Garage Door, Garage Doors, Garage Door Opener, Garage Door Openers, garage door installment, Garage Door Repair, Garage Door Services, Garage Door Replacement, garage door insulation
Another update from the world of stupid property damage: a thirty-year-old DUI and 'felony property damage' suspect actually TRYING to destroy a garage door.
Normally people just do it accidentally through their own incompetence and drunkenness. But no, this man forcefully rammed his huge black SUV into a woman's home repeatedly, allegedly screaming obscenities, before screeching off leaving thousands of dollars of property damage in his wake.
According to the witness, he shouted "And that's what you get, you b****!" as he pulled away. The relationship past or present between the arrested man and the victim of this crime is unknown, but one must wonder what a garage door could have possibly done to him to deserve such treatment.
Oh, on second thought- it was probably the HOMEOWNER he was talking to. But still.
And apparently this idiot had a history- his driver's license had already been suspended for five whole years thanks to other DUI convictions. And get this- when he was pulled over after someone saw him careening along the highway, he denied driving at all. When the police finally got him steady enough to take a breathalyzer test, he blew a .23, so far above the legal limit that he should have been in the hospital for alcohol poisoning.
In fact, this guy's apparently such an alcoholic that this is his third DUI. In combination with the new battery and criminal property damage charges, he's looking at a lot of time, most likely.
Posted by Erica on Friday, 26 February 2010
Tags: Garage Door, Garage Doors, Garage Door Opener, Garage Door Openers, garage door installment, Garage Door Repair, Garage Door Services, Garage Door Replacement, garage door insulation
Another fabulous thing you can do to check that your beloved garage door is in perfect working condition is to test the manual opening system, not just the electric garage door opener. Disconnect your automatic opener- to do this, yank firmly on the release lever or release cord (should be pretty obvious, they're often marked with red or orange plastic). Once you do this, the door should be easily liftable into manual mode. If you're having a hard time lifting it (or it sinks quickly), there is probably something off with the door. Have a professional check the spring tension, as a tightly wound garage door spring is a very dangerous thing.
If, on the other hand, there is a problem with the opener, there are other measures you can take. If your door isn't reversing like it's supposed to when it encounters and obstruction (and you should definitely be checking for this, especially if you have small pets or children) there could be something wrong with the sensors. The automatic reversal function operates via optic infrared sensors that detect when the beam between them is disrupted. If they are not correctly wired or perfectly aligned, or have been damaged, or have some sort of gunk covering them. Clean them up and make sure everything is correctly attached. If that's not possible, or there seems to be permanent damage, you may need to replace them. You'll probably, again, need to contact a professional garage door services person for this, since there parts are notoriously difficult to obtain as a regular consumer.
In general, you probably shouldn't be taking any hardware from your garage door set up without help, because it's hard to fully understand how these parts interact and can react to your meddling, and you might injure yourself or damage your equipment.
Garage door parts have been known to cause concussions and take fingers. Unless you are a semi-pro do-it-yourself-er, you'll need to call in the professionals.
Posted by Erica on Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Tags: Garage Door, Garage Doors, Garage Door Opener, Garage Door Openers, garage door installment, Garage Door Repair, Garage Door Services, Garage Door Replacement, garage door insulation
In what has now become a tradition here, I bring you another update on an inebriated, extremely un-smart person who destroyed a perfectly good garage door with negligence and poor decisions.
Lat week around midnight a police sergant attempted to pull over what appeared to be an inebriated motorist near a gas-station. The man behind the wheel basically ignored the sirens and flashing lights and kept on driving home. It must have been like a slow-speed chase in which the man on the run leads you right to his front door. What an idiot.
As the driver pulled up to his house, the police officer tried to engage the driver but he just drove right through the garage door. The police officer the npulled in beside him, and the driver tried to close the broken garage door with the officer inside.
In the end, he was charged with a DUI, resisting arrest, and what is known as felony flight. (The correct term for all of those high-speed chases we see on TV)
He could have avoided two of those charges if he had just pulled over right away. And he could have avoided all of this if he had decided to call a cab instead. And then he wouldn't have destroyed a perfectly good garage door in the process.
Posted by ESP on Monday, 22 February 2010
Tags: Garage Door, Garage Doors, Garage Door Opener, Garage Door Openers, garage door installment, Garage Door Repair, Garage Door Services, Garage Door Replacement, garage door insulation
Although we don't tend to think about these things, the fact that garage door openers operate via radio waves is kind of amazing. The idea that the frequency of an undulating waveform through space is enough to transmit information and command a huge garage door to open is really a stroke of genius.
In fact, you can perform a couple of quick little experiments to show just how much science is really going on with your garage door opener every single day.
For example, if you try to block the signal of your garage door opener with your hand, by covering up the remote as you push the button, you'll probably notice that it doesn't make a difference. Why doesn't your hand stop the radio waves?
But then, if you cover your opener with aluminum or tin foil and then try to push the button, you might notice the garage door doing something a little more interesting... that is, not obeying your command! And why is that?
Then try placing the remote underneath a metal colander (yes, the pasta strainer with holes) and observe what happens. (If you can't figure out how to push the button while keeping it under the colander, try a metal skewer!) What happens? Does the door open?
And last but not least, try putting a portable radio next to the opener and tuning it up and down the spectrum, pushing the button, to see if at any point it interferes with the communications.
What causes some things to block radio wave communication and not others? Stay tuned to find out!
