Garage Door Opener Parts

There are many places that you can buy quality garage door opener parts.  Many times something will go wrong with your garage and you will not know what to do.  I can tell you that this used to happen to me many times.  In fact, due to everyone going in and out of my garage door, mine used to break all the time.  It was not until later I found out how to maintain my garage door and when it breaks find the parts I need to fix it.

When you need parts you generally need to know what parts you are looking for.  Is it a track?  Is it a bearing?  If it is a bearing what type of bearing do you need.  There are many out there.  You need to know what type of garage door you have.  Many people do not know the brand of the garage door they have.  It could be a Stanly Garage Door, Genie, Overhead, Craftsman, ect.  My point is that you have to know what you are dealing with before you go to the store or online.  Otherwise you are going to be blindly looking for parts you either don’t need, may not exist any longer, or the wrong part all together and when you  buy a part on the internet it is usually harder to take back.

Once you know what part you need you need to know where to get it.  I have highlighted many sites which you can find garage door opener parts in earlier posts so you can look there if you please.  As I stated you can go to a department store like Home Depot or Lowes or Aces Hardware and find the parts you need but they are going to cost you more.  When you go online they are going to be considerably less but the only problem is that a) you have to wait and b)if you get the wrong part its going to be harder to return it.  If you know the exact piece that you want then maybe online is the way to go.  But I am not going to specifically tell you to do one or the other.  Some have worked both ways.  The question is how quick do you want it and how much trouble are you willing to take on to get it at the best price.

Be carefull of a lot of “universal garage parts.”  A lot of universal parts that I have bought have not fit.  Genie makes a lot of these and I have had to take them back.

Last the advice I am going to leave you with is don’t get the cheapest part.  It will break on you and you will be looking for that same part again in the not so distant future.  You do not have to pick the most expensive one because a lot of the times you are just paying for the name but I usually go with the middle of the road.  The middle price usually works the best for me.  If part A costs $5 part B costs $10 and part C costs $20 I will usually go with part B.  Not too cheap and not too expensive.  Hope this helps and good luck!

A series of automatic garage door openers in Sarpy County malfunctioned over the past few days and some residents are suspecting that  Offutt Air Force Base is responsible.

“It didn’t work,” said Terry Labedz. “Nothing happened. Nada.”

Her garage door opener is working now, but it was out for most of the week.

Many people in Sarpy County reported their doors weren’t opening. Labedz charged her battery and called the manufacturer and a local repair service.

“This has been an ongoing problem for several years,” said Lee Pounds of Norm’s Door Service. “We may go through six months where nothing occurs and then we go through a time when everybody is affected.”

Pounds said the problem is that something or someone occasionally broadcasts a signal that overpowers the openers. He suspects the signal comes from Offutt Air Force Base.

“Because of the strength of the signal Offutt is beaming out, it’s going to negate your garage door systems, rendering them ineffective,” Pounds said.

Offutt didn’t comment on the situation, but Labedz thinks Pounds might be right. When she called the base and asked, she said the person who answered suggested several repairmen who would understand her problem. She said the people on the base were polite, but didn’t explain the source of the problem.

“I think the problem is Offutt,” she said.

Labedz has lived in Bellevue for decades and knows that the interference that blocked her opener may come back. Still, she said she’s pleased to have the base as a neighbor.

“I love hearing those planes go over,” she said. “I love our military. They have to do what they have to do.”

Offutt told KETV NewsWatch 7 that it was investigating whether the base was the source of the signal and that the wing commander is always concerned if base activities affect the community.

Several other experts said that the federal government controls all radio frequencies and can do whatever it wants with them.

This has nothing to do with the Garage Door Mystery in Virgina.

The chain on my garage door opener is sagging and rubbing against the track.  How can I fix this?

There are  a couple ways you can tighten the chain.

First look for an adjustment linked to the chain or an adjustment to the length of the door opener track.  Both adjustment types should be done with the door closed and disconnected from the opener using the emergency release.

Adjustments on the chain are located at or near the master link where the chain engages with the cable.  These usually consist of a bolt with two or three nuts, one or two for locking and one for adjusting.  You loosen the locking nut, and turn the center nut clockwise to adjust the excess slack from the chain.  Do not tighten the chain too much. This will cause premature wear on the chain rollers.  Adjust it tight enough so that the center of the chain sags about 1/2 inch down from parallel with the track.

The second adjustment is located on the top of the opener body (usually associated with Staleys chain).   There is a bolt that is turned clockwise to actually extend the length of the track, thus removing the slack from the chain.  Same rule applies concerning recommended chain slack.  One thing about this second adjustment is that if the body of the opener is mounted in a very rigid fashion and has no “give”, the tubular track will bend when you try to make this adjustment.  So, you might have to loosen the mounting bolts or make other adjustments to the mounting assembly to allow the adjustment.

Hope this helps.  If you do need more information about buying parts online go to help the help buying garage door opener parts online section.