When installing garage doors not so many people stop to consider maintenance issues and how long their doors will last before needing some sort of repair.
Many folk simply don’t realize that there is much more to keeping doors in good order than simply taking care of the surface finish. The opening mechanism in particular needs to be properly maintained in order to stay in good working order.
It’s easy to overlook the fact that the door panel itself, because it is the largest and most obvious part, is just one of many parts. Garage door opening mechanisms hold quite a few parts (springs, rollers, etc.) that need to all function smoothly together otherwise the door will cease to open and close correctly.
When it comes down to it, all garage doors are only as strong as their weakest part and even if a small, apparently trivial, component breaks then the functioning of the whole door can be at stake. So how long then is it reasonable to expect your own garage door parts to last?
The longevity of garage door parts is rated in “cycles” where a cycle is a single opening and closing action. The number of cycles that might occur each day will clearly vary since some folk seldom use their garage door while others might use extensively, especially if it serves as an alternative main entrance.
A fair guess at an average is about 3 cycles a day. This comes out at approximately 1,000 cycles per year. So you can see that cheaper garage door parts that claim a duration of 5,000 cycles should therefore last up to about 5 years before starting to need repairs.
So depending on your own expected usage of your garage doors you can easily work out roughly when you can expect to start getting to know your neighbourhood garage door repair specialist rather better than you might prefer. Especially since it is unlikely that just one component will start to fail around about that time.
There is however another option, which is to insist on installing only parts where the testing is stated as having exceeded eighty thousand cycles without any signs of failure. In this case you can realistically expect a lifetime (i.e. your doors will outlive you) of trouble free use.
Find out more from this article that looks in particular at secure garage doors.
