If your garage door is a little too loud for your liking, there may be an issue amongst the cables, gears and pulleys which serve to operate the electronic opener. There are many reasons any of these parts could be making noise. Some of these issues merely require a little tender loving care, while others may be too complicated for the common homeowner to fix himself.
So how do you tell the difference between the problems that are easily fixed and those that require a phone call to the garage door repair team? You will first need to determine which type of garage door opener you are using in your home. There are generally three types: belt drive, screw drive or chain drive.
If your home features a chain drive, there is no way you will ever be able to escape the noise; these kinds of openers are noisy by nature. That said, chain drives are not all bad. For one thing, they are affordable and they go a long way even in the worst winters. But these long lasting garage door openers will never be completely silent. If they seem to be making more noise than usual, on the other hand, they may be in need of a little lubrication. Less noisy than chain drive doors are screw drive doors, though these may become just as audible in time. The quietest kind of garage door opener is the belt drive, but this is only silent when it is functioning properly. An unbalanced door may stop working in addition to making too much noise. To check the door opener’s balance, pull the red emergency stop cord and open the door manually. Let go of the door after opening it about halfway. A door that is balanced properly will move very little from the spot to which it has been raised. However, if it falls, you will know that the door has some issues with balance. Usually worn springs are the culprit when a garage door is unbalanced. Repairing these can be a bit tricky. Those springs which run along the sides of the door, the extension springs may be easily replaced by the novice handyman, but the springs along the top of the door and the torsion springs may require replacing by an experienced professional.
If your garage door has begun making a squeaking noise, it may be due to a troublesome hinge. The first fix you will want to try is oiling the hinges. A grinding noise, on the other hand, may be something else altogether. For grinding, check the gears and sprockets within the main console; these may need replacing. Unfortunately, replacing these parts is better left up to the experienced repairmen. But if you do decide to take the plunge, be sure to unplug the unit from any electrical source first. You do not want to electrocute yourself!
An opener that is making a strange ticking noise may be operating with worn bearings. These are located in either the rollers or the pulleys. To fix this problem, either experience or a careful hand is required.