Garage Door Issues as the Temperature Drops

Although Georgia usually enjoys warm temperatures all year round, during the winter the temperature can drop significantly enough to cause issues, especially at night and in the early morning. While it’s rare in warmer climates, it’s not unheard of, and happens more often than you might expect. If you’ve noticed a problem with your garage door during the colder weather, read on to see if you can diagnose and manage the process yourself. We’ve also included tips that may affect your friends and relatives in colder climates, so you can know what to look for if you’re going on vacation or out of town.

1. Your Door Behaves Unusually

Colder weather can make your garage door behave in a more finicky fashion. Your remote control might start only working occasionally. Your door might become more difficult to close or open, or get stuck on the track in the middle of operating. Cold weather can even cause interference with the sensors on your garage door, causing your door to reverse before hitting the ground. Any time your garage door acts unusually, it’s important not to ignore the problem and hope it will go away. Most problems with your garage door can’t be resolved on their own without assistance. Unusual behavior from your door can have a variety of causes, which is why it’s important to have the door inspected by a trained professional.

2. The Metal Contracts

Usually in Griffin, like most of Georgia, the temperature does not drop low enough to cause this problem. However, on the occasional extra cold night, especially with older doors, the metal on the tracks of the doors can contract due to the cold. This causes a tighter fit for the garage door while moving in the tracks, which can stress the motor of the garage door opener mechanism as it tries to compensate. This can cause your garage door to halt in the middle of moving up and down, or appear to be sticking as it moves. This can wear out your tracks over time, warping them out of shape. The extra work for your motor can also wear that component down.

The metal contracting can also be a source of breakage for the other parts of your garage door mechanism. Because the metal becomes more prone to damage, colder weather can be a source of stress on your garage door opener mechanism.

3. The Door Sticks on the Tracks

The door sticking to the tracks only in colder weather is usually a sign that the grease that normally lubricates the tracks to make for an easy glide has become thick due to lower temperatures. This can cause the lubricant to clump up and thicken. Don’t apply grease to your door tracks yourself, as it is often unnecessary, and too much can fall prey to this problem. Sometimes it can get so bad that the tracks themselves need to be replaced. Luckily, this doesn’t happen often, but it’s still something to watch out for.

4. Ice Causes the Door to Stick to the Floor

This is an extremely uncommon problem in our region, but in areas with snow and ice, this can be a potential threat. The ice gathers around the base of the door when it’s closed and then freezes the door in place on the floor. Usually, the homeowner doesn’t discover that this has happened until the next morning when they try to open the garage door, which can of course be a major headache. If you have family or additional housing in an area with a colder climate, you can prevent this issue by keeping the snow shoveled away from the bottom of your garage door, and also by using a cooking spray to mist the door before the ice begins.

5. Trouble with the Garage Door Springs

The springs that control the movement of your door are under a great deal of tension to perform their jobs. In colder weather, metal becomes more prone to damage, especially under this kind of tension. Older springs that have been through this process many times are especially susceptible to breakage. Unfortunately, if you’re not paying attention, the first sign you may notice of your garage door springs going bad is when the door slams shut. This can be a scary and even dangerous situation. Usually, however, there are warning signs that the springs are going bad if you know how to look for them. These signs include your door making more noise when you lift and lower it, and the door shaking, wobbling, or displaying other odd behavior when you open it.

6. The Door Becomes Very Noisy

While excess noise can be a sign of a problem with the springs, this annoying problem can also be caused by a variety of sources that may occur in colder weather. This can include problems with the cables, lack of sufficient lubrication on the moving parts of the machine to assist with the weight of the door, and potentially even the motor working too hard due to poor alignment or other problems. While these issues can crop up at any time of the year, they are most likely to be caused by weather and temperature fluctuations. Because both plastic and metal get more brittle in the winter, the vibrations from the door’s mechanism can also cause stress cracks in the parts that make up the door opener mechanism, which can lead to moisture getting in and rusting.

Be sure to avoid making any major adjustments or repair attempts to your garage door yourself, especially if you have no prior experience with garage door repair. While it might seem tempting to try and save money by purchasing the parts and doing the work yourself, that is a very dangerous and potentially costly prospect. In particular, spring repair and replacements are jobs that should be left to a garage door company because all of the tension they are under can make them dangerous for the untrained person.