Have you ever wondered how your garage door is able to rise and fall so smoothly? After all, the average garage door weighs several hundred pounds. How is it able to slide up and down without making hardly any noise? The answer is simple: rollers. As the premier garage door installation company in Arvada, we can state in no uncertain terms that garage door rollers are the steel belted radials of the modern garage door, enabling it to move effortlessly up and out of the way and then back down into place. But they aren't indestructible. In this post, we'll look at ways you can tell if your garage door rollers need replacing.

Telltale Signs Your Garage Door Rollers Need Replacing

99% of the time garage door rollers quietly go about their business tucked into the tracks out of sight. But because of the enormous stresses they endure while performing their job, there's bound to come a time when they need replacing.

Now when it comes to replacing the garage door rollers you can take one of three paths. You can take a proactive approach and replace the rollers every few years on a regular schedule. You can keep your eyes and ears open to the telltale signs that the rollers need replacing and then have them replaced. Or you can wait until they fail outright, in which case you’ll probably also be on the hook for some garage door repair expenses.

While being proactive certainly has its merits, the most common, and still perfectly acceptable approach, is to stay alert for signs that your garage door rollers are in need of attention. With that in mind here are some common signs of garage door roller trouble:

• Squeaking and squealing: Has your garage door begun making high-pitched squealing and squeaking sounds as it navigates up and down the tracks? If so, it’s almost always a sign your rollers have started to quit on you. It’s also possible that the squealing is a function of dirty garage door tracks. But whether it's the track or the rollers causing the noise the issue requires immediate attention.
• Rockin’ and rollin’: A modern garage door should slide up and down the track effortlessly. If it's stuttering and shaking instead it's a sign you've got trouble with your garage door rollers. In most cases, either the nylon padding on a roller or rollers has worn down, or the ball bearings inside the roller have become gunked up and are jamming. In either case, you'll need to replace the rollers asap before the extraordinary stress caused by the door dragging up the tracks results in broken garage door springs or a burned-out garage door motor.
• Hanging lower on one side: Have you noticed recently that your garage door is hanging unevenly when it closes? Meaning one side is touching the ground as it should and the other is several inches above the ground? This problem is typically caused by either broken garage door springs or by garage door rollers that have stopped rolling. If the problem is springs you’ll be able to clearly see that one of your torsion or extension springs is broken. If the springs look fine then the problem likely rests with the rollers.

How Often Do Rollers Need to be Replaced?

We tend to take the garage door for granted because every day for years on end it works exactly as intended. But the stresses created by lifting so much weight so many times ultimately take a toll on the various components of the door, including the springs (which do all the heavy lifting), the motor, the tracks, and especially the rollers. Just like springs, rollers have cycle ratings. That is, they're expected to last for an approximate number of up-and-down cycles before they start to fail and need replacing.

Nylon rollers, for example, are usually rated for 10,000 cycles. That means that because the average garage door is cycled three to five times per day, nylon rollers should provide six to nine years of reliable service for the average home. But what about other types of garage door rollers? How long should they be expected to last? Let’s take a look.

• Steel rollers with ball bearings: Steel rollers should provide ten to fifteen years of reliable service - IF they are well-maintained and IF the door is opened no more than average. That is, three to five times per day. While durable these are also the noisiest option. So if you want a quiet, stealthy garage door you’ll need to choose different rollers.
• Plastic rollers: Plastic rollers are quieter than steel rollers and they’re also quite affordable. That’s the good news. The bad news is that they’re going to break down faster than any other type of garage door roller, usually after only a few years.
• Steel rollers without ball bearings: This is a pretty crude type of roller and one that is not only going to be noisy, but it's not going to provide anything like the service life you'll get from steel rollers with ball bearings. Like plastic rollers, you can expect this type of roller to start breaking down after only a few years.

Expert Garage Door Repair in Arvada

If you suspect it's time to replace your garage door rollers, get in touch with the team at Well Hung Garage Doors. We'll have your garage door back up and running as smooth as silk in no time. Call (303) 422-0232 today!