As winter sets in, many individuals encounter issues with their garage door openers. Temperature fluctuations play a significant role, alongside potential maintenance concerns. If your garage door is slow to open, struggling to close, or exhibiting signs of malfunction, prompt attention is essential. The garage door is a vital component of your home; a breakdown, especially during winter, can be highly inconvenient and costly.

Ways the Cold Can Affect a Garage Door Opener

The cold weather can affect a garage door opener in various ways due to the complexity of the system, comprising multiple moving parts susceptible to temperature changes. Understanding these potential issues can help you address them efficiently and ensure your garage door opener functions smoothly, especially if you face cold winters annually.

Loss of Lubrication 

A common way the cold can affect a garage door opener is through freezing your garage’s lubrication system. This makes them have to work harder in order to do their job, which makes them slower. Luckily, this is an easy fix, through properly lubricating your garage door opener.

Metal Contraction

Metal contracts in the cold, which can lead to every metal part of your garage door system contracting, which in turn makes your garage door either close very slowly or not at all when it’s very cold. This can be helped through proper lubrication.

Freezing To The Ground

When snowmelt forms puddles under your garage door, this can lead to it freezing to the ground when temperatures drop low enough for the water to refreeze. You’ll want to strive to push any puddles away from where your garage door closes when you are shoveling your driveway or simply when you notice them, in order to prevent this.

Broken Springs

Your garage door springs are what keep your garage door balanced. If your garage door opener doesn’t seem to be working as it should, this could be because your garage door springs are breaking from the additional strain the cold puts on them. You’ll want to call a professional to come out if this is the case, as trying to fix broken springs yourself is very dangerous.

Misaligned or Worn-Out Tracks

Another way the cold can affect a garage door opener is through the additional strain the cold puts on your tracks, which increases the risk of them becoming misaligned. If your garage door is sticking, this could be the culprit. This is another issue you’ll want to call a professional to come inspect for you.

Cold Weather Maintenance For Your Garage Door Opener

Although the cold can affect a garage door opener in a number of ways, there are things you can do to fix and prevent this problem in the future.

Check The Remote And Batteries

Generally, if you’re having garage door opener problems, the first thing you should do is to check its remote and batteries. If the batteries aren’t working, you’ll need to change them, so that the remote sends the signal to your garage door system.

Check The Sensors

One of the pesky ways cold can affect a garage door opener is also one of the easiest to fix. If your sensors are iced over or have condensation, this can affect the connectivity of your garage door opener. Simply wiping them off is an easy enough fix.

Ensure There’s Enough Lubrication

As mentioned above, lack of lubrication can be a key cause behind garage door opener problems. Applying enough lubrication will help to stave them off.

Adjust Your Opener

Sometimes, all you need to do is adjust the settings on your opener in order to get it running as it should again.

Test Your Manual Function

A quick way to figure out how the cold might be affecting your garage door opener is through testing how it runs with the manual function. This can tell you about your springs, your tracks, and the lubrication.

Is the Cold Affecting your Garage Door Opener?