Below are some helpful hints that will save you your valuable time & money!
When rainfall occurs, the office encounters numerous phone calls all asking the same questions, “My door is all of the sudden very heavy, why can’t I open it?, or “Why isn’t my gate closing?” The answer rain water, when rainfall occurs it is the most common cause of petty problems for doors and gates and usually not anything of serious matter like a broken spring or motor.
When showers occur, wood doors are subject to water logging causing the weight of the door to increase, it as well puts extra stress on the springs and motor causing it to malfunction.
There are two EASY options that you can do to avoid this problem:
1) Go to the motor and increase the upward force to compensate for the water logged door. Once the door dries out, return to the motor and switch it back to the original functioning speed for proper operation.
2) Let the door sit and let it dry out, and it will return to it’s normal weight and will continue to operate properly.
Now let’s talk automatic garage doors and gates that are equipped with photo eyes. Photo eyes are able to detect an object that is obstructing the path of the door or gate by using a infrared laser beam. Sometimes rainfall can trigger the laser beam if water drops find it’s way onto the lens which causes it to not be able to close. A solution to this problem would to be to wipe off the lens and to invest in a photo eye hood that would prevent rain from gaining access inside. However on a rare occasion, rainwater will find its way inside the reflector cover and can cause condensation to build up. Because of this condensation build up, it triggers the photo eye into thinking there is an object that is obstructing the path of the door or gate which would not allow the door or gate to close. A simple solution to this would be to take off the cover, wipe it off and place it back on. SIMPLE!
Lastly, Rainfall is not the only potentially detrimental element that could ruin your door or gate hardware, the combination of the sun’s rays and rainfall could give your gate some trouble. Hardware like entry and exit loops are crucial for gates especially if they function under high traffic. Loops are essentially sensors that detect objects like cars. When the sensor is tripped, the loop then relays information back to the motor to either open, close, or to remain in a stagnant position allowing the car as much time as it needs to move away from the gate’s swing path. Loops are very crucial because a lot of cars would be damaged if the gate was allowed to freely swing.
To place the loops, the cement or asphalt is cut and they are placed inside. The material that the loops consist of are rubber, and they can shrink due to the sun’s UV rays. When the loop happens to shrink over time and rainfall occurs water enters the cut down inside the cement causing the loop to be pulled up. If the loop surfaces it can and most likely will be damaged by an oncoming car which would cause the gate to not function properly and drastically increases the chance of damaging vehicles that are in the way of the gate’s path.
A solution would to check on the loops every few months, especially when the climate is on the warmer side. If the loop does happen to surface, place it back in the cut. The next step would be to purchase crack sealant from your local supply store (ranging from around $12-$25) that would hold the loop in place. This inexpensive solution is the definite route to take to protect your valuable gate hardware, it is much more reasonable better to buy a $20 bottle of sealant rather than to replace a whole loop.
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