Lubricating your garage door keeps it in good working order while keeping it nice and quiet so the whole neighborhood doesn't know when you're leaving in the morning. The task isn't too challenging and only needs done once every 6 months to a year. There are several areas that you want to concentrate on to make sure that you aren't wasting lubricant and not ruining anything either!
Use the Correct Lube
First thing you'll want to do before you get started is make sure that you're using the correct lube for your garage door! We recommend standard Liquid Wrench, or any Silicone spray, WD-40 can work in a pinch but isn't the best because it won't "stick" or last as long and may have to be applied more often. By using a grease based lube, say out of a tube or can is not recommended as dirt and other remnants and attach and gunk up the rollers, hinges, and tracking of the garage door. Rollers are designed and engineered to "roll" not slide. By using grease in the rollers or tracks it doesn't allow the rollers to do the job they were designed for and may cause harm to other parts of the garage door such as the operator.
Areas of Focus
The common rule of thumb to go by when lubing your door is to hit any areas where there is metal on metal movement such as your rollers, hinges and bearings. To start go through and spray all your hinges where the rollers are inserted and where the pivots are on the hinge. After this go ahead and spray all the rollers where the steam enters the base of the roller. Next go up to where your cables drums are and give that bearing on the end plates a quick squirt. Now moving your way to the center of the door where the springs are connected together, spray in between them. There is a Nylon/Metal bearing in the middle of the springs and it may cause some screeching as the tube rotates. Now while at the springs you can run your spray down them giving them a good coat, this helps them stay rust free and helps with binding issues. The tracks, cables, and all parts of the Operator do not need lubrication. And that's it! When you're finished it helps to run the garage door up and down a couple of times to work the lube into the crevices of the metal, please keep in mind some lube/spray may drip so you may not want the cars in the garage for the first couple of cycles!
