Garage Door Upkeep

There are several types of rollers available in a variety of sizes, styles to match your specific track size, door type or application. Choices include standard overhead door replacement rollers for standard applications or specialty rollers for use on doors in high use or adverse conditions where there is high moisture (rain etc) and other corrosive environments (pool chemical storage). Home builders often use a hard plastic non-bearing roller because it is low cost but tends to wear somewhat quickly. Rollers with bearings and hardened outer casing or metal will last longer.

In certain situations a longer stem is useful and/or more safe if the door is, as we say, “gappy”.

Check your rollers visually for cracks or pieces missing, then while raising/lowering the door watch each roller to see if it rolls smoothly, or drags (turns slower). You may try some quality lube, not grease or WD-40, and see if that loosens the  movement, but if the rollers are beyond 5 years old, or have flat spots on the wheel from dragging, it’s time to replace.