Anywhere all over the world, we find people who have a love affair with cars.
In fact almost every standard American home comes with its very own built-in garage.
We find them across the street, and we see these typical garage doors going up and down in movies and commercials.
Yet haven't you ever wondered how these garage doors work? We see them go up, we see them go down; remote controlled or automatic, yet no matter what form they come in, all doors chiefly operate on the basis of and cannot work without door openers.
These are the motorized devices we usually see encased in small black boxes attached to garage doors.
Garage door openers were first used in the 1800's and since then have been indispensable to most homes.
There are several kinds of them nowadays and it can be very helpful to know how these work and operate.
Roller garage openers and electric ones are very similar.
They both operate on the same principle which is the physics of springs and tension.
This is because, contrary to popular belief, electric garage door openers do not use electricity to provide the lifting power.
Instead both door openers rely on springs and the tension in these springs to provide the strength to lift the doors.
Depending on the weight and material of the garage door, the set of springs used may either be extension springs or tension springs.
Extension springs work by expanding and contracting in order to open a garage door, but because of the limited tension entailed in this, extension springs do not have enough strength to raise a double door.
This is the reason why tension springs are more popular nowadays.
Because by virtue of its wound-up coiled form, it can provide extremely high tensile strength that is enough to life the more popular double doors.
Other than the springs that provide the door opener its strength, there are also other mechanisms that hold the opener together and make it all work.
There are bottom brackets, vertical and horizontal tracks that slide back and forth, cables that counterbalance the springs, and the equally important motor drive that opens the door.
These motors can be of three types- chain, screw, or belt drive- each with its own advantages and disadvantages.
Chain drives are one of the oldest garage door opener motor drives and remain to be very popular.
This is the cheapest motor, but also the noisiest of the three.
Belt drives operate on the same mechanisms as the chain drive does, but have evolved to the use of a rubber belt instead of steel chains.
They are the quietest of openers, but also the most expensive.
An alternative that provides cost and noise efficiency is the screw drive.
It is affordable, not very noisy, and is the easiest to maintain.
In fact almost every standard American home comes with its very own built-in garage.
We find them across the street, and we see these typical garage doors going up and down in movies and commercials.
Yet haven't you ever wondered how these garage doors work? We see them go up, we see them go down; remote controlled or automatic, yet no matter what form they come in, all doors chiefly operate on the basis of and cannot work without door openers.
These are the motorized devices we usually see encased in small black boxes attached to garage doors.
Garage door openers were first used in the 1800's and since then have been indispensable to most homes.
There are several kinds of them nowadays and it can be very helpful to know how these work and operate.
Roller garage openers and electric ones are very similar.
They both operate on the same principle which is the physics of springs and tension.
This is because, contrary to popular belief, electric garage door openers do not use electricity to provide the lifting power.
Instead both door openers rely on springs and the tension in these springs to provide the strength to lift the doors.
Depending on the weight and material of the garage door, the set of springs used may either be extension springs or tension springs.
Extension springs work by expanding and contracting in order to open a garage door, but because of the limited tension entailed in this, extension springs do not have enough strength to raise a double door.
This is the reason why tension springs are more popular nowadays.
Because by virtue of its wound-up coiled form, it can provide extremely high tensile strength that is enough to life the more popular double doors.
Other than the springs that provide the door opener its strength, there are also other mechanisms that hold the opener together and make it all work.
There are bottom brackets, vertical and horizontal tracks that slide back and forth, cables that counterbalance the springs, and the equally important motor drive that opens the door.
These motors can be of three types- chain, screw, or belt drive- each with its own advantages and disadvantages.
Chain drives are one of the oldest garage door opener motor drives and remain to be very popular.
This is the cheapest motor, but also the noisiest of the three.
Belt drives operate on the same mechanisms as the chain drive does, but have evolved to the use of a rubber belt instead of steel chains.
They are the quietest of openers, but also the most expensive.
An alternative that provides cost and noise efficiency is the screw drive.
It is affordable, not very noisy, and is the easiest to maintain.
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