If your garage door opener uses a chain drive, then it is probably like a lot of other garage doors. This opening system is one of the most popular options, but it can manifest a problem. Over time, the drive chain can loosen and create slack. Overall, this gives the opener less power to open and close the door. You may even see the chain hitting the door itself, creating one of the more annoying garage door noises.
However, if you have a loose chain, it doesn’t necessarily mean you need to make a service call. Homeowners may be able to tighten it up themselves. However, if you are uncomfortable doing so, calling a service technician is the best course of action.
To tighten the drive chain, start by closing your garage door, turning off the power, and pulling the emergency release rope. These steps are all done for the sake of safety, and should be considered necessary.
Once done, using your user manual for the opener, locate the adjustment bolt. This bolt will have nuts on either side of it and is tightened by loosening the nut closest to the opener and tightening the nut on the other side. As you do this, the chain should tighten. You want the chain tight, but not so much that it is inflexible.
This is typically where homeowners get a little unsure of themselves. If you tighten a chain too much, you run the risk of it breaking. Typically you will want to tighten the chain just enough so that it is no longer hitting the garage door. If it still sags slightly, this is fine. A little sag is better than being too tight as you definitely don’t want to put the chain at risk of breaking.
If you have a loose drive chain, but aren’t sure you want to risk tightening it yourself, contact us today. We can help get that chain back to normal as well as solve all your other garage door woes.
