door openers

Have constant trouble with doors on IBAs when cold weather hits. This is only second season these doors have been in use. They are American airlift doors. The air cyclinders freeze up/slow down causing slack in chain which cause a sudden jerk when opening/closing. This causes cable to unwind or chain to stretch making door inoperable.

I hate to replace doors that are only a year old. Are there different openers (instead of the air lift) that will operate the doors trouble free and quickly?

Thank you,
Bill Meritt

I use hostile-duty motor-powered electric garage door openers. Once I made some boxes around them to keep the water off, they have been great.

Are you talking about the same type of opener used for residential only heavy duty? A high speed model made? How about brand?

Thank you

Yes, basically. They have the springs over the door. Not sure what brand the operators themselves are. They are for commercial use. And make sure the motors are hostile duty otherwise they will not last.

Oops; spoke too soon. Smoked the operator this morning on the entry side. BUT, it is the original, non-XP, non-HD motor. So, we'll see. Door company can't get here till tomorrow, so I'll know more then.

Supposed to start snowing here soon, so hopefully won't miss much business.

Got this fixed today. Wound up being a broken belt.

Well I am sure broken belt is cheaper than new moter. Glad you got it fixed fast. Thanks for info. Have thought of putting heat from equip. on air openers. We have had customers stuck in bay because doors malfunction. When it gets below 20 deg. at night we have to close our auto. During this cold snap we are closed all day.

I am afraid any fix will be money down the drain. I was hoping someone from frigid north had an idea to make the airlift work. I'll contact local door company and see what they have.

Thanks again

Man, closing below 20 degrees F would mean alot of days closed for me this Winter so far!!! My customers want to get into my IBA on the coldest days early in the morning.

Can you put heat tape on the air lift cylinders? There's got to be something you can do. Customers trapped in the bay as well as closing below 20 degrees sounds tough to take.

Why is that anyway???? It happens here all the time as well. What makes a person say "Geez it's 10 below zero and 6 AM....I want to wash my car" then they get all mad that it isn't open and that I should have control over the temperature....

Have put heat tape on air cylinders. doesn't help much. yesterday it is 45 deg. and still had a problem with cable coming off door. Took 2 of us to get door opened so wash could run. Had to leave door open while washing for the next 3 hours. Will take a couple of hours today to get cable rewound. I have a total of 4 doors and one of them has to be worked on about every 3rd to 4th day. More often if it is below 20 deg. With my experience I can't believe anyone sells this junk.

How is the quality of your air supply? We installed air dryers at our locations. The dry air has greatly decreased our problems with air operated doors.

David