Posted by on Jul 16, 2015 in repair, safety

“Your Garage Door Reveals Your IQ!”

Full Disclosure

Let me confess upfront that the ’25 year study’ cited is the span of my own career in the overhead door industry. There was no control group. No double blind. No placebo. The sole researcher was yours truly. And the data was collected in the most haphazard and non-scientific fashion possible—sifting through my old memories.

diy home owner considering a garage door repair

Case Study

I recall one service call to homeowner Sandy & Andy’s garage, pointing up at the broken spring. I explained to Sandy & Andy how the force of the spring is transferred via the high tension cable and drum assembly; with the door weight multiplied by the hi-moment-arm divided by the number of turns, rendering the correct inch-pounds-per-turn counterbalancing force. Simple enough.
But at the end of my lofty sermon Sandy looked irritably at me and blurted out, “Yes, yes, we can see the broken spring.” And immediately Andy yanked on the dangling red rope—the emergency release—and bent to tug the door handle upward, “But I can’t lift the bloody garage door!”
I blushed crimson, realizing my own foolishness. Duh! Here I was blabbering techno-mechanical drivel—when Sandy & Andy had clearly spotlighted the problem!

Nobody’s Fool

The most commonly recognized types of intelligence are:
Spacial, visualizing the world in 3D.
Musical, rhythm and pitch and tone.
Mathematical, quantification and logic.
Naturalist, understanding the living world.
Linguistic, expressing yourself with words.
Body-Kinaesthetic, mind and body coordination.
Interpersonal, understanding others’ motivations and feelings.
Intra-personal, understanding your own motivations and feelings.
Existential, understanding life and death, and our place in the universe.

And of course…

Garage Door IQ, an intuitive grasp of things that roll up and down!

Myth & Reality

If you dear reader share the intuitive grasp of homeowner Sandy & Andy, you will have dismissed the single most commonly held garage door myth. Because you instinctively surmise that you (a mere mortal) cannot lift the garage door!
Likewise, you scoff at the notion that the electric motor can lift the garage door. That is an outright fallacy. Whether you have a Chamberlain, LiftMaster, Stanley, Lynx, Clopay, Marantec, Genie, or any other brand of garage door opener – it’s not nearly powerful enough the lift your heavy garage door. The motor is a wimp!
You sagely conclude that when you yank on that dangling red rope, it is the springs that propel the garage door upward. Your firm but gentle hand merely guides the upward motion—moderating the balance provided by the powerful springs!

Call A Pro

So the next time your garage door springs break—remember homeowner Sandy & Andy’s valuable life lesson. With a broken garage door spring—gravity wins every time! You need to call a professional garage door technician.

Mensa Material?

I nod, I bow, I acquiesce. The student has surpassed the teacher. Your Garage Door IQ is truly stratospheric! You may submit your application to Mensa, the high IQ society.

Professional Garage Door Installation Matters