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Days in the Field, Part 1

Longtime followers of our blog and new visitors alike will probably be surprised to learn that I am not, in fact, a garage door technician! I am a member of the A Plus Garage Doors office team, so I work closely with the technicians on everything that I write and share – you don’t need to doubt its accuracy! But in my day-to-day job with the company, I only rarely visit job sites in-progress. But here at A Plus, we believe in going above and beyond the call of what is required. That’s what led us to have 40+ 5-star reviews on Google, and a reputation for reliable, timely service in Charlotte. We’re family owned and family operated, and Jimmy Perneszi – the owner – has been working on garage doors for over thirty years. Suffice to say, we only do quality work, and we bring our “A-Plus game” to every job. 

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The Important of Garage Door Photo-Eye Sensors

Since 1993, all garage door systems have been required to have a crucial safety system known as the photo-eye sensor. The photo-eye, however, is also one of the most common causes of garage door problems! Knowing how this safety sensor works can enable home or business owners to fix some problems with their garage door, without even needing to contact an expert. So if you want to know more about the sophisticated safety of the photo-eye, read on! 

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The NUMBER ONE Problem with Garage Doors

What is a photo-eye sensor? You’ve probably seen the small boxes attached to your garage door’s side rails, low down on either side, but do you know what purpose they serve, or how to fix them if you have a problem? This is one of the most common problems that we get called in for, and luckily in many cases it’s a problem that we can fix over the phone. So if you want to know how to fix your sensor or to learn why your photo-eye sensor is important, keep reading!

Larger Garage Door Blog

What to do if Your Car IS BIGGER THAN Your Garage

When you imagine an old-school carriage house, you probably imagine the giant Model T cars of days past, with tiny well-dressed people sitting in the front seats. Watching Laurel and Hardy get up to their typical antics in the iconic car may make you think that the Model T was a real monster of a vehicle, and that modern design and technological innovation has resulted in a streamlined, shrunk car. Well, that couldn’t be further from the truth! Vehicles are only getting bigger, in fact, and the massive consumer cars of today wouldn’t even have fit in most traditional carriage houses. The Model T and similar early cars may look large in photographs, but that’s mostly because of their strange design and open carriage. Stripping away all of the outer layers and gizmos that make up a modern car actually leaves you with a much smaller base frame. 

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How to Find Your Garage Door Opener Manual Online

Many homeowners don’t choose their garage door opener. If you’ve moved into a home that already had a functioning garage door opener, there’s no real need for you to upgrade. Sure, garage door openers wear out over time, but they’re very dependable machines and usually aren’t the first part of the door assembly to break down. Some homeowners decide that they want an upgrade because they’d like smartphone integration, or a quieter opener, or any number of other reasons, but for many homeowners the standard opener is plenty…

Best Keypad Residential Opener Installation

The BEST Garage Door Keypad

It is surprisingly easy to get shut out of your own home! Even if you don’t think that accidents like this could happen to you, there may be times when your garage door is closed and you want someone to be able to open it from the outside. If you have friends coming over or adult children visiting, the garage door can be an easy way for them to come inside your home, without you having to give them an actual key. The secret to solving all of these problems lies in a simple device – the garage door keypad.

Best Garage Door Opener Residential Installation

The Best Garage Door Opener

Homeowners often ask – which is the best garage door opener? That is a very good question, but the answer might surprise you.

Most people don’t know what model of garage door opener they currently have installed, and for good reason. Garage doors and garage door openers usually have names like “the 3610” or “the 8550,” which can be difficult to remember and don’t mean much to your average homeowner. In fact, homeowners may not even know what they’re looking for in an opener – what they do know, is what they don’t like about their opener. Maybe it’s too loud, or it’s slow, or it doesn’t always open when you push the remote’s button.

Torsion spring residential garage doors

Why Should you Care About Your Torsion Springs?

Why should you care about your torsion spring? Well for starters, can you even identify your torsion spring? The helical torsion spring is the true workhorse of the garage door, and it is pivotally important in the operation of the door. Almost all garage doors, residential or commercial, are built to use a helical torsion spring in their lifting operation, but the spring is easy to ignore. The same properties that make a torsion spring desirable also make it hard to notice – they’re quiet, space-efficient, and reliably powerful! Plus, they’re all around you – once you start looking for them, you’ll find helical torsion springs everywhere!

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Getting the Most Out of a Garage Door Replacement

Hey homeowners! Are you happy with your garage door, or is it something you try not to think about? Many homes are still using a garage door installed decades ago. If you’re considering selling your home soon, an outdated door won’t do you any favors during appraisal, and it could even sour a potential buyer’s impression of the property. For a homeowner who is considering selling, it makes quite a bit of sense to go ahead and upgrade the door now – barring extreme circumstances, a garage door will work excellently for the first year of installation without problem, so you may as well let your family enjoy some time with the new door before passing it on to the next owners.

Springs and Cables Broken Garage Door Fixes

Broken Garage Door Springs and Cables

Garage door spring repair is one of the most common types of jobs that we get called in for. The spring is a critically important part of your garage door, and because it does most of the hard work behind lifting the door, it is under considerable stress. In fact, aside from user error (like running your car into your garage door!) broken springs and broken rollers account for almost all the repair jobs that A Plus Garage Doors sees in a given week. Since these two parts are doing most of the work, it makes sense that they will wear out first – the only way to counter this is to use high-quality parts and to keep them well maintained.