Q: A roller on my garage door broke. What should i do?

A: Sectional roll up garage doors use a series of rollers located on the left and right hand sides of door. This allows the door to roll up inside of door track. There are basically 2 different kinds of rollers. Rollers that have ball bearings built in are better quality. The other kind of roller does not use ball bearings they are just plastic or steel wheels attached to a stem.

Rollers over time will deteriorate. Some faster than others. Rollers that do not have built in ball bearings will always deteriorate faster. Metal rollers that do not have ball bearings have the shortest life because over time the weight of the door makes the wheel break away from roller stem. Most of the time you can recognize this type of roller falling apart by looking at rollers when door is in up position. The wheel part will be slanted and when the door is down you can try to wiggle the wheel part that inside the track. There should not be any play or loose parts. The rollers that have just a plastic wheel and metal stem tend to last a bit longer and sometimes the plastic wheel part can break apart and impossible to roll properly. Usually plastic wheels will wear down over time and become too small to keep in the track. Or the doors track can have issues and cause premature wear.

Best way to solve all roller problems is to replace whole set of new rollers. It is very common so most technicians will carry a bag of new rollers on their truck. And you should ask to replace rollers with polyurethane wheel with ball bearings. They are very quiet and last a longer time than most rollers. Also make sure track is in proper condition.

If a door has any roller issues or has metal rollers and door is just too loud, i always

suggest a roller replacement. Almost everyone loves a door that makes less noise.

Anytime you can see that a roller has fell apart or is popping out of track than it will cause other problems with the door and should be fix asap.