There are basically 4 different types of rollers that are used on garage doors. All rollers are made with steel stems with wheels at one end of roller. The difference is in the wheel itself. You have either plastic, steel or poly wheels. Plastic wheels are fitted at one end of roller stem and do not use ball bearings in their construction. Steel wheels come 2 ways, with ball bearings and without ball bearings. The poly constructed wheels are pretty much identical to a skateboard wheel or roller blade wheel. They are also made of the same poly material and always have a ball bearing system built in. If your rollers are constructed with ball bearings than they will be visible and need lubrication at least once a year.

rollers that do not use ball bearings

The rollers that do not use ball bearings will deteriorate a lot faster than ones with bearings. If they are plastic than the wheels will

tend to break apart when they age over the years and the plastic rolling in a steel track system will wear the plastic down and over time the wheel gets smaller and tend to pop out of the track and cause other problems with door functionality. Of course the steel rollers will not have this kind of wear. Rollers with steel wheels and no bearings built in will over time come apart from roller stem and is noticeable when the wheel looks crooked when the door is in the up position.

poly wheels

In my experience the poly wheels with ball bearings are the best to use because of 2 reasons. First reason is the ball bearings give the roller more life and the poly wheel rolls in the steel track very quietly so in my opinion its a win-win choice. Customers are always happy with a quieter door…