The standard size of sectional and roll up garage doors for commercial applications ranges from 30 to 32 feet wide and 24 to 28 feet high. Installed in warehouses, retail stores, industries, office building, and many more business locations, commercial garage doors can often be much bigger. The bigger the door, the heavier.

On top of that, commercial doors are often insulated and wind loaded. Depending on materials, steel gauge number, size of parts, and insulators used, the weight is altered too. As an overall, commercial doors are much heavier compared to residential garage doors. Some industrial doors can even weigh a few thousand pounds. So what will make such heavy doors move with ease and often perform at high speeds?

 

You need the right commercial garage door opener

The commercial garage door opener line of manufacturers ranges fromGarage Door Opener Installation Dallas light and medium to heavy duty applications. This has to do with the cycles per day or per hour and the weight of the door. The main opener types are trolley, jackshaft and hoist. Jackshaft openers are those mounted on the wall. Trolley or carriage openers utilize a chain, belt or screw drive. Hoist openers have a chain.

What you need to pay attention to is whether they are made for light, medium, or heavy duty garage doors and their horsepower – when speaking about AC motors. A light duty trolley opener would run approximately 8 cycles per hour and would have ½ horsepower at the very least whereas a heavy duty opener can have up to 5 hp. With heavy doors, you need a heavy duty opener that would also have a high start torque motor.

 

Invest in proper garage door springs

springCommercial garage door torsion springs vary too. First of all, heavy commercial doors would require two or more torsion springs. Don’t forget that the springs are the hidden power that enables door movement. The opener offers automatic operation and must be strong to enable heavy commercial doors to move at the desired pace without struggling. But the door won’t go up without the right spring system.

Regardless of how many cycles are designed to last, torsion springs are chosen based on the door lifting system and weight. Tall sectional doors would also have a special garage door cable drum. The cable would take many turns till the door comes all the way up to the ceiling and before it follows the route of the horizontal tracks. For greater power, springs for either vertical or high lifts often utilize multiple anchor brackets. This is important when there are multiple springs. Some systems would have a spring inside the spring and thus won’t occupy too much space on the shaft.

Due to the heavy weight of commercial doors, torsion springs for such applications have a larger wire size and inside diameter than standard ones. The shaft has 1 ½” diameter which also corresponds to the opening size of the cones. On top of that shafts of commercial torsion springs are solid and not hollow, and are often keyed to keep the cables from coming off.

At end of the day, what you need to know is that heavy commercial doors need very powerful openers and special springs in order to move right and safely.