How to Tension Your Light-Duty Roll-Up Door

To keep your light-duty roll-up door operating smoothly, it’s important to maintain proper spring tension. In addition to ensuring it’s easy to open and close, maintaining appropriate spring tension helps maintain and prolong the life of your roll-up door.

How do you Know if the Spring Tension Needs Adjusting?

If your roll-up door becomes difficult to open but is easy to close or drifts down into the door opening when in the fully open position, you need to increase spring tension. If the door slams into the head stop when opening or won’t stay shut, you need to decrease the spring tension.

How to Tension Your Light-Duty Roll Up Door

The steps below can be followed on most light-duty roll-up doors that feature exposed springs—a design that makes them easier and safer to access and maintain. To adjust the spring tension on DBCI light-duty roll-up doors, you will need either a 5/16” Allen Wrench or an electric variable speed drill with a 5/16” Allen socket.

1. Open the door completely so the curtain wraps around the drum before making any adjustments
2. If the door needs tension, pull it back down approximately six inches.
3. Insert the Allen Wrench or electric variable drill with 5/16” Allen socket into the exposed drive. Turn it clockwise in small increments to reduce tension or counter-clockwise until the door meets the stops to increase tension. If using an electric drill, set it at low speed.
4. Check the tension as you go so you don’t under- or over-tighten the spring.
5. If you’re adding tension, the door should slowly raise to the head stop. If you’re decreasing tension, the door should slowly lower to the floor
6. Finally, you can check the door to make sure it has the appropriate tension.

Watch this video to see spring tension adjustments on a DBCI light-duty roll-up door.

How Often Should You Check the Spring Tension?

For light-duty doors, you should check the spring tension monthly. If you own a self-storage facility, checking monthly might not be possible if the unit is occupied by a tenant. In that case, check the doors each time a tenant vacates the unit.

What Causes Problems with Spring Tension?

Roll-Up door springs are made of steel that can wear over time. Spring tension adjustment frequency depends on door quality and frequency of use. DBCI doors are rated for up to 20,000 open/close cycles. So, it could be a year to 10 years or more before you need to adjust spring tension!

Recommended Maintenance for Roll-Up Door Springs

Springs like those standard on DBCI’s light-duty roll-up doors are oil-tempered and manufactured with an E-Coating. This helps prevent rust, ensures efficiency and reduces the amount of maintenance required. To further maintain your door, you can spray a light coat of lubricant—such as a light white lithium spray—in the guides and bearings on both sides of the brackets to help reduce friction. In addition, applying a grease-less lubricant like silicone spray to the door’s guide strips helps prevent dirt from building up and keeps the door operating smoothly

Selecting Light-Duty Roll-Up Doors Designed for Quick and Easy Tension Adjustments

It’s important to examine the roll-up door’s tension set bracket to determine how easy and safe adjustments will be. Many roll-up doors feature brackets that hold the tension in a winding bar that’s manually controlled during adjustments. This means that an experienced door technician is required to perform the adjustments—extending the down-time of your roll-up door.

In contrast, tension set brackets like those exclusive to DBCI are unique in that worm gear holds the tension during adjustments. This means that—in most cases—a single facility operator or maintenance person can safely make tension adjustments with one hand in only a few minutes.

For more information on adjusting your roll-up door spring tension, watch this video. If you have any questions, please contact one of our experienced sales representatives.