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After years of use, your garage door may begin to click, rattle, and shake loudly each time you open and close it. Luckily, your solution comes in the form of a quick and convenient fix that doesn’t require replacing your garage door. The key component to eliminating a noisy garage door and making each open and close smoothly and silently comes in the form of a high-quality garage door roller.
Garage Door Rollers: The Silent Solution to Noisy Garage Doors
Located near the hinges of your garage door and placed along steel tracks, rollers help bear the weight of your garage door and work to seamlessly open and close your garage door. As implied in the name, they roll along the track and provide stable, secure locomotion to your garage door.
Like most hardware that is under near-constant strain, rollers will degrade over time and will be in need of replacement. Rollers can fail in multiple ways – particularly brittle and weak rollers, for example, could altogether snap at the stem. However, with a high-quality roller, the most common form of failure is simply the natural wearing down of the wheel (generally made from steel or nylon) as a result of running along a hard, steel track. This is primarily what results in the aforementioned clicking, rattling, and shaking of your garage door.
Are Garage Door Rollers Universal?
While all garage door rollers achieve the same function, they can vastly differ in quality and capability. The three main variables that affect the quality and durability of garage door rollers are:
- An inner steel wheel (or lack thereof)
- Number of ball bearings
- Material of the outer wheel
- Thickness of the outer wheel
These factors affect the weight each roller can support, as well as the lifespan of your rollers.
Take the number of ball bearings, for instance. Each ball bearing not only supports the rolling motion of the roller, but also helps distribute the weight of the garage door across the entirety of the roller rather than on a single, fixed point.
Initially, the majority of residential garage door rollers came with 7 ball bearings, while Ideal Security has always offered rollers with 10 high-quality ball bearings. Eventually, the industry standard caught up, with garage door rollers now falling between ranges of 7 to 13 ball bearings.
When selecting garage door rollers, keep these factors in mind in order to make an informed decision and pick the right rollers for your garage door.
As a result of these variables, you can find three common types of rollers – Nylon Rollers, Steel Rollers, and Premium Nylon Rollers. Read on to learn more about the specifics of each type of roller!
Nylon Rollers
These rollers are made entirely of nylon (apart from the steel stem) and contain neither ball bearings nor an inner steel wheel. While this makes them the most inexpensive and easily accessible option, nylon rollers are also the most susceptible to wear-and-tear damage and feature a reduced lifespan.
Ideal Security offers 2-Packs of 2” Nylon Garage Rollers. Note that 2” rollers will fit most residential garage door tracks.
Steel Rollers
Reliable, durable, and featuring a longer lifespan, steel rollers contain an inner steel wheel, an outer steel wheel, and steel ball bearings. As mentioned, the ball bearings help distribute garage door weight and increase the lifespan of the roller, and the inner steel wheel achieves a similar function and results in a smoother roll. Steel rollers last significantly longer than nylon rollers. However, because the steel wheel runs directly along a steel track, they are prone to make more noise than nylon and premium nylon garage door rollers.
Made with commercial grade steel and featuring 10 steel ball bearings, our Steel Garage Door Rollers come in 2”, which will fit most residential garage door tracks, or 3” for garage doors that have 3″ tracks. Ideal Security offers 2” garage door rollers in 2-Packs or 10-Packs, and 3” rollers in 10-Packs.
Premium Nylon Rollers
Featuring the best of both worlds, our premium nylon rollers have both the smooth, sleek nylon coating of our regular nylon rollers, the load-bearing inner and outer steel wheels, and steel ball bearings of our heftier steel rollers. While our premium nylon rollers have a slightly lesser lifespan compared to our steel rollers, they offer silent operation of your garage door all throughout.
Containing the same commercial grade steel as our steel rollers and a premium white nylon jacket on the outer wheel, Ideal Security’s Premium 2” Nylon rollers for garage doors come in 2-Packs and 10-Packs.
How Long Do Garage Door Rollers Last?
Regardless of their make, all Ideal Security steel rollers are manufactured to run for 10,000 to 15,000 cycles, and have a 75lb duty rating. This traces back to our roots with garage door hardware, having always supplied commercial grade springs, rollers, hinges, and more to our residential customers.
If you’re in need of a greater tier of rollers due to a heavier garage door, your safest option consists of rollers with 13 ball bearings. With the addition of three ball bearings, such rollers can support an additional row of garage door paneling generally reserved for 8’ tall garage doors. With these additional bearings and heavier steel gauge construction comes an increased roller lifespan of up to 20,000 cycles and improved load bearing capabilities. However, Ideal Security currently does not offer such rollers.
When Should I Replace My Garage Door Rollers?
There are multiple signs to look out for to determine if a garage door roller needs replacing or is on the verge of breaking. When your roller begins to audibly click and make noise, that usually indicates that the wheel and ball bearings are beginning to wear down and form dents – an issue that will only worsen with time.
You can also keep an eye out for visible signs of wear and tear on your rollers. If your garage door roller looks like it’s at an angle, that could be an indicator of the stem weakening beneath the weight of the garage door. Signs of rust also indicate a weak and brittle stem that may snap over time. Be sure to inspect your garage door to ensure that it is aligned and that it has remained on the steel tracks, as signs of roller breakage can be subtle.
If you find yourself replacing another key component of your garage door, such as your springs, that would also be an ideal opportunity to replace your garage door rollers. These components work in tandem to provide both smooth and safe operating conditions for your garage door, and a weak link can not only impact your garage door, but also the lifespan and durability of the other components.
Where Can I Buy Garage Door Rollers?
Ideal Security’s garage door rollers are available on our website. We offer Nylon rollers, Steel rollers, and Premium Nylon rollers, all which suit standard 7’ tall residential garage doors. Our rollers, as well as other Ideal Security products, are also available on Amazon. We also offer high-quality garage door hardware such as hinges, brackets, springs, and more. Be sure to check out our full catalog to find the perfect hardware to revamp your garage door.