Marion is a county seat surrounded by flat, open farmland, with Delaware to the south and Bucyrus to the north. In town, many homes have older detached or attached garages; outside town, garage doors are often on machine sheds and shops as well as houses.
An opener is often the first part of the system to wear out, and the first upgrade people make, so this page spends some time on choosing one. It also covers wind on open ground, older homes in town and doors on farm buildings.
Choosing a garage door opener
The right opener depends on the door, the garage and how much noise you can tolerate. Before choosing, confirm that the door is balanced. An opener is designed to guide a door whose weight is carried by the springs, not to lift a dead weight, and pairing a new opener with a poorly balanced door shortens its life.
Most homes do well with one of these drive types.
- Chain drive: tough and budget-friendly but noisy, which matters little in a detached garage.
- Belt drive: runs far more quietly, so it suits a garage with a bedroom over it or beside it.
- Wall-mount (jackshaft): sits on the wall next to the door and turns the spring shaft directly, so the ceiling stays open for storage or tall vehicles.
- Wi-Fi and battery backup: let you check the door from your phone and open it during a power outage.
Wind across open country
With few trees or hills to break it, wind sweeps across the fields around Marion. Strong gusts push on large garage doors, loosen hardware over time and drive rain and snow under a worn bottom seal. In winter, the same wind piles drifts against doors that face open ground.
For exposed garages, a door with heavier steel and horizontal struts flexes less. Tight perimeter weatherstrip and a fresh bottom seal keep blown snow and dust out, and shoveling a drift away from the door soon after it forms keeps it from packing into ice against the seal.
Older homes in town
Marion's established neighborhoods include many houses built in the early and middle twentieth century. Garages there may have narrow openings, low ceilings or older doors with extension springs.
If your opener has no photo-eye sensors near the floor, it predates current safety standards and should be replaced. Adding an opener to a door that has always been raised by hand is a different job: the manual latch or lock bar has to be removed or disabled first, or the opener can damage the door the first time someone forgets it is locked.
Machine sheds and farm doors
Farm buildings often have oversized sectional doors that open less often than a house door but carry more weight. Long idle periods let rust and dirt build up, so lubricate hinges and rollers before busy seasons such as planting and harvest, when a door that will not open costs time.
Larger doors need openers rated for their size, and springs matched to their weight. When a big door starts to feel heavy, have the springs checked rather than relying on the opener to make up the difference.
Last updated by the American Garage Door Team.