Garage door rollers. They’re all alike, right? Not really. There are rollers with steel tires, rollers with nylon tires, rollers with roller bearings and rollers with sleeve bearings. There are many different weight ratings. There are rollers with different sized tires. So, what are the pluses and the minuses of nylon rollers? Let’s look at rollers in more detail before we answer this question.
Steel tire rollers – these are the old fashioned rollers most of us grew up with. Most of these rollers do have roller bearings to insure the tire will turn freely under load. These rollers will carry varying amounts of weight dependent upon construction.
Nylon tire rollers – these rollers use a steel stem and a nylon tire. The tire may be built as a sleeve bearing or may have a steel insert using roller bearings. The type with roller bearings will carry more weight. The roller bearings also help to insure the tire will roll freely rather than slide in the track when under load. The sleeve bearing type is quite acceptable so long as the recommended load is not exceeded.
So – what are the pluses and minuses? Let’s look first at the pluses:
Nylon rollers tires are typically quieter than steel roller tires. There are several factors that contribute why your garage door is noisy, and it is proven that nylon tire rollers are better choice than steel tire rollers.
Nylon roller tires are more resistant to damage from rust due to moisture.
Nylon roller tires wear extremely well.
With proper selection rollers with nylon tires will carry the same or a greater load than a steel tire roller.
Now let’s look at the minuses:
Hmmm. There really is not a minus so long as the correct roller is chosen for the intended installation. Care should be taken to be sure the selected roller is designed for the intended load. An untrained person may inadvertently select a roller with a sleeve bearing design where a roller bearing design is required.
Other than proper product selection, there really is no reason you should not consider nylon tire rollers for your garage door. These rollers are reliable, quiet and durable. If you need to replace rollers on your garage door (Find out why your garage doors are problematic here) be sure to ask your service technician about using a product with nylon tires. You’ll be amazed at how smoothly and quietly your garage door will operate!
The supertechs of Overhead Door Company of Central Jersey offers quality workmanship for your residential and commercial garage doors; including repair and replacement for your garage door and it's parts.
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