Broken garage door hinge, they just cheaply made now?
- Thread starter infinkc
- Start date
c39er
Well-known member
I think the door is under too much stress in the hinge area.
And yes I'm sure the hinge is a cheap quality Chinese hinge...probably none are made in our country....unless industrial grade.
And yes I'm sure the hinge is a cheap quality Chinese hinge...probably none are made in our country....unless industrial grade.
jstroede
Well-known member
That is about as light duty of a hinge as you can get, but regardless of source, that hinge shouldn't break unless there is something not right with your door. Was this installed as an end hinge or center hinge?
gmyers
Member
I went with the green hinge that has been talked about here in the past. I love them. Super smooth and quiet.
This is an end hinge on the bottom. All the other end hinges have 2 holes/offset. the bottom is just this single hole
I've never had any sectional GD hinge break (out of the 4 we've owned). Wear out yes, break no. That said, the design of your hinge is light as jstroede says. Such hinges are barely OK for a single walled single car door. Also keep in mind that typically there are 5 different GD hinges: Top end (roller), Bottom End (roller), Center ends (rollers) and and center (no rollers). You might contact the installer if possible.
jstroede
Well-known member
Correct. That is an 18 gauge narrow body embossed #1 hinge. It is either a center hinge, or an end hinge between the bottom two sections. Track tapers away from the wall 1/8" per ft, so that's why the hinges are different as you go up. Normally those bottom hinges don't see a lot of stress but obviously this one has. I do not like a hinge this light in this application. I prefer at least a 16 ga wide body hinge at the end, but obviously that isn't what was installed. A standard wide body hinge will work provided you have space to mount it.
John
Uncle murph
Well-known member
Did your wife back up with the door closed?Mine did!
Haha, can’t blame her on this one. Have a car stored on the side this one broke.
I dropped 3grand on my clopay and they sent it to me with the cheap hinges. One phone call and they suddenly remembered this door should have gotten the heavy duty hinges. I had a full set the next day! Great service for this day and age of nobody gives a damn!
I do recommend upgrading the rollers while you are at it.
I do recommend upgrading the rollers while you are at it.
Probably your door or that hinge is not installed properly... and cheap hinge or not, that breaking area does not stand any load sort of... in order for you to stress crack that (not even sure how else you crack a steel plate) from multiple use... the door have to be flexing that a lot.
I would check if those panels are align or some unusual movements at all... They have to be aligned properly I think, trying to remember what I did few years back... 2019..
I would check if those panels are align or some unusual movements at all... They have to be aligned properly I think, trying to remember what I did few years back... 2019..
Installation issue and it created a stress ………..
Yes there are upgrades to HD hardware well worth the extra cost.
Green Hinges……….are 10x the price. That solves nothing $15.00 in quality weather stripping can‘t fix.
Yes there are upgrades to HD hardware well worth the extra cost.
Green Hinges……….are 10x the price. That solves nothing $15.00 in quality weather stripping can‘t fix.
Renegade1LI
Well-known member
I just tested mine the other day, tried to drive the s x s through the door, all hinges held up well, lol. I will say the door itself held up pretty good considering how hard i hit it. Insulated door with metal panels inside was able to straighten out pretty good and not one broken hinge.
Renegade1LI
Well-known member
Side by side
rburke65
Well-known member
I also had no idea what an s s is. There should be a law against this.
Renegade1LI
Well-known member
It's an industry term,lol.
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twouvakind
Well-known member
Or a Green Hinge
FredWanaker
Well-known member
hmmm. Is it frozen?
sure looks like a stress issue to me. something making it bind ( probably from misalignment issue ) there should not be that much stress on a hing, even elcheapo should not fail like that IMO
nadogail
Well-known member
The shop that does my garage door repairs sells hinges over the counter. I give them all my service work; no way am I assuming liability for winding a tension spring at a rental.
cherrybomb
Well-known member
Looks and acted like a light duty hinge. I check and lube my doors yearly.I disconnect mine from the opener,that way I can get a feel on its operation and whether I have any thing not working properly. A powerful opener masks that until the weakness shows,usually at a most inopportune time.
Didn't think it was this soon, so had to search my past posting.
Today the same replacement hinge broke!
What are things to check on the door for why this is happening? When i manually put the door up and down it feels fine to me, no binding.
Today the same replacement hinge broke!
What are things to check on the door for why this is happening? When i manually put the door up and down it feels fine to me, no binding.
firebirdparts
Well-known member
You know how it is. When you actually install a garage door hinge, there's zero stress on it. None. So you'd certainly create stress if the pivot points were misaligned. that's pretty obvious. See if you can eyeball down the line of the hinge pins. If the door is bowed, that would also have to straighten out during the folding. so those are the two basic geometry problems.
Thanks. Adding a few pictures for more content and if anyone sees something that is obvious that I am over looking. This is the bottom hinge, doesn’t see much action other than when the door is open.
Or is the bottom hinge not meant to go this far around the radius?
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BillK
Well-known member
Is it the same side that broke again ? Other side ok ? Shoot a couple of pictures of the other side with the door in the same open position.
firebirdparts
Well-known member
Pivot points not being in a straight line causes stress. I'm not sure why you'd ignore such a simple and actionable (and correct) answer.
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BillK
Well-known member
It looks to me like the hinge that is breaking is not quite centered in the joint and it looks slightly twisted to me with the top of the hinge slightly rotated to the right in the picture. And it looks like the hinge is up too high compared to the other side. Hard to say for sure. Could be the camera angle. Close the door and then shoot a picture straight on at the hinge on each side.
Pretty straight to me.
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BillK
Well-known member
I guess so. The only thing I can suggest without being there is to loosen the screws a turn or two and slowly open the door by hand and watch the hinge as you open the door and see what is happening. Something must be out of alignment putting it into a bind for it to break like that.
nadogail
Well-known member
Garage Doors are shipped disassembled. The installer assembles the door as it is being installed. Your installer may have not installed the correct hinges as the door was being assembled and hung.
The broken hinge is a #1 hinge and his photos show a position where you typically find #1 hinges.
dfiler2
Well-known member
I have seen hinges break before but it is always because the bolt in the door stripped out and the bolt loosened. The fix was to install a couple of self tapping screws on either side of the original fastener.
welder4956
Well-known member
You might check the alignment of the radiused turns on the tracks to make sure that both sides are at the same vertical and horizontal position. If one side is turning sooner than the other side, it could be stressing a hinge on one side. I'm thinking this is a track or hinge alignment issue and you need to get the installer back out there to check it.
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welder4956
Well-known member
Not sure what this means. The cable from the spring is attached to the bottom door section, so the hinges on the bottom section carry the weight of the whole door when raising and lowering. If there is an alignment issue, the bottom hinges will be affected first.