Wayne-Dalton 9700 Garage Door Window Shatters

[FinallyGreen]

Our three model 9700 doors were installed July 2011. In February 2012 (cold, wintry here in Vermont) I opened one of the bays (not often opened) and when the door was about half-way open, one of the inside windows shattered in 1000s of pieces onto the floor. There was nothing leaning against the door or window and nothing hit the window or door on its way open.

Several months later the local dealer sent a "technician" to inspect and after hearing my description of what happened said "I've never seen a window shatter like that. Something must have hit it." The dealer said it was NOT a warranty repair. In that they didn't believe my description of what happened, they essentially called me a liar.

The General Contractor and the dealer worked out a deal where the dealer paid for a new window and the GC was to install it. The dealer delivered the new window with just some taped styrofoam sheets covering the window. The GCs tech showed up and when he picked up the styrofoam covered window to unpack it he heard it shatter and we saw that it was again in 1000s of pieces but they stayed in place.

The dealer has another replacement window and will be replacing the window themselves this time.

The warranty will soon run out. We don't know why the original window shattered nor why the first replacement window shattered and the dealer isn't motivated to find out. If there is an issue with the door installation and/or some other reason (poor window quality) I would like to know.

Your thoughts / advice will be appreciated.

 

[JimVonBaden]

Sounds like poor tempering of the glass, and it is a run of them.

Jim

 

[AndyL]

I have seen that - grab me a picture of the inside face of the door... one of the big issues with the 9700s is the section size when glazed - that top strut needs to be properly secured, often takes a couple extra teks over what the mfg'er provides... double check doors balance, should lift with only 2 fingers... and a side view of the operator J arm to door connection, because these are usually 30+" sections, its critical the the j is setup to lift first not just pull straight back...

 

[FinallyGreen]

Here's a photo of the shattered window opening and a portion of the J brackets.

You mention that a couple of extra teks may be necessary. What is a tek?

Is there another view that would be helpful to assess this situation?

 

[AndyL]

That's a 7' high door isn't it? I'll follow up by PM - that's probably easiest...

Basics of it, there's a reason for the fractures (there always is) in this case it's most likely one of 2 causes, one could be a bad routing job at the factory - which occasionally cause stress fractures (it's rare, but it's happened). But I'll put a bright shiney canadian nickle on the problem being related to flexing of the top section...

Teks, tecks, self drillers - pick your term, the self drilling screws that fasten the truss to the door face.

 

[rlewyou]

I was wondering if anyone has the Wayne Dalton part numbers for the 9700 door replacement glass. or a direct number to customer service/parts for same. our installer went out of business, and we too had a shatter issue with one window.