Homeowners who predate Velcro remember getting out of their cars and lifting their garage doors by hand. Today, electric, automatic garage door openers are the norm, even in tract homes. Homeowners take these appliances for granted. That is, until they break.
“Then, they call us and say, `I pushed the button and heard a big bang. Now, it won’t work,’ ” says Jim Geltner, 42, service technician for Aurora-based McKee Door Sales & Service, a division of United Dominion Co.
The big bang story tells Geltner’s service manager that the caller probably has a broken spring–the No. 1 reason for opener service calls. No. 2 is frayed or rusted cables. Other common reasons homeowners need “the door guy,” as Geltner’s customers call him, are worn-out track rollers or doors damaged by miscalculating drivers.
One of McKee’s six residential servicemen (McKee also installs and services commercial doors), Geltner has been with the company since 1981. Before that, he learned the trade by serving a two-year apprenticeship with another company.
By 7:30 a.m., Geltner reports to the shop, where he picks up the day’s assignments and loads his truck with hand tools, welders, torches and replacement parts.
“I try to figure out which parts I need, based on what the customer told the service manager on the phone. But sometimes I have to go back to the shop for more. It would take a semi to carry all the parts for all the openers out there,” he says.
Geltner works alone, savoring the solitude and listening to classic rock between calls. Not the type to sit behind a desk all day, Geltner enjoys being on the go.
On the road
“A good day is when the weather is nice and everybody’s home when they are supposed to be,” he says. “We tell them if we’ll be there a.m. or p.m., so they don’t have to take a whole day off work. Some people have a neighbor come by. A bad day is when the homeowners aren’t there, and we have to leave cards asking them to reschedule.”
“Traffic really affects my schedule. So do the customers’ directions. A customer tells us, `Take Route 59, then turn right on George Street.’ Well, is that east or west on George Street?” says Geltner, an unflappable man who erases stress by playing golf or watching movies. (“Old movies, new movies, I like them all.”)
Geltner reaches his first job by 8 or 9 a.m. He works a 7- to 10-hour day, depending on the complexity of the jobs and the amount of travel time. Winter is his busy season because door opener springs snap more often in very cold weather.
“Most of my calls are within a 20-mile radius of Aurora, but I have gone as far as Wisconsin to do warranty work on doors our company installed for builders,” he says. “Beyond 20 miles, we charge for travel time.”
Although electric garage door openers have been around since 1926, makers have improved their safety over the years, says Geltner. In 1961, they introduced openers designed to reverse if they hit something or someone. A 1993 federal law says new openers must have electric eyes in the tracks to detect objects in their paths, so they reverse before making contact.
Geltner also replaces and repairs garage doors. Although 99 percent of the doors he sees are the steel, raised-panel variety, some older homes still have what he calls the dinosaurs of the business–old, cheap, wooden doors that rot with time.
“The best doors are the raised-panel doors made of quality woods. That’s what I put on my house. They cost more, but last longer,” says Geltner.
Yet, says Geltner, the life expectancy of a garage door opener depends more on the usage than the type of door. People who use the garage door as the family’s entrance, opening and closing it many times each day, shorten the life span of the openers.
Geltner offers these tips for homeowners to save themselves service calls: Make sure the opener is still plugged in. Check the battery in the transmitter (that hand-held thing in your car). If the unit was disengaged after a power outage, you might be able to reconnect it yourself by pulling the cord that hangs from the opener.
“I do not recommend that `Joe homeowner’ try to fix the springs,” he says. “This requires special tools. I’ve seen people really get hurt trying to do this themselves. They don’t realize how dangerous these are.”
Although Geltner routinely chases critters–mostly raccoons, chipmunks and mice–out of garages, he says the greatest threat to the door man is the family Fido.
“I’ve been bitten by several dogs after the owners said, `Don’t worry, he won’t bite,’ ” he recalls.
Other door-man bugaboos: Garages so crammed full of stuff the technician has little room to work. Expensive, antique cars parked in the way. And, stubborn homeowners.
Which brings us back to the big-bang theory.
“If one spring breaks, I usually suggest replacing the other one, too, if it’s old. That will save you a second labor charge if I have to come back soon to replace the other one. One lady didn’t want me to replace the second one. I said, `OK’ and left. Then, later that day, she called. The other one broke.”
