How to open a heavy overhead door?

Question

We have an overhead door at work that's the same size as a double-car garage door, but my boss has a large fan bolted to it that weighs about 100lbs. It usually takes two or three of us to lift the door because it's so heavy. Is there a way to make it easier to open? I don't think electric garage door openers are meant to handle all that extra weight, and I doubt the springs should be tightened much more than normal, but I don't know much about it.

Update:

It isn't dangerous. What is hi_lo?

fozzel · Accepted Answer

Employ, a temporary, burly Bouncer,  ie; One built like a brick, sh*t-house to do the lifting 
 for you(s).
  Save Your back in the long-run.(Hth).

mikeamadison@sbcglobal.net · Answer

The only proper way is to reengineer the springs, but even that will not work well cause that fan makes parts of the horizontal square footage of the door unequal. This means one of the door sections is much heavier than the others or the inverse.
If you tighten the existing springs the door will become very hard to pull down and probably will not stay on the ground by itself. 
To get a heavy duty opener will not help either because the danger of an unbalanced door is camouflaged with the door being held only with the opener.
The best idea is to restore the door to what it was before. Check to see the door sits on the ground, stays reasonably in place as you raise it by hand, and stays in place when raised fully.

YAMESU · Answer

They make garage door openers in all sizes now.  A quick look in Google will lead to hundreds of them.  They size the springs by the width of the door and weight. The fan on the door is strange.  I don't think it would pass inspection.  I would put it in a wall.  Like how does it work when the door is up? hi is high speed, lo is low speed.

Anonymous · Answer

Take fan off the door befor some one gets hurt. Call OCEA,they will tell your employer to take it off. Or use the hi_lo to lift it !

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How to open a heavy overhead door?

4 Answers