Anyone use Green Hinges for their garage door(s)?

I was just outside doing some more cleanup in the garage in preparation for the arrival of Project SE-R. With our current weather of ~15deg with 20+mph winds banging the doors, I was reminded of how poorly sealed the doors are.

These seem like a good solution, and there are some favorable reviews on GarageJournal. Anyone on GRM have them?

https://www.youtube.com/embed/dDTLs4KOGZ0

In the interest of science, I think you need to buy these and post a full report on the results !!

Okay that's cool.

Do you use a specific door seal with them?

Kinda cool.

You can get foam seals for the side and top of garage doors that attach to the door opening. Let the foam seal comply with the door.

I got some spending money for Christmas, I think these hinges and a set of nylon roller will be in the mail soon.

Interesting...

So why not just adjust the tracks like they show in the video? Maybe try not to look quite as hapless with a wrench.

Yeah, a new sweep and adjust the tracks if needed should fix this issue.

In reply to Keith Tanner:

Probably going to give that a try tomorrow to see if I can improve it at all before I go spending money on fancy roller hinges.

Anybody got a link for a tutorial on how to adjust and seal the doors ? I can see daylight through mine, get bugs and drafts, etc. Before i dump money, id like to try yalls suggestions.

In reply to Dusterbd13:

Someone may chime in with better stuff, but I found this

I have adjusted mine a couple of times. I would rather spend an hour installing the hinges once than have to readjust the door every couple of years. Though you will still have to adjust the top of the door, like in the video STM317 found even with the spring hinges.

um, I looked at my own hinges and they look the same minus the spring. Why can't I just add a spring to mine?

i.e. what is the advantage of the "slotted" hole?

In reply to Robbie:

The slotted hole allows the spring to move the door away from the track, and closer to the weather stripping (closing up any gaps). If the hole weren't slotted, the spring has no purpose, and the whole hinge would stay the same distance from the track/weather stripping.

If you think of it as car suspension, the spring plays the same role of providing the primary force opposite the surface the wheels ride on, and the slot is what allows it to "travel".

I use this. No need for fancy hinges, etc. Have had it on for ~15 years now and it still seals up very well.

I should probably change the thread title to 'GRM tricks to avoid dying of exposure in your own garage' or something similar. .

I dressed up in double layers of everything and went out to do some door maintenance this morning. I did see something cool this morning, though: there were two water bottles on the workbench. One was frozen solid, the other was still liquid. When I picked it up, it flashed to frozen! I'm guessing the water was supercooled?

I discovered I won't be getting those hinges right now, as that money will be used to replace one of the door openers . I already have the door stop molding that Hal linked above, but still pretty big gaps, especially on the larger door when the wind is blowing.

I noticed that on my doors, there are big gaps at the base of the door. I grabbed a scrap of 1x2 and some foam pipe insulation, and created some gap seals for the corners. I cut the pipe insulation down to 3/4 round, and put a couple screws in to hold them on:

(The half-sunk screws are for mounting to the door frame). And in place:

Much less light, snow, and cold air coming in at the lower corners now! I don't think they'll last too long, but at least I'll get my money's worth!

The last picture also points out another issue. I was going to try and adjust the roller tracks a bit closer to the wall to tighten up the gaps, but you can see that the bracket between track and wall has rivets, and they are set all the way out. Can I just drill those out and use nuts and bolts?

I'll also be getting new door bottom seals; they're both rock hard after 20 years and let snow blow in at a couple spots. Too cold to deal with that today; I'll tackle that later in the week when it's back in the 50s.

My final tip of the day - after returning from Home Depot - open the car hood to provide a few more BTUs .

XLR99 wrote: The last picture also points out another issue. I was going to try and adjust the roller tracks a bit closer to the wall to tighten up the gaps, but you can see that the bracket between track and wall has rivets, and they are set all the way out. Can I just drill those out and use nuts and bolts?

Looking at that pic, it looks like the door is not installed correctly. The tracks on mine are aligned so that there is only ~1/4" clearance between the door and the frame all the way up to the top. Rather than mess with the tracks the easy way to adjust that is shims/washers between the door and the brackets with the rollers.

In reply to Hal:

It's quite possibly not installed right, based on the generally poor build quality of this place. There is ~3/8" gap on average, but also quite a bit of slop between the rollers, axles and tracks.

For some reason, it never occurred to me to just shim the hinges away to move the door ; thanks for the suggestion!

I added two washers under each bracket, which gives ~1/8" of shim. I did it after dark, so no clue how much light still comes through, but it definitely makes a difference with air leakage. I'm pretty encouraged, though.

Now I just need to re-stock on 1/4, 5/16 and 8mm washers...

Hmm... What prevents the spring from pushing the door against the jamb when the door is in motion so it won't bind?

Also, the slots in the hinge that allow for movement are not that big, so how much gap can these hinges take up?

Seems like the door still has to be adjusted pretty close, certainly not like the inches of gap in the doors they show in the video.

Hal wrote: I use this. No need for fancy hinges, etc. Have had it on for ~15 years now and it still seals up very well.

Those are good. If you have that style trim and have a gap you can pop it off and renail it to the frame closer to the door to close the gap. But not in january. It is made of vynil and will break when treated roughly and it is really cold.

Hal wrote:

XLR99 wrote: The last picture also points out another issue. I was going to try and adjust the roller tracks a bit closer to the wall to tighten up the gaps, but you can see that the bracket between track and wall has rivets, and they are set all the way out. Can I just drill those out and use nuts and bolts?

Looking at that pic, it looks like the door is not installed correctly. The tracks on mine are aligned so that there is only ~1/4" clearance between the door and the frame all the way up to the top. Rather than mess with the tracks the easy way to adjust that is shims/washers between the door and the brackets with the rollers.

Its installed correctly. If you drill out the rivets there is a special 1/4" screw made to go in the slotted hole between where the rivets are. I don't know the name but it has splines and looks like a tiny wheel stud. I wouldn't bother with shimming the hinges, I would install new trim (weatherstripping) that fits to the door.

SVreX wrote: Hmm... What prevents the spring from pushing the door against the jamb when the door is in motion so it won't bind?

The vertical tracks aren't parallel to the wall, they slope away.