[Shop-talk] Garage door openers -- diff question

[Brian and Wendy Warrick]

Thinking totally outside the box, but how about a strip of low wattage heat trace cable attached to the concrete where the door contacts it. It could be plugged into a thermostat to come on below freezing or a timer to come on 1-2 hours before you leave for work and get home.

Maybe they make heat traced garage door seal?

Brian
________________________________
From: Shop-talk <shop-talk-bounces at autox.team.net> on behalf of Al Fuller <alfuller194 at gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, November 21, 2025 4:57 PM
To: Tim . <tims_datsun_stuff at outlook.com>; Shop Talk <Shop-talk at autox.team.net>
Subject: Re: [Shop-talk] Garage door openers -- diff question

Tim - Is there any way to keep the water off of the door? Gutters on the garage, perhaps?


===========================
Al Fuller
714.335.0248 Mobile


------ Original Message ------
>From "Tim ." <tims_datsun_stuff at outlook.com<mailto:tims_datsun_stuff at outlook.com>>
To "Shop Talk" <shop-talk at autox.team.net<mailto:shop-talk at autox.team.net>>
Date 11/21/2025 3:11:13 PM
Subject [Shop-talk] Garage door openers -- diff question

Another from my somewhat random question file while I wind down recovery from back surgery.....

When we bought this 120+ year old house, the original garage had already been replaced by an extra deep two car garage space. The car door is a segmented two car wide door that had a Wayne Dalton "i drive" opener. It died/failed over 15 years ago when we did not have the money to replace it. (still not sure how we got a mortgage back then when neither of us were making good money)

Anyway, near as I could determine back then between the error code lights and their CS help, the main board got fried when the door froze to the slab. Since the door requires basically no effort to open manually, I never bothered to replace the opener.

Forward all these years, I think it is time to replace the opener. Before I do, here is my question finally:

How TF do I keep the door from freezing to the slab again? I think(?) I can set it to not close all the way. BUT, with the way the weather is here and the amount of freezing rain we get here as well as the temp ups and downs, the "not all the way gap" would need to be too big and would allow wild life in.

Since the boss is the one who gets the indoor parking in the winter (I have to store either the Datto or the old Jeep elsewhere), I don't want her to have to kick the door in the mornings after a storm.

Thoughts please and thanks for reading my verboseness!!

tim



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