Air Lift Doors Problem

[UndertakerII]

My wash setup uses the Extreme Rollup Series doors from Air Lift and I've been having issues in the cold weather with one of them not functioning properly. In the cold weather it may stay open/open to far or closes to far. When it does this I have to manipulate it back into proper position then readjust the cams to set the open and closed limits. I've had to do this two times in the last month and I'm kind of stumped. Once it's been reset it seems to fine for an extended period of time but I'm still leary of things freezing up if I don't spot it in time. Has anyone experienced anything similar with these doors? Thanks! Kevin

 

[BCWS]

My wash setup uses the Extreme Rollup Series doors from Air Lift and I've been having issues in the cold weather with one of them not functioning properly. In the cold weather it may stay open/open to far or closes to far. When it does this I have to manipulate it back into proper position then readjust the cams to set the open and closed limits. I've had to do this two times in the last month and I'm kind of stumped. Once it's been reset it seems to fine for an extended period of time but I'm still leary of things freezing up if I don't spot it in time. Has anyone experienced anything similar with these doors? Thanks! Kevin

Which one of them - the exit door? If a vehicle does not fully exit, the door will not close. There may be a time setting to close tied to when the dryer stops, and if a vehicle remains in the doorway beyond this time, the door will remain open and you will have to manually close the door. I've also seen cars that go forward and back up while under a dryer. Depending on your set up, if the door sensors sense a vehicle but then the vehicle backs up out of the sensor path and pulls forward again this can also cause the door to stay open (depending how the doors programmed). As far as opening/closing too far, if the doors are tied into your wash equipment, they may be receiving the incorrect output signal and closing when closed or opening when open. I have only seen the later when the doors were tied to the car wash controller and the car wash controller was reset.

 

[UndertakerII]

This is the entrance door and it appears to happen first thing in the morning when it's been extremely cold over night. I spoke with one of their techs and they have an upgraded sealed micro switch that I'm going to try because the original one's apparently are/were prone to freezing. This may make sense in my case since once it's back functioning properly it's been good for the rest of the day. Has anyone else experienced this where the motor and gear box are inside the wash bay? Kevin

 

[BCWS]

Still would not account for the issue of opening/closing too far. I've only seen that happen when the door gets the wrong output signal (wiring issue).

 

[BBE]

I had a switch go bad once from too much condensation, but never any freezing problems. All our motors for the doors are inside the bays.

 

[gearhead]

I had this happen to me a couple of times early this month in really cold weather. Door wouldn't close after car exits. Manually moved the micro switch a few times and it worked fine. Are your entrance doors the ones that take the wind? Do you run covers on them? I have found that I have to remove the covers to let the bay heat help keep them a little warmer. When temps come up a little I put them back on. (Good to know about the new micro switches. I will hit Jim up for some of those myself) I have heard that guys up north are using tape heaters or putting light bulbs in the covers for the heat. The wind blowing up under the door is the bad part. I am experimenting with a tarp that covers the front top 3rd of the door opening to deflect the wind from entering.
As far as the opening too far or closing to far, do you have the newer style motors that have the VFD in the control box? if so, what speed are you running them?

 

[sparkey]

Still would not account for the issue of opening/closing too far. I've only seen that happen when the door gets the wrong output signal (wiring issue).

The car wash equipment has nothing to do with how far open or how far closed the door goes. The carwash equipment only gives an open or close signal to the opener. The micro switches on the opener control where the door stops.

 

[cdreed06]

I have had a similar problem with my exit door, in extreme cold it will freeze up somewhere and go ever so slowly until it times out.
Then it will be partially open. I can then use the wrench provided and move it a bit until it loosens up and then it will go to working fine. My doors are mounted outside the bay. I also have some issues with the "whiskers" freezing solid and causing the doors to come down sideways too. I have made a habit of running my hand over the whiskers every cold morning and breaking up the frozen parts.

 

[UndertakerII]

I had this happen to me a couple of times early this month in really cold weather. Door wouldn't close after car exits. Manually moved the micro switch a few times and it worked fine. Are your entrance doors the ones that take the wind? Do you run covers on them? I have found that I have to remove the covers to let the bay heat help keep them a little warmer. When temps come up a little I put them back on. (Good to know about the new micro switches. I will hit Jim up for some of those myself) I have heard that guys up north are using tape heaters or putting light bulbs in the covers for the heat. The wind blowing up under the door is the bad part. I am experimenting with a tarp that covers the front top 3rd of the door opening to deflect the wind from entering.
As far as the opening too far or closing to far, do you have the newer style motors that have the VFD in the control box? if so, what speed are you running them?

This is exactly what I feel is going on here as well. I'm thinking a little bit of condensation in the switch which may tend to freeze up during the night and then not make contact to properly control the door. I've got the new switches coming and I will change them out and see what happens. Until then I'm shutting the wash down over night during these extremely cold periods! Thanks for the replies and I'll be sure to followup with my results. Kevin

 

[BCWS]

The car wash equipment has nothing to do with how far open or how far closed the door goes. The carwash equipment only gives an open or close signal to the opener. The micro switches on the opener control where the door stops.

You need to make sure the controller has separate dry contacts, can not be shared control circuit... I've been to sites where they did not have a separate dry contact and where opening the door off the dryer contact and closing off a timer. When power goes out or the machine is reset closed doors would close, open doors would open. Just saying...