Bitterly cold temperatures test limits of cars, garage doors

When it's cold and your car battery quits, it's an inconvenience-but probably not a surprise.

But as temperatures hit zero and below a lot of things break that you never really thought of as cold weather sensitive.  That is, until they don't work and you need a service call.

That was the situation for Raymond Nelson, 4415 Lee St. N.E. on Monday.  He went outside to his garage and flipped the switch to open the door.  Nelson said “it went up about six inches and stopped and then it wouldn't work at all.”

Scott Wennermark of Overhead Door Co. got the service call.  Wennermark estimated that up to 90 percent of emergency garage door calls on bitterly cold days may have some connection to the weather.  Wennermark said motors on openers can fail, torsion springs can break and doors can get off track more easily.  But the number one problem, when ice is present, is rubber seals on big garage doors that get stuck to the ground.  He said homeowners who try to open doors without breaking the ice first can get an expensive surprise.

“Generally, they'll break the operator arm.  Worst case scenario, it'll tear the top door section in half.  Sometimes, it'll even tear the gears out of the opener,” Wennermark said.

Auto shops also see a burst of business as temperatures plummet.  And it's not always the car battery that's the culprit.  At Jim's Tune Up, one vehicle picked a very bad time for a heating system to conk out.  Owner Jim Hamblin said he's also seen electric window motors that freeze up and break as well as doors stuck shut.

But one typical self inflicted wound involves wiper blades.  A lot of people don't remove packed snow or break the ice on windshields before they turn on the wipers.  If the strain causes the wiper motor to fail then you're looking at a hefty repair bill.

“It can be hundreds of dollars if they do that.  That wiper motor's got a lot of power and it will break things,” Hamblin said.

Area plumbers also reported an uptick in calls for frozen water pipes.  But one service manager said the worst there is probably yet to come.  The weather's gotten cold enough to cause the usual problems.  But it gets worse when the wind blows and spreads the chill farther into homes.  If the winds pick up again when the temperatures go below zero, then the service calls will pick up too.