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As homeowners, we tend not to stress much over our garage door until something fails, breaks or starts making an unfamiliar noise. You rely on your garage door to safely open and close for your security and home comfort. When you have a problem, you put your vehicle and everything in your garage at risk. If your car is still inside when your door won’t open, you may have issues getting to work.
Whether you have a garage door opening and closing problem or another garage door issue that keeps it from working, find out what’s wrong and if you need a professional repair. When in doubt, call the expert repair technicians.
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Why My Garage Door Won’t Work
Several problems can keep your garage door from working. The issue could be as simple as an unplugged motor or as complex as needing a new garage door spring system. Your first step is to assess the problem so you can properly describe it to the garage door repair technician. If you have a minor issue, you might be able to fix it yourself, but it’s never a bad idea to call a professional for a thorough examination and repair of the problem. You could have more than one thing wrong with your garage door that needs an expert eye to spot.
1. Remote Stops Working
The first thing to do when your garage door won’t close or open is to check the remote. Electronic transmitters in your remote need to have power and proximity to work. If these remotes do not open your door, you may have an issue with the batteries or not be close enough for the garage door sensor to pick up the transmission. Replace the batteries, and always have your garage in sight when using the remote from your car.
Does the remote work but your door still won’t open? Contact Us to Fix the Issue!
2. Wall Switch Doesn’t Work
The wall switch inside your home already has power, but it may not move your garage door. Likely, you have an electrical problem. The circuit breaker for the wall control switch may have tripped. Other sources include bad electrical components such as the switch or needing a door opener motor replacement.
3. Door Changes Direction Before Closing
Look for your door going down, stopping and reversing direction suddenly. You may need to try a second time to close the door. This problem could stem from an issue with the sensor that prevents the door from closing on a person or pet in the way. Since 1993, these sensors have been standard issue for garage doors, but misalignment or debris can cause them to stop the door when it does not need to.
4. Seal Around the Door Leaks
Your garage door should have weather-stripping on all sides to keep outside air from affecting your home’s comfort. In addition to hot or cold air from outside, you can also get water in your garage when it rains. Replacing the weather stripping with a kit designed for your garage door may stop the leak.
5. Door Won’t Close All the Way
A door that does not close all the way may not have the correct adjustment for its close limit. Alternatively, you could have something blocking the path. Safety sensors may also have problems that prevent the door from fully closing. In rare cases, rust may cause the door to bind as it goes down, preventing it from fully closing.
6. Door Does Not Fully Open
While a door that does not close all the way is a problem, so, too, is one that will not open. If your garage door won’t open all the way, you have an issue that needs repair. Damaged rollers or an up limit that needs readjusting could keep your door from opening completely at any time of the year, but sometimes, the weather will affect your door’s ability to open.
Cold weather can stiffen the rollers, keeping them from working as they should in raising your door. You may need to make seasonal adjustments to the opener’s sensitivity. However, most garage doors manufactured in the last 15 years take the effects of the cold into account, and this problem occurs more rarely in newer models.
7. Door Sags
Wooden garage doors or those that have gotten older may start to sag as the stress of opening and closing over the years takes its toll. A consequence of the sagging is that the door becomes harder to move.
While you can have a sagging garage door repaired with tension rods, you may want to consider replacing it with an updated model that will move smoothly and give your home a fresh look.
8. The door comes off its hinges
More often than not, this issue is caused by one of the level tracks coming out of alignment, the metal bracket at the end of the track coming free or the bolts holding the bracket in place coming unscrewed. If the rollers are still in the tracks, close the door tenderly and firmly tighten the bolts holding the section set up. Additionally, take the time to ensure that the distance between the horizontal tracks is the same as the separation between the vertical tracks and that everything is parallel. If the door has fallen on the garage floor, don’t do anything! Call a garage door company A.S.A.P.
9. Sometimes the door opens and sometimes it doesn’t
There are two likely circumstances:
- The battery in your remote is dying. Simply change the battery in your remote. Take some time to change the batteries in your different remotes and if you have an outside keypad, change those as well.
- Another plausibility—although unlikely—is that if your opener was made before 1993, one of your neighbors may have a similar kind of gadget (utilizing a similar wave recurrence) with a similar transmission code. Have a good laugh and then change one of the code buttons on your remote (clasps: +, 0, – ), and that ought to fix everything.
10. When shutting, the door goes down a little and then abruptly goes back up
- In most cases, if you have an automatic photoelectric backup system (with sensor units put on each side of the door around 5-6 inches from the floor), the units are most likely misaligned. There’s an invisible beam of light that goes along the door frame. If the beam is cut off, the door interprets this as implying that somebody or something is in the way. All you need to do is adjust one of the sensor units with the other one. Investigate the control panel installed close to the door leading into the house. An indicator light should stop flickering.
- On each garage door opener, there’s a button for conforming the sensitivity of the motor when the door is shutting. You can turn it down a little by turning the button no more than a quarter-turn to the left. Check it by opening and shutting the door with the remote. The sensitivity must be properly adjusted. It has to do with one of the two backup systems that secure you, your friends and family. To ensure everything is properly adjusted, you have to lay a piece of wood (2 x 4) flat on the threshold of the door. When the door hits the piece of wood, the door opener ought to reverse its course, lifting the door back up.
Garage Door Troubleshooting Tips
If you see any of the previous garage door issues in your home, you can troubleshoot the situation to determine what precisely might be wrong and whether you need to call for professional help.
1. Why Does My Garage Door Slam Shut?
If your garage door slams shut suddenly, you have a dangerous situation on your hands. It is dangerous for you and your family to be near the door when it closes so quickly and can cause injury. There are two or three conceivable causes:
- In a 9 x 7-foot garage door, the torsion spring situated over the door, which fills in as a stabilizer, might be broken. If you have an expansion spring framework, in which the springs are situated over the flat rails, one of the two springs might be broken.
- On the off chance that you have a 16 x 7-foot door, most by far of which utilize a torsion spring framework, one of the two springs is presumably broken.
- One of the lifting links is broken or close to breaking.
Since this problem stems from the mechanisms supporting the garage door, you need a garage door company professional to repair the job. If a spring is broken, stop using your garage door immediately and call a garage door professional quickly. You may need the springs or cable to be replaced. Do not try to do this work yourself.
2. What Causes a Garage Door Not to Close?
If your garage door does not close, first check for something blocking the sensors. After clearing out any possible obstacles, see if the door works. If it still doesn’t close, you may need a garage door technician to make adjustments to the system. If you have poorly aligned sensors, a repairperson can put them back into their correct alignment to make your garage door safer to use. Should the problem be with the motor or the lift mechanism, you should let an expert handle those issues, too, so you get it fixed the first time.
3. What Causes Door Seal Problems?
If your door seal needs to be replaced, you could do the job yourself, but it can be a difficult task. If you get the wrong kit for weather-stripping your garage door, you could end up with a leaky door or not enough material to finish the task. Choose someone with professional experience to select the type and amount of sealing material to fix your door.
4. Why Does My Garage Door Not Open Fully?
For a door that does not open or open all the way, you may have electrical problems with the motor. If you do not hear the motor running when you try to open the door from the wall switch and remote, the motor or the power going to it could be the problem. These require professional work due to the risk of getting shocked.
For doors that don’t open during the winter, ask about seasonal readjustments of your opener. You may also need sensors or the door opener adjusted for a door that won’t open or open completely during any season.
Contact RCS Garage Doors for Garage Door Repair Today
Always discuss the issues you are having with a garage door professional in your area. They can email you a free quote for a service call or they would be happy to come to your home to correct whatever issue you’re having with your garage door. Don’t attempt dangerous repairs to your garage door yourself.
If your door doesn’t open or close, contact us at RCS Garage Doors for service. Our experts are trained to repair your garage door safely, timely and the right way. Your home, vehicle and garage contents depend on the reliability of your garage door. Don’t let your problems with it cause more issues. Get the help you need now from our experts at RCS Garage Doors.