As with any piece of machinery, there is a degree of malfunction that all garage doors will eventually encounter. The classical “Garage Door Opener” noise can mean anything from a dying motor to a broken chain, but the garage door isn’t going to open if something’s wrong.
You probably know that your garage door has an electric eye or a sensor on it. This is what tells the door to open when you are pulling into your driveway. If this isn’t working right, then your garage won’t open and close at all! There’s not much else it can do so there’s no point in having one if it doesn’t work.
Garage doors are like people: they only do what we want them to do when we ask nicely and give them proper encouragement. To know more on how to tell if the garage door sensor is bad, just click it.
The following is a list of signs for your convenience.
Are you locked out?
If this is the case, then it would be prudent to contact your local garage door, repair contractor. They should be able to help in any instance where you’re blocked because you lost your keys or remote. If you’re locked out of the garage because the door opener has been damaged, then you’ll still need to contact a professional.
Are the lights on your opener not working?
Sometimes a bulb will burn out or a fuse will blow suddenly and unexpectedly. It’s always a good idea to have extra fuses and light bulbs around – especially if they’re easy to replace – so you can easily fix this problem by changing out what needs replacing. Additionally, many openers have an indicator light that tells you when it’s running.
A red light usually indicates that there is a power outage – either in your house or at the transformer for your street – while a green one means everything is fine. Your garage door should function properly after the power comes back on.
Is your garage door open when it’s not supposed to be?
This may seem like a silly question, but there are multiple ways this can happen. First of all, you should check if someone is manually holding the button down – see if they’ve left anything under the button or forgotten something in the car. If everything seems normal here, then someone may have set off one of the other sensors (see below). Finally, you might just need to replace your battery.
One of these scenarios was probably what caused your garage door to open unexpectedly. The other two are also possibilities that will require more extensive repairs than simply changing out a light bulb or fuse! For all of these issues, it’s advisable to consult a garage door repair company rather than trying to figure out how to do it yourself.
Is something wrong with your sensors?
If you have multiple sensors under the cross-bar near the top of your garage door, then there are some quick tests you can perform to make sure they’re functioning correctly. Place an object – like your car key fob or cell phone – under the bar at waist height and close the door.
If nothing was obstructing them before, then triggering this sensor should cause the opener to stop immediately. Another test is turning off all lights in or around your garage so that each side of the set-up appears equally lit.
The two sides should appear identical to each other (if they don’t, then you may need to adjust them) and the sensor should trigger before your car hits whatever’s blocking it unless something is obstructing it from that side.
If nothing seems to be working as normal, then check out a repair company near you! It might just save your day.