If you have an older garage door opener, you might encounter a variety of issues over time. The garage door opener carries a lot of weight and provides a function we often overlook. If you’re opening and closing your garage door several times per day, it’s important to keep the opener in prime condition.
In this article, we’re taking a closer look at 5 garage door opener issues and how to fix them.
5 Garage Door Opener Issues
Your garage door opener is something you often don’t think about. It’s a part of your daily routine, to be able to drive in and out of your garage without having to get out of your car. Sometimes though, things go wrong and the door opener won’t work. If this happens to you, there’s no need to panic. Instead, take a look through this list of garage door opener issues. One of them is bound to be what you’re experiencing, and in the vast majority of cases, you can fix it yourself.
Here are 5 garage door opener issues and how to fix them.
1. The Opener Isn’t Sending A Signal
Whether you have a remote you have to push the button on, or one that sends a signal directly to the opener, you’re finding that it’s not doing as it’s supposed to. You press the button, and nothing happens. It’s worrying, but there are several reasons why you may be experiencing this.
Firstly, open up your remote and check the batteries. If they’re dead, the remote isn’t going to work. Change the batteries out and see if that solves the problem. Check the battery contacts too while you’re at it. It may be that they’ve become rusted. This isn’t something to worry about, as you can polish them to get them working again.
If these don’t work, check to see that the garage door hasn’t been locked shut. If it’s been manually locked, the garage door won’t open even though you try and open it with the remote. Check the lock, and unlock it if needs be. Another very simple solution is to check the opener stop cord. This is a cord you pull to disconnect the opener from the track and is designed to keep you safe when you’re working on the door. If it’s been pulled, that door isn’t going to move. Reconnect the door to get it moving again.
2. Garage Door is Opening of its Own Accord
It sounds bizarre, but it happens. You’re not doing anything, but the garage door opener is opening the door. Conversely, you’re trying to open the door, but it’s not actually opening. That’s because it could actually be opening your neighbor’s door instead.
This is because of radio signals that openers use to communicate. If the signal is too similar to one nearby, the signals are confused. That’s how your garage door starts opening when someone else is trying to open theirs. Talk to your neighbors if this happens. Are they finding their garage doors are doing this too? If so, you can change the radio signal your opener uses, so they won’t be activating the other door anymore.
3. Garage Door Won’t Shut All The Way
Are you find that the garage door gets most of the way down, but then auto reverses before it touches the ground? That’s because it believes something is blocking the door and is opening again as a safety precaution. This is an essential feature on most garage door openers, as it stops it closing on anyone or anything that may be in the way of it.
If this is happening to you though, there’s going to be an issue with the photo eyes. These are what sense there’s something in the path of the door. They sit either side of the doors and shoot a beam of light between them. If the beam is broken, that’s what triggers the auto-reverse.
As the photo eyes sit close to the ground, they can get dirty and this blocks the beam. Wipe them off with a soft cloth, and see if that helps. If not, the photo eyes may need to be realigned. This is much simpler than it sounds. To do this, you’ll need to tie a piece of string between them. Adjust the eyes until they’re both levels, which you can test with a spirit level on the string. Once you’ve done that, you can see that your auto-reverse should be working again.
4. Limit Setting Problems
The limit settings on your garage door are another reason why the door may not close properly. These settings are what tells your garage door opener how far the garage door should go before it hits the ground. This is why the door opens back up again. If the limits are set too high, you’ll see that the garage door opener thinks that it’s hitting something in its path, rather than the ground itself. This is why it opens back up again.
This usually happens with brand new garage doors or openers that have been reset. This is because the limits haven’t been set yet, so they won’t be correct.
Luckily, this issue is quite easy to fix. Look for the dials on your garage door opener that manage the limit settings. If you’re not sure where they are, you should be able to check the manual in order to find them. Once you’ve located them, you can make some adjustments. You may have to keep trying the door until you can get it just right.
5. The Springs Or Cables Are Broken
If your opener isn’t having any effect on the door, it may not actually be a problem with the opener at all. It could actually be that the springs or cables responsible for opening the door are broken. If you’re home when the springs break, you’ll know about it as they make a loud banging noise as they snap. As these are what provide the tension to open the door, it won’t be able to do so when you try and activate it.
There are guides online to help you repair these, but it’s often better to get an expert to handle it for you. Garage springs in particular can be dangerous, and you don’t want to get hurt doing the repair.
These are the five most common reasons why your garage door opener isn’t working as it should. Use this guide to locate the source of the problem, and often you’ll be able to fix it yourself.
If you’re having trouble with your opener or you’re interested in purchasing a new LiftMaster garage door opener, give Your Garage Door Guys a call for an estimate.