Your garage door opener will have a safety release cord that lets you disconnect the door from the opener whenever you need to. There are several reasons you may need to do this, but how do you get it connected again when you want it to work with the opener? Here’s how to reengage a garage door.
Your Emergency Release Cord
Every garage door opener unit should come with a release cord. These are essential parts of the unit and something you should know about. There will be times when you need to disconnect the garage door from that opening unit. The cord gives you a quick way of releasing the door, so you can open or close it manually. Knowing how to reengage a garage door by using it is highly useful.
Why You May Disconnect Your Garage Door Opener
Why would you pull that release cord in the first place? There are several reasons why you may have done this. You’ll need to reconnect that emergency cord after any of the following situations:
- You were working on the garage door: If you’re about to do any repair work on the garage door or the garage door opener, you won’t want anyone to activate the opener at this time. If you’re going to work on the door, you’ll want to ensure that the garage door opener is disconnected. At this point, you’ll disconnect it, so even if the opener is activated, it won’t be able to move the door.
- You had a power cut: If there’s no power in the area, you won’t be able to use your garage door opener. This doesn’t happen as much anymore, as you’ll see, most openers require a backup battery. However, if there were power cuts and the battery failed, you still need to be able to open the garage door. Disconnecting it from the opener will allow you to open and close it manually.
- The garage door sensors detect a blockage: Your garage door sensors are a key part of your garage door, and you need them to work perfectly. When operating as intended, they won’t allow the garage door to shut if something is blocking the door. If the sensors are stopping the garage door from shutting and there’s nothing there, you’ll need to disconnect the garage door opener so you can close the door and figure out the problem.
- Your garage door opener is malfunctioning: If you take good care of it, you shouldn’t have any problems with it overall. However, there may be times when you’re having problems with it. If the garage door opener isn’t working as it should, you’ll need to disconnect it from the door, so you can still open and close it. Once the opener has been fixed, you’ll want to reconnect that door opener.
How to Reengage a Garage Door Opener
You’ve had to pull the release cord on your garage door opener for whatever reason. How the issue you’ve had has been dealt with, you’ll need to reattach the opener, so you can use it as usual. In some cases, with newer garage door openers, you’ll see that the garage door opener will reattach itself automatically. You’ll see the mechanic outlined in your manual if yours does this. If your opener doesn’t have an automatic attachment feature, you’ll need to reattach it yourself. Luckily, this is fairly easy to do. Here’s how to reengage a garage door opener:
- Check your sensors: Before reattaching the garage door opener, you’ll need to be sure that nothing is obstructing the garage door. Check the sensors, and see if there are any blinking lights. If they are blinking, that’s a sign that something is in the way. Move any objects that may be near the garage door that could be interfering with the sensors. Check the photo eyes themselves if you’re still seeing blinking lights. As they’re close to the ground, they can get dirty. Give them a wipe with a soft cloth if that’s the case. If you still see the sensors blinking, they are most likely misaligned. You can easily adjust them by tying a string between them and using a spirit level to check if they’re level. If not, adjust the sensors until that string is level. That should correct the issue.
- Pull back on the release cord: Now you’re ready to get the garage door opener reconnected. Find the release cord, and pull back on it. It’s important that you don’t pull too hard on it, as that can damage the cord or the garage door opener itself. Pull back on the cord until you see the level connected to it attach itself to the garage door opener. Once that happens, you should hear it click into place.
- Try the door: Now that you’re reattached that garage door opener to the door, you’ll want to check that it’s working as it should. Use the opener to operate the garage door opener unit. At this point, it should be able to open and close your garage door as normal.
Still Not Working?
If the garage door opener still isn’t correctly attached to the garage door, you’ll need to go through these steps again. Check nothing is blocking the garage door sensors, and try pulling back on the cord again until you hear that click. If it still doesn’t work, you’ll want to talk to your local garage door repair company. They’ll be more than happy to help diagnose and fix the problem for you.
If you’ve had to pull the release cord on your garage door opener for any reason, you’ll need to know how to reengage a garage door once you’ve handled the issue. Luckily, it’s very easy to do. Just follow these steps, and you’ll be able to easily reattach the garage door to the garage door opener.
Conclusion
If none of the above steps have worked, you’ll need to call a garage door expert to help you. The wiring has likely become faulty in some way, so they’ll be able to diagnose and solve the problem for you. Now you know how to reengage a garage door and identify what’s causing the problem. Follow these tips, and you’ll be able to solve the issue if you ever experience it.