If you have a garage, you need to know a few things about troubleshooting a garage door opener. The more you know, the more likely you will be able to identify the problem.
With that said, garage door openers involve a variety of moving parts and mechanics. If you’re not familiar, it might be best to contact a professional and ask about their garage door opener repair services.
In this article, you will learn everything you need to know about troubleshooting a garage door opener.
Troubleshooting A Garage Door Opener
There are several reasons why a garage door opener might stop working properly.
Maybe it won’t open with the remote, or the door won’t open all the way. Whatever the issue is, you’ll be able to get it sorted with these troubleshooting tips. Follow these steps to weed out the problem and put it right quickly.
Here’s what you need to know about troubleshooting a garage door opener.
Take A Look At Your Door
The garage door itself is the first place you should look when troubleshooting a garage door opener. You need to be sure the issue is with the garage door opener rather than the door itself. Pull the emergency release from the opener, and then lift up the garage door. If it opens smoothly, then you know that the issue isn’t with the door.
If it doesn’t, then there could be a problem with the rollers, tracks or springs that you’ll need to investigate. For example, worn-out springs or bent tracks can cause problems for the door when you try to open it.
It’s also worth noting if the door was locked manually. If it is, then it won’t be able to move even if you use the garage door opener. Unlock it and try again to see if this solves the issue.
Check Your Batteries
This is probably the most common reason why your garage door opener isn’t working. If the batteries in the remote have worn down, then it can’t send out the signal needed to open it. Simply change out the batteries and try again.
Take a look at the contacts when you open the battery compartment, too. Are they corroded? If so, you’ll need to polish them and then try again.
Look To See If It’s Unplugged
Here’s another very common cause of garage door opener issues. It may simply be that it was unplugged without you knowing about it. If you’ve recently worked on the garage door, you may have forgotten to plug the opener back in, or it may just have got knocked out of place. Plug it back in, and try again.
Also, remember that there’s the emergency release pull, too. This takes the carriage off the assembly, so it can’t move the door. Check this hasn’t been pulled as this could be why you can’t open your door.
Realign Your Safety Sensors
You may have no problem getting the garage door to go up when you need it to, but when you try and close it it auto reverses. The auto-reverse is there as a safety feature, and usually, it comes into play if something is in the way of the door. If it’s doing this when the way is clear, there’s an issue with your sensors.
These sit at either side of the garage door near the ground and emit a beam of light between them. If that light is broken, then they’ll force the auto-reverse. Fixing this issue is quite simple. Firstly, give the sensors a clean with a soft cloth, as they may just be dirty.
If that doesn’t work, then you can realign the sensors. Tie a length of string between them, and then use a spirit level to check the alignment. Once they’re level, they should start working again.
Lubricate All Moving Parts
Is your garage door not opening at all when you try and open it? If so, you may find that simply lubricating the moving parts will get it working again. All the moving parts on your garage door should be lubricated once or twice a year, to keep them working. If you haven’t lubricated them in a while, that may be why you can’t get the garage door opener to work now.
The most important spot to lubricate, when it comes to the garage door opener, is the trolley carriage. This will allow the belt to move freely, and open the door. Make sure you use a lubricant that’s designed for garage doors, such as a lithium based grease, to get the best results.
Take A Look At The Chain Tension
On the subject of the trolley carriage, you’ll want to take a look at the chain tension if you’re not seeing the garage door open. The chain needs to be taught in order to open the garage door. If there’s too much slack in it, it won’t be able to work as needed.
You can easily re-tighten the chain so it has the right amount of tension needed. Usually, this should mean the chain is around ¼ to ½ of an inch of slack from the rail to the chain. Check your operator manual, as this will show you how to tighten the chain again.
Be wary of over-tightening the chain. When you do this, it puts extra pressure on the chain and allows it to wear out quicker. You may also see it skip off the sprocket and fall onto your car, damaging it. If you follow the instructions though, you should be fine.
Check The Travel Of The Door
Are you finding that the garage door won’t close all the way? Then the travel of your garage door could be to blame. You have two knobs on your garage door opener, and these are there to show it where the garage door should stop when you close it. If the settings aren’t correct, the opener thinks the door is touching the ground when it isn’t.
This is very easy to fix, though. Use the knobs to change the settings, until the garage door stops neatly against the weatherstripping on the ground. ?That way, you should have a good fit and the door should open and close as normal.
When to Call An Expert
In some cases, you may find troubleshooting a garage door opener can be difficult and not yield answers.
In these cases, there’s something more technical that’s causing the problem with your garage door opener. When this happens, it’s a good idea to call on the experts. They can diagnose and fix the problem for you, so you won’t need to deal with it for long.
Use these tips to help troubleshoot your garage door opener. In most cases, you’ll see you can easily solve the problem in minutes.