What to Do When a Garage Door is not Opening

When your garage door fails to open, it can simply mean that your door has developed a technical fault or probably someone locked the doors from the Inside. But who would want to do such a thing? In a real sense, your garage door can get jammed, rendering your cars homeless.

In this situation, the services of professional door technicians become very important. What if a contacted technician isn’t forthcoming? Which other option do you have left? This article on “what to do when a garage door is not opening” can be of great help.

Four Things To Do When Your Garage Door Won’t Open

1.   Align the Photo Eye

The photo-eye detects a person or an object. Sometimes, when your garage door fails to open, it’s because your photo-eye needs to be aligned. To align the photo-eye you have to:

• Remove dirt and dust from the photo-eye by cleaning it. Dust particles can clog the sensor sometimes
• Take out larger obstructions from the photo-eye like the two pieces that align both sides of a garage door.
• Assess the alignment of the two segments of the photo-eye
• Inspect the wiring of the photo-eye
• Inspect the LED light on each side of the sensor.

2.   Align the Track Properly

Some garage doors can make grinding noises and that could be as a result of misalignment into a track. As misalignment gets worse, the garage door might cease to open. To align the track of a garage door, you have to;

• Be gentle with the door and don’t force it to open
• While opening, use your eyes and ears. Ensure the four is gliding smoothly on the track
• Adjust the track
• Schedule an appointment with your garage door company.

3.   Fix Broken Tension Springs

This is a common fault in garage doors that makes them difficult to open. Most times the tension spring is affected by wear and tear. Tension springs bear the weight of doors and help in the opening and closing of garage doors. You know a broken tension spring when:

• The motor is running, but the door won’t open
• You hear a loud firecracker and straining noise from your garage door
• The garage door feels heavy when you try to manually open it.

Broken tension springs are heavy and can be dangerous. That is why it’s advised you don’t fix broken springs by yourself. Contact a professional door expert if the fault with your food is broken springs.

4.   Broken Remote Control

On a lighter note, a broken remote could be why your garage door isn’t working. It’s probably nothing new to you that automated garage doors are controlled by remote controls or wall-mounted panels. Here’s how to fix a broken remote control

• Get in close range with the door and see if the remote will work
• Fix the antenna
• Replace the battery
• Reprogram the remote
• Install an app that connects to your garage door
• Turn off the lock feature on your door control panel
• Check the door control wiring.

Conclusion

You no longer have to feel clueless the next time your garage door fails to open. Now you know what to do when a garage door is not opening. You’re free to bring a solution to any of the problems except if the problem is beyond your capabilities. Don’t forget you can get expert technicians from garage doors 101 to come to the rescue.