Why Isn’t My Garage Door Working?

If you get home, press your garage door remote and the thing won’t open or won’t close, it can be extremely frustrating. Your first instinct may be to call the garage door repair professional, and you just might have to do that. But before you make that call, here are a couple of things you can try:

Check Your Photo Eye Sensors

All garage doors installed in the last 25 years are required to come with photo-eye safety sensors. This is what prevents the door from coming down with you, your child or your car underneath it, doing untold damage. The way it works is with two photo eyes, one on either side of your door, that transmit a laser beam across the bottom. If something like your foot interrupts that connection, the door won’t come down. If your door isn’t coming down, it just might be that one of those eyes is blocked, too dusty or not lined up with the other one.

Check Your Remote’s Batteries

This may seem like an obvious one, but many a garage owner has slapped their head after hours of frustration or a visit from the repairman when they realized they never made sure to check if it’s the door or the remote that is not working. If you can open or close the door using the keypad on the wall or an enabled smartphone app, try changing the batteries on the remote and see if it works after that.

See if the Disconnect Switch Is Activated

If you can’t open the door remotely and you’ve changed the batteries, check to see if you can open the door by hand. If you can, you may have tripped the disconnect switch, which is usually attached to a string hanging from the top of your garage. It’s there in case the power goes out and you need to open the door manually, but it’s possible to trip it by accident. If you did, just reattach it.

Determine if Your Torsion Springs Are Broken or the Door Is off Track

If you’ve tried these other possibilities and the door still won’t open or close properly, you might have a problem that requires professional intervention. Some common problems you may encounter of this nature are a broken spring or a door whose rollers have come off the track. Both problems and others like them are dangerous to attempt to repair yourself, so you should always call a professional to help.

In the Northern Idaho or Spokane, Washington areas, that professional should come from Continental Door. We have years of experience dealing with these types of problems and can have your door back in business in practically no time. Contact us for quality garage door repair service today.