An automatic garage door that opens, turns on the lights, and closes with the touch of a button without you having to get out of your car is a wonderful convenience and safety feature of many homes. But when your garage door is acting up it can be a source of endless frustration.
Most garage door repairs are best completed by a trained garage door technician. Garage doors are much heavier than they seem and their lift systems are equipped with large lift assistance springs under a lot of pressure. Unless you know what you are doing, it is very easy to be injured working on a garage door. With that said, there are a few things you can check before calling the garage door service company.
If the door stops working completely check your circuit breakers to make sure there is power to the opener. If the opener keeps tripping the breaker, you have a serious problem and should call a garage door service technician. If you have power to the opener, your safety sensors may have been knocked out of alignment. These are photoelectric sensors usually located near the floor level. They must point at each other and not be obstructed.
If the opener seems to be running but the door doesn’t move, the door may have been disconnected from the opener at the safety release. You can usually re-connect the door by operating the opener to the open position, then manually lifting the door until it engages with the opener carriage. If the door is heavy and difficult to open, call your garage door service company. You may have a broken lift assist spring.
If your garage door is still not operating properly, call your local garage door repair service.
