So you went to close your garage door today only to discover that the motor won’t close from your garage door remote, keypad or wall button so you think you’re in need of a garage door repair. Don’t panic and call your local garage door repair company, yet!
Before you call for garage door service and repair there are a few things you can try on your own and possibly save yourself some time and door opener repair money.
The first thing you can check on your own is with the door in the open position press and hold the wall control through the entire closing cycle of the garage door opener. If your garage door opener successfully closes the garage door you have now narrowed the problem to your infrared safety sensors. Infrared sensors can often be a simple garage door opener repair.
If you have a Genie or Overhead brand automatic garage door opener you can unplug the motor from the outlet on the ceiling for about 30 seconds and see if this resets your infrared safety sensors or not. Try your unit from the wall button again if your garage door opener functions properly you have successfully repaired it yourself for free.
If this doesn’t solve your problem or you have a different brand of garage door opener such as Liftmaster, Linear, Chamberlain or Sears Craftsman the next thing to check is the infrared sensors themselves. First check and make sure that your garage door sensors are not blocked or partially obstructed by garage items, dirt, cobwebs or bugs. Also check the bottom edge of your garage door for cobwebs and leaves etc. that might interrupt the infrared safety beams. Simply cleaning away debris can save your-self a garage door repair.
If your garage door sensors aren’t obstructed and your garage door opener still won’t close the next thing to check is the alignment of the infrared sensors themselves. Often your garage door opener’s infrared sensors are bumped out of alignment because of trash cans, mowers, bicycles etc. Your infrared sensors have to see each other and can be adjusted up and down or in and out so check them for proper alignment before you call your local overhead door company for a garage door repair.
