How to Troubleshoot a Garage Door Opener
A garage opener on a Fritz can be a frustrating experience even for the coolest of people. Fortunately, there are a few easy ways to troubleshoot your garage door opener and get it working again in no time. Here are a few things you can check before booking a service call.
If your door is not closed
Check the safety sensor
Garage door systems include security sensors that prevent heavy doors from crushing anything in the way. If you notice that the garage door is not closing or is only partially closing, the problem may be with your security sensor rather than the opener. Most garage door sensors are located on the sides of the door frame a few inches off the ground. Check first to make sure nothing is blocking them. The sensors in most systems light up when there is nothing between them. If yours are not lit, they may be defective or misaligned. Try to align them by making sure they point directly at each other. If they are bent a bit, it may cause the door to not close. Since security sensors are a critical safety component in a garage door system, we do not recommend that you attempt to repair/repair them yourself.
If your door doesn't open
Check manual lock
Before you go straight to troubleshooting a garage door opener, it's always worth checking to make sure the problem isn't with the door itself. Some garage doors have manual locks for added security, so check to make sure the manual lock isn't engaged first.
Check garage opener disconnection
All garage door openers come with a manual disconnect that you can use to manually open the door in the event of a power outage. Pull the red cord to disengage the garage opener and attempt to manually open the door. If the door won't open manually, the problem may be with the garage door rather than the door opener, and you'll need a qualified service technician to diagnose and repair the door.
Check the remote
It might sound silly, but the solution to your garage door remote not working might just be a set of dead batteries. If you've replaced the batteries or are sure they're not the problem, try the opener's wall switch. If the wall switch works but the remote doesn't, check to make sure the lock switch on the wall control is not on. If the lock switch is activated, the remote will not work, but the wall control will still open and close the door. Closing the lock should get your remote working again. If not, there may be a problem with your remote, the corkscrew's receiver, or both. While you can easily buy a universal garage door remote or a new receiver, we still recommend that you follow the rest of this guide to avoid wasting money on things that may not fix your problem.
Check the wall switch
If your door still operates from the remote, not the wallstation, you may need to replace the wallstation. This may seem simple, but with many newer corkscrews not just any wall control will work, and it often has to be the exact same control or it won't work.
