The Main Reasons Why a Garage Door Will Not Open

One of the best things ever to be invented for homeowners is automatic garage door openers. That took what used to be a somewhat strenuous task and made it pushbutton easy. The only thing is it took a whole lot of more moving parts to make that happen. So, an automatic garage door is much more likely to breakdown than a manually opened one. One problem that many people experience with their garage doors is that they sometimes fail to open. If this happens to you, it can take the simple task of opening a garage door and turn it into a frustrating event. Here are some of the reasons that garage doors fail to open.

Safety Sensor is Blocked

One of the most sensitive pieces of equipment on your garage door system is the safety sensors that shoot a beam across the bottom of your garage door. And they have to be because you want that garage door to stop in a fraction of a second if a person or vehicle breaks the plane between the sensor beam when the garage door is coming down. But this can also backfire and cause the garage door not to open also.

If the sensors are malfunctioning or something is continuously blocking the beam, they will not let the garage door open.  So, if your garage door is opening make sure the safety sensors are emitting a beam of light and nothing is obstructing that beams path to the receiver side of the safety sensors.

Remote Issues

Here are some remote related issues that can cause your garage door to fail to open.

Dead remote battery

There may come a time when you press your garage door remote control and nothing happens. It could also be the case where you press the button ten times before the garage door goes up. Both of these are signs of battery issues. So, when this happens replace the batteries in the garage door remote and see if it functions properly after that.

Faulty remote

Garage door remote controls are not the sturdiest piece of equipment. That’s why as they sit in the sun on your hot dash or get smashed down in-between the seats in your vehicle, they can sometimes get damaged. When this happens your garage door most likely will not open again until you replace that remote. If you have a second remote try opening your garage door with it. If it works you most likely have a bad remote or dead battery.

Blocked sensor

Have you ever been frustrated when you were trying to change TV channels with a remote but it would only work when you pointed it at the TV in a certain angle? That most likely resulted from something blocking the path of the beam of light that the remote sent. The same exact thing can happen you your garage door remote.

Something could keep the remote signal from getting to the sensor and triggering the garage door to open.  So, don’t go throwing your remote control in the garbage until you are sure what is really keeping your garage door from opening. 

Opener Motor is Malfunctioning

Of course, if your garage door opener malfunctions your garage door is never going to open unless you do it manually. Although these are sturdily built garage door components, they are devices with many moving parts that have the potential to fail once in a while. Proper garage door opener maintenance goes a long way to keep these important garage door mechanisms from failing but there is still a chance that they will break down periodically. When that happens the garage door can only be opened manually until they are repaired or replaced.

Broken Garage Door Springs

Perhaps the most important part of any garage door system is its tension springs. They have the task of making a garage door easier for the rest of the opening system to pull up or close. When they break or are out of adjustment the full weight of the garage door is once again placed fully on the other equipment that works the garage door system and there is a good chance that that system cannot handle the full weight of the garage door. This will prevent it from opening until the garage door springs are repaired or properly adjusted.

An Obstacle Could Be Lodged in the Track

Although it does not happen often, there may come a time where something gets lodged in a garage door track. When this takes place the garage door rollers will catch on this item and it will stop the garage door from being able to fully open. Most often this occurs when something like a broom or a shovel that’s placed near the garage door track is moved or bumped on a way that causes it to fall over. Once this item gets wedged in the track it acts as a mechanical stop for the garage door and prevents it from opening.

It Could Be Frozen to the Ground

Sometimes Mother Nature herself will prevent a garage door from opening. This happens when snow or ice accumulate along the bottom of a garage door in the wintertime. During times of melting and refreezing these elements may form a solid wall of ice that actually freezes the garage door to the ground and prevents it from opening.

Call a Garage Door Professional if You Can’t Figure out Why Your Garage door Will Not Open