Garage Door Won’t Work, Things to Check Before Calling a Garage Door Company

You must be the luckiest person on earth, right? You have a meeting at 10, running a bit late, step in the car, press the remote to open the garage door and … nothing! Of all the times that this could happen to you. Of course, you have never had to repair your garage door before so you have no idea who to call. So, you decide to see what you can do to get the garage door working again.

Have You Been Paying Attention to Your Garage Door?

Sometimes, many of the serious problems that we face with our garage door could have been prevented. In many instances, there are some subtle signs of wear and tear that go unnoticed. If you aren’t paying careful attention to your garage door, it is very easy to miss many of these signs. So, if you want to prevent some of the problems that people experience with their garage door, you better stay paying attention to yours.

You don’t have to walk around the garage door and check it every day. That’s a bit much. If you feel so inclined though, go ahead and do so. But, you don’t need to inspect your garage door more than once every couple of months. This way, you will be able to catch many of the things that are going wrong and fix them before they get any more serious.

Not interested in inspecting your garage door? No problem. The garage door serivce providers from your repair company should be able to do it for you. They should also offer maintenance services so they can repair and replace worn out parts before they stop working altogether. Check out your local garage door repair company to see the many options that they offer. You may just be able to get a very good deal from them.

Before You Call a Garage Door Repair Company …

There are several things that may be causing your garage door not to work. If it is a quick fix, you should be able to fix it by yourself. So, here are some of the things that you should check before you call for help.

1. Check the batteries of your opener

   If your garage door opener uses batteries, they will go dead at some point in time. If you have been those batteries for a while now, make sure that you see if they are the cause for your door not working. If the batteries are dead, it simply means that they need replacing. If not, you will have to move on to checking some other area.

2. Look out for blockage to the door

   Sounds simple, right? It is. If you are trying to hurry off to somewhere, you may miss that item that is blocking your garage door. If you notice that the door is not working, check to see that there is nothing blocking the tracks or the door itself. Once the path is all clear, it means that this is not the problem. Now, it’s time to move on so you can check something else.

3. See if the manual lock is on

   Many garage doors have a manual lock on them. if the manual lock is engaged, you will have to disengage it before your opener can work. Whether it is a keyless lock or a keyed option, make sure you open that lock. Otherwise, your door will not open no matter how hard you try to open it. Once you disengage the lock, try to use the opener again. It should work now, but if that wasn’t the source of your problem, you have more checking to do.

4. Check for photo eye blockage

   The photo eye is a very important feature on a garage door. It is a small device that prevents the door from closing when something is in its path. The photo eye has sensors on it that detects objects in front of it. Once there is an object in its path, your garage door will not work. Remove any object that may be in its path so you can get the door to work. If the photo eye was not properly aligned, now is a very good time to adjust it too.

5. Determine if there is power going to the opener

   Is your door opener an electric powered one? Then, it has to be plugged in so it can work. Perhaps someone unplugged the cord without realizing or you unplugged it and forgot. Check to see that it is plugged in and the outlet is working well. If there was not power going to it before, obviously it wouldn’t have worked.

Everything Seems Fine but Your Garage Door Still Doesn’t Work

So, you’ve checked just about everything on your garage door and nothing seems out of place but the door still won’t work? Don’t despair! Don’t panic! It may just mean that the problem is bigger than you can handle. Garage door repair service providers will have a better idea of what to look for. Maybe you missed something while checking. Maybe it is a more complex problem. Who knows? But, a garage door service person will be able to diagnose the problem and offer a repair solution.