When your garage door opener is not working, it can be stressful to try to figure out why it is not working and what the solution is for the problem. Do not worry as we offer a list of potential reasons why it might not be working and what you can do to address the problem. These common issues and fixes are relatively simple so you can follow them by yourself. However, if you are having any trouble with any of these issues and cannot figure out how to address them yourself, it would be ideal to get in touch with a licensed technician so that they can get the job done for you quickly and safely.

You might find that any way of operating the opener is not working. This means that the remote or wall switch are not working and the reason for that might be that the source of power is not functioning properly. You might find, in such a scenario, that the motor unit is unplugged. To fix that, all you have to do is look at the power outlet and plug the motor unit in properly. If that does not fix the problem, it may mean that some other electrical component, like the circuit breaker or fuse, has tripped or is not working at all. If the circuit breaker keeps tripping, it might indicate a short circuit, potentially even in the garage door opener. Another reason why the opener may not be working is because the motor unit might be malfunctioning. For that, you will most likely have to have it replaced.

The garage door opener may not be functioning through the remote or the keypad. It might not be working through the remote because you might be out of range from the opener. Standing just an additional foot away can be out of range, so move closer to the opener and try again with the remote. The motor unit has an antenna on it which should be facing down. Inspect the antenna to make sure that it is facing the right way and is also not damaged. If you can open the garage door with the wall switch but not the remote or the keypad, they might just need new batteries. If nothing seems to work, the remote control and the keypad may need to be reprogrammed. Electronics can have technical faults and can lose their settings. For this, you may want to look at the manual or do some research to determine how your specific opener needs to be programmed.

Reversing Door

Your garage door does not close fully or closes and then reverses to open again. The close-limit switch is usually the reason for this. A close-limit switch determines how long the motor needs to run to close or open the door completely. If that switch is set incorrectly, it will run for too little time or too long. It is a safety feature in garage doors to make sure that it does not hit anything and does not close while anything is in its way. A small adjustment can correct this problem but make sure to be careful since even the smallest of turns of the screw can make a big difference. Safety sensors that have something in the way or are misaligned also make it difficult for the door to close. Flashing lights are an indicator that something is wrong with the sensors so the problem is easy to detect. Clean the sensors, realign them, and make sure nothing is in their way to ensure they work properly. Misaligned tracks or rusty rollers can also cause the opener to not work properly so inspect them regularly and realign and clean them, respectively, to keep them in perfect working order.

Resetting Options

If the garage door reverses before it even touches the floor, this can be because the closing force of the garage door opener needs to be reset. The rollers have friction in the tracks, sending signals to the opener that the door has reached the floor. All you need to do for this is adjust the opener to decrease the sensitivity to allow the door to close fully before the motor turns off. Rusty or dirty rollers can also be the cause of this problem, so clean and lubricate them to avoid it happening due to malfunctioning rollers.

If your garage door stops operating properly as soon as the weather changes, it is most likely the change in weather that has caused the problem as opposed to anything else. The garage door might not open properly or easily in the winter. That can be because rollers can become stiff and the door opener might not function properly because of that. To rectify this problem, as cold weather approaches, make sure to keep rollers and other parts of the garage door lubricated so that everything can operate smoothly. You may also have to adjust the sensitivity of the door opener. You can consult a professional for that or you can also look through the garage door opener manual to determine how that can be done since each opener has varying ways of sensitivity adjustment.

Your garage door might open properly but even after it has opened, the motor can keep running. Although this problem is rare, it can happen and is easily detected. All you need to do for this is move the up-limit switch away from the motor and that will solve the problem. If the door does not open completely, the opposite may be true: the up-limit switch may need to be moved closer to the motor unit.

If you are not sure as to how you should proceed when you encounter any of these garage door opener issues, you can easily consult a professional locksmith service in Lawrenceville, GA, and the licensed technicians can not only assist in person, they can also guide you over the phone and advise you on how to proceed with the solution.