If your garage door won’t open, don’t panic. Sometimes it’s an easy fix that you can do on your own. To be honest, most times we get calls about a garage door that won’t open, it’s not broken at all. So before you decide to call a garage door technician, try these tips.

1) Is It the Remote?

Often, when a garage door won’t open, it’s simply a dead battery or dead remote – there’s nothing actually wrong with the garage door opener. To find out, just replace the batteries in your remote, try a different remote, or use the wall switch. If the remote is bad, which happens with time and use, it’s very easy to find a replacement garage door opener remote. Just take a look at your garage door opener’s motor unit and search for a remote that matches the brand and model. If you’re not sure where to look, just give us a call and we’ll find one for you.

2) Check Your Electricity

If your home doesn’t have power or a fuse was blown, then your garage door opener won’t work. Make sure to check the outlet your opener is plugged into and make sure they’re electricity going to it. Fuses blow all the time, especially in older houses. If the outlet your garage door opener is plugged into is a GFCI, it may have been tripped. Press the button in the middle and try the opener again.

3) Check for Obstructions to the Eyes

If there’s something around the base of the garage door, it might not open. This is because the sensors around the door check of obstructions and prevent the door from operating for safety purposes. Make sure there’s nothing in the way. You might also want to ensure your sensors are aligned on each end and that the lens is clean. Dirt and dust can build up on these sensors (also called eyes), and stop their ability to communicate. 

In some cases, bright, unrelenting sunlight can even stop your garage door’s sensors from communicating. And if the sensors can’t communicate, your garage door opener won’t engage – simple as that. If it is the sun, you can easily shade the eyes with a piece of cardboard, or you can even cover them with the tube from a toilet paper roll. However, if the sun is the culprit, you’ll keep having this issue, so the best solution would be to switch which sensor is on which side of the garage door. One sensor transmits and one sensor receives, so making sure the receiver can see what’s going on is really the key here.

Garage Door Still Won’t Open?

If your garage door won’t work, then there’s likely something else going on. If you don’t hear your garage door opener trying to lift the door, then the issue is likely with the opener itself. It’s possible that the circuit board malfunctioned, or the motor may have died. If you do hear the opener try to raise the door, then the issue may be with the garage door opener chain or the parts on your garage door itself. Whatever the issue, you’ve already gone through the list of easy and safe fixes, so now it’s time to call in the pros. We can diagnose and fix the issue quickly and safely.