It felt like such a good, time saving investment when you first bought that automatic garage door. Now it just stresses you out, because on any given day it gets moody and decides not to listen to you. Sound familiar? Well hold that thought, because more likely than not, there is a very logical and reasonable explanation for your garage door problems, most of which are easily remedied for little to no cost. Before you completely give up on your investment, take a look at the following possibilities and what to do about them:
- Check the batteries: It’s easy to assume the worst, that there’s something very seriously wrong with your door that will require a fortune to have repaired. More often than not, it’s something much simpler, like the batteries in your remote transmitter. After switching them out, if the door still doesn’t work, check batteries in the transmitter on the wall. In any case, you probably put those batteries in on the same day as the remote, so it would only make sense that they’d both go out around the same time.
- Line up the photo eyes: If your automatic garage door continues to not cooperate, another possibility is that the photo eye is misaligned. Check both sides of the wall and check to make sure they are perfectly lined up. Once you’ve done that, be sure to clean them out a bit, as some dust or dirt could just as easily be disrupting their line of vision.
- Clean out the tracks: This is perhaps the most likely source of your frustration. If your door is going halfway down and then just opening again, it is almost definitely the tracks. That’s because debris in the tracks can set off a security sensor which makes the door think there is something beneath it. The purpose is to prevent it from crushing anybody trying to dive through the door before it closes (because people do that, foolishly). But, just so long as you keep up your maintenance, cleaning those tracks out every couple of months, or as often as you see fit, you will save yourself the trouble later. Moreover, upon cleaning the tracks, you should keep an eye out to check that the tracks are evenly aligned. Misaligned tracks can be a costly job that requires a professional, and the longer you neglect to address it the worse it becomes.
- Check the springs: If the door isn’t going up, and you’ve checked the batteries, the photo eyes, and the tracks, the next most likely sources is the springs. Again, the longer you wait, the worse it gets. All springs must be functional at all times in order for your door to operate. Any faulty spring will lead to a non-functioning door. So go check that out now, and get it fixed ASAP.
If your problems persist, and you are worried about doing more damage than good trying to fix them on your own, you can feel free to call us at 845-876-2772, or email us any time and we would be happy to give you a professional assessment on the status of your door.
