When your garage door won’t open, it is usually one of a handful of problems. Some you can check in a minute, like a tripped outlet or a dead remote battery. Others, like a broken spring, are dangerous to handle yourself. Here are the eight causes we see most often in Bay Area garages, how to tell them apart, and what to do about each.
One safety rule first: if you hear a loud bang and the door will not lift, do not pull the red emergency release while the door is open, and do not try to force the door up. Read cause 1 below.
This is the most common reason a garage door won’t open. The springs do the lifting, not the opener. When one breaks, you usually hear a loud bang from the garage. The door feels extremely heavy, the opener hums or strains, and the door may lift a few inches and stop. You may see a gap in the spring on the bar above the door.
Do not keep pressing the opener, since it can burn out the motor or strip its gear. Do not try to lift the door by hand. A spring replacement needs the right tools and training. See our spring repair page.
If nothing happens at all, including no light and no sound, check the power. Many garage outlets are on a GFCI circuit that trips easily, and the reset button may be on another outlet in the garage, bathroom or outside. Also check the breaker panel and make sure the opener is plugged in.
If the power is out in your area and your opener has a battery backup, it should still work for a limited number of cycles.
If the wall button works but the remote does not, start with the remote battery. Next, look at the wall control. Many LiftMaster and Chamberlain wall controls have a lock feature that disables remotes. It is easy to press by accident. If the lock light is on or the wall control shows it is locked, turn it off.
If the remote still does not work, it may need to be reprogrammed to the opener.
This one stops the door from closing. The small sensors near the floor on each side of the door send a beam across the opening. If something blocks the beam, or a sensor gets bumped out of line, the door will start to close and then reverse, and the opener light often blinks.
Clear anything in the way, wipe the sensor lenses and check that both sensor lights are on and steady. If one is off or flickering, the sensor is out of line or the wiring is damaged. These sensors have been required on openers since 1993, so never disconnect them.
If the opener runs and you can hear the chain or belt moving, but the door does not move, the opener may be disconnected from the door. This happens when someone pulls the red emergency release cord. Most openers reconnect when you run the opener through a full cycle or move the door until the trolley latches.
Only do this if the springs are intact. If a spring is broken, see cause 1.
If the door is crooked, hanging lower on one side, or a roller has come out of the track, stop using it. A snapped cable or an off-track door can fall. Keep people and cars away and call for help. See cable repair and off-track repair.
Some doors have a slide lock or a turn handle on the inside that pushes a bar into the track. If it is locked, the opener will strain and the door will not move. Check both sides of the door and unlock it before trying again.
If the motor runs but the chain or belt does not move, or the opener works one day and not the next, the opener itself may be failing. On many chain-drive models, a worn drive gear is a common cause. If your opener is more than 15 years old, replacing it is often the better choice. Newer openers are quieter, have battery backup and include modern safety features. See opener installation or the LiftMaster openers we install.
Call a professional if you hear a bang, see a broken spring or cable, the door is crooked or off track, or the opener hums without moving. These are not safe DIY jobs. Everything else on this list, like a tripped outlet, a remote battery, the lock button or dirty sensors, is safe to check yourself.
Not sure what is wrong? Call Olive Garage Doors at (888) 403-6161. We are open 24/7 and serve the Bay Area and Santa Cruz County.