Garage Door Problems
I’ve been in the garage door business over 20 years & I’ve seen just about everything. A properly installed garage door will give you many years of trouble free service & little maintenance should be required. That said garage door repairs should be taken care of right away before they become big ones. This is a quick look at garage door problems & garage door repairs. So why is it your garage door wont work?
Bent Or Cracked Panels
When a bent panel makes the turn at the top of the door a cracked panel will bend & bind at the turn. The ends are trying to turn & the middle is staying straight. This is usually an easy inexpensive fix with a reinforcing strut. It is best to take care of this immediately.
Cable Came Off The Drum Or Suddenly The Bottom Of The Door Is Uneven
This is happens often. Here are a few reasons.
- Broken spring. A spring will usually break when the door is closed & under the most tension. Then the garage door opener is engaged, the cable becomes loose & comes off the drum
- The most common reason is a garage door torsion spring lost tension. In the first year of a torsion spring’s life it will lose some of it’s tension (this wont happen to galvanized springs).
- An obstruction kept one side of the garage door from moving. For example a broom pole could of been set next to the track. When the opener was engaged one side kept moving & the other didn’t. The same could also be caused by a misalignment.
Broken Spring
A garage door spring is a wear item. That is it has a limited number of open/close cycle. A standard torsion spring is rated for 10,000 cycles, galvanized for 15,000. There are also 20,000, 25,000 & 50,000 that are usually for commercial applications. You can special order high cycle springs with your new garage door. Extension springs that are the two springs above the top horizontal rails. A spring will break when under the most tension & that is when closed but it may break when opening or closing. People often tell me they are in bed at night & hear a loud bang coming from their garage when the spring breaks.
Garage Door Track Not Properly Aligned
This may be because of improper installation or something hitting the track. This can cause sticking causing the door to not open or close properly. With time this can put undue stress on the rollers causing excess wear or even a roller coming out of the hinge. This is another easy fix & with the service call I will do a full inspection & usually fix any other minor garage door problems.
Hinges Breaking Off The Panel
A few manufactures use thinner steel on the stiles that the hinges are connected to than the most of the industry. One in particular manufacturer uses a shorter hinge, picture a entrance door hinge. This will flex on the stile & after a time will break the stile. Hinges of another big name manufacture are almost impossible to reconnect properly when they break. I replace a lot of these garage doors before their time that otherwise could of been repaired. This is one of the reasons why I sell only Clopay & Amarr.
Some Problems Associated With The Garage Door Opener
- The garage door will open but not close. This is usually a safety sensor problem. It is either misaligned, damaged or the wiring is bad. If it moves part way & then reverses then something is obstructing or restricting the normal travel like in one of the problems listed above.
- If the door moves part way & stops or reverses the up/down travel limits & pressure sensitivity may not set properly. The pressure sensitivity protects the garage door & the opener in case of an obstruction. You don’t want it set to high or low. If you can’t stop the door from moving with your arm it needs to be reset. New openers get set automatically during the initial setup. An opener that is old or has been having to lift to much weight because of for example a broken spring may have to have the up pressure sensitivity turned all the way up.
- The door will open or close by it self. It may be bad wiring or the wall switch or the car remote’s switch may be switching on. You could test this by removing the battery. There may be a bad control board but if you clear all the codes that go to the opener this will often fix this. With LiftMaster operators you can push the learn button until the light goes out. Consult your owners manual.
- Power surges or lightning strikes. If your garage door opener stops working after a power outage or storm your control board is probably bad. Your garage door opener has some limited surge capability built in but all surge protectors can handle only so many surges before they go bad. This is why you always use a quality protector that will tell you when it isn’t protecting you any more. I have a few of the APC surge protectors in the picture around the house like in the picture. Of course for my expensive equipment like a TV I have ones with higher ratings. You can purchase this one for about $10. Well worth the investment vs a new control board for under $100 plus the cost of a service call.
- Trouble codes. On the back of your garage door opener you will see a small light or up/down arrows that will flash when there is a problems. Google the make & model of the opener to find it.
You can isolate some garage door opener problems by pulling the disconnect rope on the rail. Then open & close the garage door. It should open & close freely & not be so heavy that it falls to the ground. If the opener has to work to hard & lift to much weight this will shorten it’s life.
These are a few the many reason why your garage door wont work. These are usually inexpensive fixes & a basic service call doesn’t cost much. It’s good to have a professional do an inspection of your door to make sure it is in proper operating condition. I often find things someone not in the business may overlook.
We are happy to answer any & all questions. Even those regarding you fixing your door your self! I service Nashville, Antioch, Brentwood, Clarksville, Dickson & all middle TN.
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It also could be a failed lintel above your garage door opening. Especially in brick built homes.