When you’re heading to work, school, or running errands in the morning, the last thing you want to deal with is a garage door that won’t close. In addition to simply being frustrating, a garage door that gets stuck can be a sign of a problem. Sometimes, especially if you have an automatic garage door with sensors, the mere fact of having an object in the way of a garage door can interfere with its ability to close. You may ultimately need to contact a professional for garage door repairs, but it is worth your time to do an evaluation of situation first on your own.
Visual Scan
Sometimes, especially when your garage door has sensors, an object will be detected in the garage door’s path that keeps it from closing. If your garage door is stalling when you hit the “close” button, the first thing you should do is perform a visual analysis of the situation. If there is something in the path of the garage door, clear it out of the way to see if that solves the problem. Boxes, leaves, and other debris can quite often trigger the door to stay open.
Safety Sensors
Most modern garage doors have safety sensors that detect people or objects in the way of the garage door. If you don’t see any physical blockage of the garage door, the problem might be that the safety sensors are dirty. If you can’t see any physical problems, try cleaning off the sensors. They should be debris-free and properly aligned. Since dust, dirt, and even cobwebs can obscure a sensor’s lens, be sure to clean it thoroughly before calling for garage door repair Long Beach.
Check the Door Opener
If you can’t find any problem with the sensors, the issue may be with the garage door opener itself. The garage door is attached to a home base called the wall station. Malfunctions in a garage door’s performance can be due to a problem with the wall or the garage door opener. A short can occur in the wiring, especially after a thunderstorm or a power surge. This problem can be quite easy to fix, and it may not even need a professional’s attention.
Test the Battery
When a garage door won’t fully open or close, the transmitter should be checked as well if you don’t see any physical problems with the door not closing. The transmitter sends a signal from the wall station to the door opener that instructs the door to open or close. The transmitter is powered by batteries that will inevitably wear out. If the batteries go, your garage door won’t function.
Having a garage door that won’t close is a frustrating situation. But it may be a simple fix. If you’ve tried all the remedies above to no avail, contact us for Long Beach garage door installation so that we can get you a new, more functional door installed as soon as possible.