Garage door openers are a wonderful piece of technology…until they stop working. Suddenly, you find yourself unable to get your door closed or opened. It’s more than a hassle. A broken garage door can be a security risk for the contents of your garage, or it can prevent you from using your vehicle when you need it.

To help you get your life back to normal, we’ve put together some of the more common problems we see, and what you should do about it.

Opening Problems

When you’re garage door won’t open, you’re stuck. Either you can’t get into your garage, or worse, you can’t get out of it. You need to get it working quickly. First, you’ll want to check the most obvious possibilities.

Are the batteries dead in your opener? Does the wall button work? Is the garage door opener reacting at all?

If it sounds like it’s working, but the garage door isn’t moving, it could be your chain that’s broken. If it starts to open but stops part-way and closes back up, it may be getting caught on something. Check around the inside and outside of the garage door and make sure nothing is hitting it.

If all else fails, trying use the manual release on your garage door and opening that way for now until a professional can come and examine it.

Closing Problems

A garage door that won’t close poses a security risk. Just like you would with a garage door that won’t open, check the most obvious causes first. The most common cause for a garage door not closing is something either blocking the photo-eyes or the photo-eyes not lining up with each other.

The photo eyes are the sensors at the bottom of your garage door that make sure the path is clear. They should be pointing directly at each other, creating an invisible beam that lets your opener know it’s safe to close the door.

If they appear to be in place, and it still won’t close, contact a garage door professional right away. Messing around with an open garage door can be very dangerous.

Loud Noises

Depending on the type of garage door opener you have, garage doors can make a fair amount of noise when they open and close. If your door is suddenly a lot louder than it normally is, however, you may have a problem on your hands.

Even if the garage door is closing and opening, a loud noise is likely of a problem that’s about to get much worse. Don’t wait until something breaks. Contact a garage door specialist to come and checkout your system.

It may turn out that a simple repair is all that’s needed. Otherwise, you might need a new opener altogether. For all your garage door opener needs in Ohio, contact Springfield Overhead Door today!