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Garage door advice · Alabama

Garage door opener troubleshooting: 9 things to check before you call

Garage door opener troubleshooting for openers that hum, reverse, ignore the remote or do nothing. Nine checks you can do in ten minutes, plus when it is a repair not a replacement. Call (877) 230-8979.

Openers fail in predictable ways. Before you book a repair, work through this list; roughly a third of the calls we take are solved in the first three items.

1. The door reverses just before it closes

Look at the two small sensors near the floor. One has a steady light, the other blinks or goes out when the beam is broken. If either light is off or flickering, they are misaligned or dirty. Wipe the lenses, loosen the wing nut, aim them at each other and retighten.

2. Motor hums but nothing moves

Usually a stripped drive gear on a chain or belt opener, or a snapped trolley carriage. Pull the manual release and open the door by hand. If the door moves freely, the fault is in the opener, not the door.

3. Nothing at all, no lights

Check the outlet with a lamp, check the GFCI, check the breaker. Surges after a storm take out logic boards regularly in Alabama.

4. Remote only works up close

Weak battery, or an antenna wire that has been tucked up into the motor head. The antenna should hang straight down. LED shop lights are also a common cause of radio interference.

5. One remote works, the other does not

That is the remote, not the opener. Replace the battery, then reprogram it with the learn button on the back of the motor head.

6. Keypad forgets its code

Batteries first. If it still fails, reprogram it. Outdoor keypads take weather abuse and the membrane eventually fails.

7. Door closes then immediately opens

Close-force or travel limit set too far, so the door hits the floor and the opener reads it as an obstruction. Both are adjustment screws or buttons on the motor head.

8. Grinding from the motor head

Stripped gear or a dry sprocket. Stop using it before the debris takes out anything else.

9. Chain or belt is loose

A slapping chain will jump the sprocket and jam. There is a tension nut on the trolley end.

Repair or replace?

Gears, boards, capacitors, sprockets and sensors are all replaceable. If the opener is over fifteen years old, has no rolling code security, or the repair is approaching half the price of a new unit, replacement is the better spend.

Need this fixed rather than explained? Call (877) 230-8979 for same-day service anywhere in Alabama.

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