5 of the Most Common Garage Door Issues

Garage doors are built to take heavy use and most get it. A typical residential garage door goes up and down over a thousand times a year. Considering the amount of wear and tear garage doors receive, most models provide faithful, trouble-free service for many years when properly installed and maintained. When malfunctions do happen, many require the services of a qualified garage door service technician to properly diagnose and repair. However, a few DIY tips can point the way to resolve simple issues, or at least enable you to narrow down the source of the trouble and describe it more accurately to service personnel.  

Here are five common garage door problems:

• Door is in open or closed position and unresponsive. If the unit is an automatic garage door opener that utilizes a remote control, dead batteries in the remote should be your first suspect. It’s an easy do-it-yourself task to install fresh batteries and try again. Still no response? Photo-electric sensors that tell the unit whether the door position is open or closed may be defective, out of adjustment or the drive motor itself may have failed. If the door is stuck in the closed position, make sure no one has locked the throw latch that secures the door from the interior. A trained garage door service tech from a reputable local dealer can further troubleshoot the cause and recommend needed repairs.

• Door begins to close, then abruptly reverses and opens again. All garage doors have a safety feature to prevent the door from closing on a person or object. If the internal sensor detects a blockage as the door is closing, it will automatically reverse the motor. Assuming there’s nothing in the way to block free motion of the door, the most likely causes are binding in the track due to lack of lubrication, defective track wheels or misaligned tracks. A defect in the internal sensing circuit is another possible cause.

• Door slams shut rather than lowering gently. On a manual garage door, heavy-duty springs counteract the weight of the door to ensure smooth opening and closing. If the springs are stretched, broken or disconnected, however, the door’s weight will be excessive and the door will slam shut when manually lowered. These springs are powerful and dangerous—let a pro handle this problem. For an automatic garage door, the problem is either in the sensors on either side of the door that turn off the motor at the proper position or in a limiting adjustment typically called “Up Force” and “Down Force” found on the motor. A qualified garage door technician has the equipment and expertise to diagnose and repair or adjust the system for smooth operation.  

• Motor hums, but door doesn’t open or close. This can be narrowed to two likely causes. First, the door trolley–the chain- or screw-driven component that moves up and down the central track to open and close the door may be defective. A professional can replace the trolley as an individual component. Second, internal motor drive gears may have jammed due to wear and/or stripped entirely. Having a new garage door opener installed is usually the most cost-efficient solution.  

• Light doesn’t illuminate when door is opening or closing. First, check the bulb. If it appears to be burned out, replace it. Sometimes a circuit board problem can fail to switch on the light, too. Reset the circuit board by unplugging the garage door opener from the AC power outlet for 30 seconds, then plug it back in again. Still in the dark? Time to call for professional garage door service.