When your garage door won’t go down, it’s not only a frustrating experience but also a dangerous one.
A garage that stays open makes your home vulnerable to the following:
- Theft
- Intrusion
- Pets or small children wandering outside the home
- Harsh outdoor elements
For these reasons, identifying the root of the problem quickly and fixing it immediately will save you a lot of anxiety. To help you determine the problem, the experts at Precision Garage Door Service review the 10 reasons why your garage door isn’t closing.
1. Broken Garage Door Cables
Your garage door cables help support the weight of your garage door. The cables wrap around a set of pulleys and springs, and use tension to gently lower and raise your door. When one or both of those cables are broken or damaged, it could cause your door to hang unevenly, preventing it from completely closing.
We don’t recommend trying to fix this problem on your own, as a snapping cable or falling door could result in severe injury to you and anyone in close proximity to the door. To resolve this issue, you’ll need to have the broken cables replaced by an experienced garage door technician.
2. Dead Transmitter Batteries
Your transmitter, or remote, to the garage door opener, usually runs on batteries. If the batteries are dead, your transmitter or remote will not close your garage door..
Simply replace the remote’s batteries with new ones and try using it again to close your garage door.
3. Dusty Sensors
As a safety feature, when your door detects something in its path, it will not fully close — believe it or not, that “something” could be dust! Most garage doors have safety sensors that use “eyes,” or small openings, that emit a beam from one end of the garage opening to the other. The beam is meant to detect any people, pets, or objects that may be underneath the door while it’s closing. If the beam is broken, it thinks something is in the path of the door, so it won’t close.
To fix this issue, turn off the power to the garage door opener and clean the eyes of your sensors with a soft cloth. Once you’ve finished, turn your opener back on and attempt to close the garage door again.
5. Power Issues in Your Home
Sometimes the issue is related to the flow of electricity in your home. Check your electrical panel for a tripped breaker.
If you suspect another electrical problem in your home, we recommend calling a licensed electrician.
6. Faulty Garage Door Opener
If important garage door opener parts such as the motor, belt, chain, or gears are defective, your garage door opener may not operate as it should. Even if your opener hasn’t completely given out, some functions may still be unavailable if one or more parts are faulty.
Be sure to call a garage door specialist for a garage door opener replacement or part repair.
7. Activated Door Lock
This issue could result from any pre existing damage that your garage door may have. If your garage door system is not damaged in any way, locking your garage door should not cause any problems. But if any underlying issues, such as a track misalignment, exist, an engaged lock can put extra pressure on your garage door by adding resistance to the door’s movement.
In other words, if your door isn’t closing due to misaligned tracks or a faulty garage door opener, an engaged garage door lock can make the problem much worse.
To resolve this issue, enlist the help of a garage door technician to examine your garage door system — including the door lock. Precision’s garage door repair service includes a 25-point inspection to help identify and fix any damaged parts of your garage door’s system.
8. Misaligned Tracks
Your garage door runs along a set of tracks that guide its movement. If a track is bent or misaligned, your door has the potential to get stuck, preventing it from closing all the way.
You’ll need to get this issue repaired immediately by a professional to avoid causing further damage to your garage door’s system.
9. Defective Remote
Sometimes the door remote itself is the culprit for a malfunctioning garage door. If you’ve already tried changing your remote’s batteries to no avail, test using another method for opening your garage door, such as manual operation or a wall switch.
Replace your defective remote as soon as as possible..
10. Worn Out Springs
Springs help balance your door’s weight so that it doesn’t fall or close harshly. If they are worn or broken, they can’t evenly distribute your door’s weight. This can cause your door to hang lopsided or not close completely.
Damaged garage door springs need to be replaced by a professional immediately to avoid injury to people, pets, or property.
Let the Professionals at Precision Repair Your Garage Door
A garage door that won’t close is more than an inconvenience, it’s a hazard that should be corrected as soon as possible. As this article explained, fixing a garage door that won’t close can be as simple as changing the batteries in your remote or something that requires professional expertise. If your garage door doesn’t go down, and you’ve tried the simple fixes, let the experts at Precision Garage Door Service help. Give us a call or find the Precision professional nearest you.
