Reasons Your Garage Door May Be Acting Up

Before the advent of automatic garage door openers, garage doors were pretty trouble free. With technology comes the opportunity for problems - usually in the middle of a rainstorm!The garage door opener, especially the kind that can be remotely controlled from your car as you approach the garage, are really valuable not just for the ease of parking, but also for safety. When arriving at the home at night, it is very secure to be able to open the door as you are driving up. You can then exit the car from safely inside the garage with the door securely closed. Most common garage door problems are related to the sensors that operate the door.One common problem is when the door will not open by using the remote sensors although it will operate by pushing the manual control button inside the garage. This problem is usually caused by blocked sensors. Either something is obstructing the clear line of sight between the transmitters or the sensors eyes are dirty. There might also be a short in the sensor wires where they are connected to the unit. It some cases, the sensors might just have failed.The solution to this problem is to work from the easy solution first. Insure the line of site is unblocked and make sure the sensors are clean. If this fails test the wires and connections before assuming that the sensors are bad. Another common problem occurs when the door closes and then reverses and reopens. This is caused by faulty limit switches or when the switches are improperly set. The opening device has a closed limit and open limit. When the limit is not correctly set, the door reads this as hitting an obstruction and reverses the motor.

If the door fails to operate at all, the best procedure is to disconnect the automatic opener and attempt to open and close the door manually. If it operates easily, this shows that the problem is related to the automatic opener. If the door is still difficult to open, it is most likely a mechanical problem relating to the spring tension of the door or its alignment in the tracks. In most cases, a bit of adjustment is all that is needed to free the door to open and close properly.The automatic garage opener is a very handy device and serves a definite security function. Like any other automatic system, it is subject to failure. Most common garage door problems can be prevented with a bit of maintenance. Making sure that the sensors are unblocked and the sensor eyes kept clean will prevent the majority of problems. Periodic checks of all connection are also recommended.Looking for garage door repair companies in your area? Visit GarageDoorRepairCompanies.com for an unbiased set of listings.