saw blades - what you need

Posted on: 11 July 2015

Have you recently moved into a house with a garage? Is your garage door failing to open or close correctly? If your overhead doors have stopped working properly, it may be a simple fix. Here are some reasons why garage doors may stop working: 

Misaligned or dirty photo eye: Your garage door has two sensors, one on each side. These sensors detect if there is anything in the garage door opening, such as a small child or a piece of equipment. In order to prevent damage or injury, the overhead doors will refuse to close if the sensors detect a blockage of any sort. If a small piece of debris, such as a leaf, or even just dust obscures the sensor lens, the garage door may falsely believe there to be an obstacle blocking the door. When this happens, the sensors need to be cleaned according to the manufacturer's directions.

Overhead doors open and close at random: The most common culprit for this often your transmitter being activated by something in your vehicle. For example, if you put the transmitter in a cup holder, going over the curb at the end of your driveway may be sufficient to cause the transmitter to jump and trigger the door mechanism. If your door is still opening and closing, even when the transmitter is safely tucked away, try replacing the batteries. With some garage door openers, dying batteries may randomly trigger the door to open or close.

Finally, the problem may actually be with one of your neighbors. They may have recently installed a new garage door opener that uses the same frequency as yours. Take a walk around your block, pressing your transmitter every so often. If the garage door of one of your neighbors opens, check your garage door manual about changing the operating frequency or ask a repair technician to come out and take care of it for you.

Garage door closes quickly and noisily: A garage door should close slowly and make no noise. If it closes fast enough to make a bang or thud, then there are a couple potential causes. You could have a broken tension spring. The tension spring is used to counter the weight of overhead doors, making it easier for the motor to open and close. Some garage door models have a cable or several cables that connect the spring to the door. If these cables snap, the door will behave as if the spring has broken. Both of these issues need to be handled by a professional repair technician, in order to avoid injury to yourself or others.