Garage Door Opener Troubleshooting

Over the years I’ve come up with a pretty standard garage door opener troubleshooting routine.

The first thing I look at is the garage door opener itself. I make sure the garage door opener is plugged in and that it is attempting to at least work. I also make sure that the chain is not sagging or broken in any way.

I then make sure the garage door opener sensor lenses are clean and that the sensors themselves haven’t been knocked out of alignment. Often snow and deicing salt spray find their way onto the surfaces of the sensor lenses and create a film that prevents the sensors from working properly.

I also find that during the winter months, due to snow shoveling or snow-blowing the sensors are frequently knocked out of alignment. A simple wipe with a cloth and a realignment of the sensors is typically all that is required to fix these types of garage door opening problems. Though once I did find that the wire to one of the garage door opener sensors had been ripped right off, courtesy of a boot I am sure.

The next step in my garage door opener troubleshooting process is to inspect the garage door springs to make sure they haven’t been damaged or are broken in any way.

Fortunately, I’ve yet to find this as the source of my garage door opening problems. When it comes to fixing garage door springs it’s usually best to leave it to the pros. Garage door springs are under a lot of tension and if they accidentally let loose you could lose your head.

Working my way down my garage door opener troubleshooting checklist I move on to the garage door tracks and rollers.

This is often the root of my garage door opening problems. Often there is either insufficient grease in them or the grease has dried out and become ineffective. As part of my normal garage door opener troubleshooting routine I typically end up greasing the tracks and rollers just to eliminate them as a possible problem.

Finally, in cases where the garage door opener problems are intermittent I take into consideration the angle of the sun.

During winter months the sun is much lower on the horizon. In a few cases I have found that when the sun shines directly onto the sensor lens it affects the performance of the garage door opener. In this situation, there is little to no garage door repair necessary. The only possible solution for this type of problem is to temporarily duct tape some type of shield over the top of the sensor to block the sunlight from shining into the lens.

With this basic garage door opener troubleshooting checklist I have yet to not find the source of my winter garage door opener problems and resolve them quickly. Good luck with your garage door opener troubleshooting!