How To Troubleshoot Garage Door Openers

Finding solutions to problems with your garage door opener is best attempted with resources (such as the owner’s manual) specific to the model of garage door opener you have. Your owner’s garage door maintenance manual should have an entire troubleshooting section in which all of the problems that commonly occur with that garage door opener are listed (and perhaps some that are not very common). In addition to listing the problems, it will list steps to take to isolate the cause of the problem in that specific opener, the steps to take to remedy the problem, and may sometimes tell you if any specific tools are needed in completing the repair, as well as information for ordering replacement parts.
If you don’t have an owner’s manual available, you can use this generic guide to isolating and repairing the problem you have.

Problem:
* Garage door doesn’t open or close. It works with wall switch. But does not respond to the remote

Solution:

• You were trying solve your garage door opener repair problem by operating the opener from outside the range of the remote control, try moving closer to the unit; or
• You need a new battery in the opener; or
• You need to reprogram the remote

Problem:
* Garage door doesn’t open or close. Works with remote but not wall switch

Solution:

• Replace wall switch

Problem:
* Garage door doesn’t open or close. Does not work with remote or wall switch

Solution:

• Manually open door to determine if the door is physically jammed or if the garage door spring is broken; if that is the case you will need to check rollers, tracks, cables and torsion springs to isolate the cause of jamming. If the problem is in the torsion spring or the cables, contact a qualified garage door repair company. Those parts present extreme danger to inexperienced DIYers.
• Check circuit breaker. If power is on at the circuit breaker, use circuit tester to check for power at the opener.
• If there is power to the opener but it is not responding, the problem is within the opener.
• If the opener is working, but not properly, the remaining possible problems are all corrected by simple adjustments.

Problem:
* Door does not fully open or close

Solution:

• Adjust limit switch(es) until the door reaches the proper open/close limits

Problem
* Door reaches floor, but immediately reverses

Solution

• Adjust close limit switch

Problem
* Door reverses before reaching floor

Solution

• Adjust close force

Problem
* Door opens, but the motor continues to run

Solution

• Move limit switch away from motor unit
  Before you call garage door repair man, take a few moments and try to isolate the problem. This will allow you to determine if it’s something you can fix and if it’s not, you will be able to get a better estimate on repair costs.