What we fix on garage door openers
Opener repair covers the motor unit, the rail and trolley, the safety sensors, the wall button, and the remotes and keypads. Our first job is making sure the problem really is the opener and not the door.
That matters because a broken spring or cable can pass for an opener failure: the motor strains, the door lifts a hand's width and quits, or nothing moves at all. If you see that, stop pressing the button, since each try can burn out the motor or bring the door down hard.
Keep children and pets away, don't stand under the door, and never loosen, unwind or remove a spring or cable yourself. Our spring replacement page lists the warning signs.
The opener runs, but the door won't move
If you hear the motor run but the door stays put, the red emergency release cord may have been pulled, leaving the trolley to travel along the rail without the door. With the door fully closed, reconnect it as your opener's manual shows.
Otherwise, the drive gear inside the motor may be stripped, or the chain or belt may have slipped or broken. For a safe order of checks, see what to do when the door won't open.
Safety sensor problems
If the door starts down and then goes back up, or only closes while you hold the wall button, suspect the safety sensors. Each sensor has a small light, and on most openers one that's off or blinking means the beam isn't lined up or something is blocking it. You can safely check these yourself:
- Clean both sensor lenses with a dry cloth; summer dust builds up fast.
- Clear anything in the beam, and check that neither sensor has been knocked out of line.
- Notice whether it only fails late in the day, when low sun shines straight into a sensor.
If the lights still won't hold steady, we test the wiring and replace failed sensors. Never tape over or bypass the sensors; they keep the door from closing on a person or a pet.
Remotes and keypads
Start at the wall control. A lit padlock or vacation light there means the opener is ignoring its handheld remotes on purpose; that setting is easy to bump by accident. Switch it off as your manual describes.
If one remote has gone quiet while the others still work, its battery is the usual suspect. When every remote fails at once, the opener may have lost its stored codes or its receiver may be failing. A keypad battery that's already weak often gives out on a frosty morning.
We reprogram remotes and keypads, add new ones, and can clear old codes so a lost remote no longer opens your door.
When the door reverses or stops short
A door that reverses after touching the floor, or stops short, may have a drifted travel limit, a force setting too low for a stiff door, or a door that binds in its track.
Cranking the force up hides the real problem and makes the door push harder against anything in its way. We fix whatever makes the door struggle, reset the limits and force, and retest the auto-reverse; our tune-up page shows how that test works.
When a new opener makes more sense
A repair usually pays off when the motor still runs strong and parts are easy to get. It's time to think about a new unit when the motor itself has died, the same part keeps failing, or parts for that model are no longer made.
If it's time for a new one, our opener installation page explains the choices, and we carry Chamberlain myQ openers on our trucks. Call (208) 629-1567.