Talking About Garage Doors

Top 3 Garage Door Malfunctions

Do you have a garage door that is less than fully functional? Are you tired of fighting with your garage door when you need to go to work or out to run an errand? Depending on the exact type of garage door that you have, there could be multiple things that are preventing it from working properly. Some of the most common garage door issues include: 

Damaged or broken spring: While your garage door spring is larger and sturdier than most springs you might have seen previously, it won't last indefinitely. Over time, it may stretch out slightly or it may even snap suddenly. Either of these will result in your garage door becoming difficult or even impossible to open manually. Due to the size of the spring involved, it's inadvisable for the average person to attempt to replace the spring on their own. If you don't know what you're doing, it could snap free suddenly, potentially causing injury to yourself or damage to your surroundings. Fortunately, it's a relatively simple thing for your garage door repair technician to replace it, so your garage door will be working well again in practically no time at all.

Damaged sensors: Modern garage doors have built-in sensors so that they can tell if anything, such as a child, is blocking the path of the door. They work by bouncing an invisible beam of light between themselves, refusing to close if anything breaks the beam of light. Unfortunately, the sensors are not intelligent. They are unable to tell the difference between a child, a pet, cobwebs, or accumulated dust. They will also stop working if bumped out of alignment. This garage door repair usually consists of simply cleaning the dirty sensors so that they work once again. If they have been knocked out of alignment by mistake, you can try repositioning them. However, it might be faster to have a repair technician come out to realign the sensors.

Lack of oil: Oiling instructions should have been included with your garage door and motor when it was installed. If you've misplaced or never had this information, your local garage door repair company will be able to tell you how often to oil each part. But if it's been a long time since anything was oiled, it may be too late to do anything about it. A lack of oil can allow rust to form and for dust and grit to accumulate in and on the motor. Either of these things can prevent your garage door motor from functioning or cause it to squeak and groan when opening or closing the door.


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