The garage of your home is a valuable space, allowing you to store your vehicle in a secure location out of the weather and also allowing you to transition from your car to inside your house without having to be outdoors. The garage is made functional by its door, and the modern garage door has one other element of convenience: the garage door opener.
While garage door openers can last as long as 10 or 12 years, they can occasionally have problems that compromise functionality, especially when the unit is outdated. To protect the remaining life of your automatic opener and your door, any issues should be immediately addressed. Take a look at common problems with old garage door openers and their solutions.
THE GARAGE DOOR TRIES TO CLOSE BUT QUICKLY RETRACTS
Every garage door opener that was manufactured after 1993 was required to have integrated electronic eyes or sensors for safety. These sensors should be installed along both sides of the door about 4 to 6 inches from the ground. If anything gets in the way of these sensors, the garage door will not shut.
With older garage door openers, these electronic eyes can become damaged or not function because the lenses are clouded. If your garage door tries to close when you hit the button but immediately retracts, the sensors are likely damaged or the lenses are no longer clear enough to determine that the way is clear for closing.
Sensors can be replaced if they are in bad shape. However, you may be able to rectify the situation by cleaning the lenses if there seems to be nothing wrong with the positioning or casing of the sensors.
THE CIRCUIT BREAKER TO THE OPENER CONTINUOUSLY TRIPS
Your garage door opener operates by an electrical current, so it is attached to a circuit breaker in the electric panel. If you find that your opener will not function with the remote or even with the manual switch, the circuit breaker could be tripped. Unfortunately, if you have an outdated unit, this could become a continuous problem.
Older garage door openers can develop a short circuit after years of operation. If this does happen, the circuit breaker will continuously trip to protect the wiring and the unit from overheating. Because fixing this issue will involve a careful examination of the unit’s wiring, this is not necessarily a DIY task.
What you can do, however, is test the opener for a short circuit by using a multimeter, which you can get for about $20 at about any home improvement store. The multimeter tests the circuit to see if it is closed or open. This test will tell you if something is askew within the unit so you know if you need to call in professional assistance.
THE GARAGE DOOR OPENER WON’T STOP RUNNING
You hit the button on your opener and the door opens as it should, but the motor continues to run like the door is still closed. This issue tends to happen when the up-limit switch of the automatic opener is malfunctioning. This switch is designed to relay the motor to function to the necessary point to open the door and then shut down.
If the motor continues to run even when the garage door has reached an open position, you can usually fix the problem by calibrating the up-limit switch like you had to do when the opener itself was installed. Calibrating the up-limit switch is done in different ways according to the manufacturer of the opener. Consult your owner’s manual for instruction.
Your garage door will function without an automatic opener, but this one electrical feature makes your garage much more convenient to access. If you have automatic garage door opener issues, contact us at Garage Door Pros for assistance or advice you can count on.