Garage doors, whether installed on a commercial or residential property, add both value and security. As with any other type of installation with moving parts, garage doors are prone to damages.
The garage door failing to close is one of the most common issues many properties owners experience. When your roller garage doors fail to close, diagnosing the problem can help you better prepare for a repair.
Whether your garage door won’t close or it won’t close properly, below are some of the common suspects.
Malfunctioning Safety Sensors
Garage doors are fitted with safety sensors to improve the safety of owners and users. However, if you have left your garage door open for long, there is a huge chance that the safety sensors may have collected dirt and dust. The accumulation of debris on the safety sensor can cause it to malfunction.
With debris covering the safety sensor, the door is instructed to stay up to avoid injuring someone or damaging your car. This problem is easily corrected by cleaning the top of the sensor.
Keeping the safety sensor clean and in good working condition is recommended. This will minimize the chances of safety hazards while using your garage.
Sensor Misalignment
Another culprit that may be responsible for your garage door’s failure to close is sensor misalignment. Garage doors mostly have sensors located on both sides to detect objects.
When these sensors are faulty or misaligned, they relay error information to the garage door’s system, and this can cause the garage door to remain up or close partially.
To fix this problem, locate the sensors and re-align them by loosening or pushing the knob against the metal bracket. Usually, a successful re-alignment is indicated by the lights, which begin to flash properly.
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Worn Out Gears
Like every other system with mechanical parts, garage doors have parts that wear and tear over time. Garage doors are made from several hundreds of both tiny and big parts that aid in their function.
When one or more of these parts become faulty, the entire operation of the garage door may be affected. If your garage door isn’t closing properly, you may need to identify the problematic part and replace it.
Before calling in your repair technician, disconnect the power supply to your garage door and release the emergency latch. This process should be done before any repair is carried out. However, if this repair does not solve the problem, you may need to check the door’s alignment and the side tracks.
Door Adjustments
Sometimes, the garage door may lose its alignment and this can cause it to close haphazardly. If your garage door is failing to close properly, you may need to re-adjust the door itself or change some parts of the garage door.
To get things right, call on a garage door technician to look at the problem and recommend the necessary solution.
While these are four common causes of garage doors not closing properly, other suspects may cause this problem. Below are some of the other causes you can look into;
Dead Transmitter Batteries
This is a minor problem that can be fixed by simply changing the batteries in the transmitter.
Transmitters serve as a remote to control the garage doors; however, the battery-powered devices may run low on juice, thus causing your garage door to remain stuck in an open position.
Garage Door Opener Issues
Your garage door opener receives information from the transmitter and processes it to open or close the garage door. Your garage door may fail to close all the way or close at all if your garage door opener is faulty.
Additionally, the fault may also be from the transmitter. To confirm the opener as the problem, press the physical button on your garage door. If it opens or closes, then you can call a repair tech to replace the damaged opener.
Disconnect Switch is Enabled
If your garage door isn’t closing, but the motor is running fine, the chances that the disconnect switch has been enabled are high.
The disconnect switch is installed to help you open the garage door when there’s a power outage. Check to ensure that this switch has been turned off.
Something is Blocking the Door
Another culprit may be debris or other materials blocking the door. You need to carefully inspect your garage door to locate this problem.
If you have explored all of the options above with no possible solution, you may need to contact a garage door repair specialist to take a look.
