An estimated 76 percent of Americans drive to work every day, according to a survey from Brookings. We depend on our cars, which is why when the garage door gets stuck in the closed position with your car inside, it can cause a huge flood of emotions.
How will you open the door to drive to work? Don’t panic. If your garage door is stuck, you can fix it.
What to Do
To start, shut off the car. You don’t want to run your car in a closed garage because the carbon monoxide fumes from the car can kill you in under five minutes. Worse, you wouldn’t know it because of its odorless and colorless appearance.
Maybe the garage door is stuck because of broken springs. For cases like that, you need to call a technician. Don’t work with the springs yourself because you could suffer an injury or death if the springs break.
Garage Door Stuck
Sometimes, you can resolve the problem through something as simple as changing out a dead battery. We would advise that you check this first because you can resolve this the easiest.
First, check that the batteries in the remote still function. You can tell that the batteries don’t work in the remote because of how the other opening mechanisms of the garage door will work correctly.
You may want to check the connectors of the garage door remote. The central center for operation uses electricity to work, and if the unit is unplugged for some reason, it could cause a garage door that won’t open.
Sensors of the Garage Door
In some cases, the sensors on the garage door stuck may be bent, which causes them to be off toward each other. Usually, the garage door stays open when the sensors don’t work, but it depends on the circumstances.
You can tell that the sensors are out of alignment because the LED lights will blink when you attempt to open them. Red lights indicate an issue with the sensors. Green lights mean that everything works properly.
You may attempt to clean the sensor as a way to open your garage door.
Humidity: How It Affects Your Garage Door
Excessive humidity can interfere with the garage door. Wooden garage doors in particular struggle with humidity. As the air gets more humidity, it can cause the wood of the garage to swell, which causes problems.
Unseen Obstacles
The garage door may not open because of how the garage door automatically reverses if it contacts an obstacle along the path. Look for things that you can’t see along the tracks. Some of the things that may prevent the garage door from opening include:
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Trash
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Debris
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Dirt
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Rocks
Any of these things could stop the garage door stuck from opening. Wipe down the tracks, but exercise caution with the edges because the metal can be sharp.
Door Locked?
In some cases, people make a simple mistake, and they forget to unlock the garage door. You can tell when this happens because the motor runs, but the door doesn’t move.
In some cases, a metal part will bar the opening of the door. Identify the locking knob to disengage it.
What if the Door Doesn’t Open Completely?
Something along the tracks could be blocking the door from opening fully. Inspect the tracks to identify obstacles. It may be that you have broken springs or the limit setting needs adjusting.
Don’t mess with the springs yourself because of the contents under high pressure. You could suffer a severe injury because of it. When nothing else works, spray the track with lubricant.
A garage door stuck that sticks halfway usually indicates an issue with the garage door itself. It would be best if you were to hire a technician.
Issues with the Chain
Garage door chains and all the other components serve an essential role in the operation of your garage door. Unfortunately, as you use your garage door day in and day out, the components like the chain start to weaken.
The heavyweight of the garage and the vibrations from the motor both cause this problem. When you have chain issues, you can tell because of how the garage door opens more slowly.
Open the Door Manually
Luckily, the designers planned for when garage door stuck. They created a way to open the door manually. Simply look for the emergency release cord and pull it.
Usually, they made it a bright color like red. This releases an automatic lift system that will open the garage door so that you can drive to work.
In most cases, opening the door manually will fix the problem. However, you do have cases where the garage door falls off the track.
Run inside and call a technician. Don’t try to fix this yourself. Trying to fix a garage door that ran off the track can be dangerous. In many cases, garage doors require the expertise of a professional.
Why Call the Professionals
You want to call in professional technicians because they have the knowledge and equipment to work on your garage door safely.
Unfortunately, many people call Cherry Hill Garage Door after someone suffers an injury. Don’t be that person. Call the technicians right away to save yourself the trouble.
While you can do some work on the garage door, we would highly advise that you stay away from the sensitive components of the garage door.
Garage door serves an important role in your house. You need it to open and close without problems. At Cherry Hill Garage Door, we have the expertise to resolve your problems. When the garage door refuses to budge and you have a car inside, that becomes a big problem.
You want to work to resolve it as quickly as possible. A technician dispatched to your home can help so that your garage door continues to work well into the future.