Are you frustrated with a garage door that will not close no matter what? Believe it or not, this might be caused by various factors such as an accumulation of dirt in the photo-eye sensor, expired transmitted batteries, or a complex mechanical problem that necessitates calling a garage door repair expert.
You can solve some garage door issues yourself, while others require professional help. This simplified guide will discuss some common reasons garage doors won’t close and some simple garage door troubleshoot fixes to try.
Reasons Your Garage Door Will Not Close
1. Issues with safety sensors
Two of the main things that often prevent garage doors from closing as they should are faulty or dirty safety sensors.
These sensors are placed at the bottom part of a garage door, about 15cm or 6 inches, above the ground on both sides.
Safety sensors are designed to send a signal to your door opener’s control board to stop the door from closing when someone or something is underneath it, including a pet, a child, or anything obstructing the garage door path.
They are meant to keep everyone safe.
Sometimes dirt can block these sensors causing them to send false signals to the garage door opener’s control board.
You can easily fix this problem by wiping it with a soft cloth. Keep in mind that since the sensors have lenses made of glass surface as that on the camera. Therefore, use a non-abrasive agent and a soft cloth to clean them to avoid damaging them.
If the issue is caused by sensors not able to emit signals adequately or send a continuous blinking signal as though there is an obstacle in the way, this can result from misaligned sensors.
You should call garage door experts to have the sensors aligned properly. If they still don’t work properly after cleaning, you should call garage door repair experts to look into the problem to check elsewhere.
2. Obstructions in the tracks
If the sensors are aligned well but your garage door still won’t go past a certain point, the next thing is to check the tracks for any obstructions. Make sure to inspect both tracks.
Also, you need to inspect the roller for damages. If the rollers show any damage, you can straighten it up using a clamp or gentle hammer strike.
A quick fix would be to grease the rollers with silicone-based grease or lithium-based grease. Remember that stuck rollers can trick the garage door to open, assuming there is an obstruction.
3. Wrong limit setting
If your newly installed garage door closes but immediately opens instead of staying closed, it might be an issue with the limit settings of the open controller.
The limit set on your garage door defines the period the door needs to take to close entirely. T
his means that if the period setting doesn’t allow the door to reach the closing point or makes it reach prematurely, the door will open right away after it has been closed. This usually occurs when the door closes at a faster rate than how the setting allows.
Remember that the limit range also determines the length or height the doors needs to cover before it closes fully. If the height is too high, the door will not hit the ground as the limit setting will send a signal to the opener controller that the door has come across an obstruction. This will reverse the door to reduce the chance of an accident.
You will need to use a trial and error method to solve this method, especially if you want to solve it yourself. The limit setting knob is normally on the top side of the door where the motor is.
Make sure not to overdo the adjustment, as this can result in the door slamming the ground or rising too quickly. Both occurrences will cause damages.
4. Damaged or misaligned tracks
Your garage door will not close if the tracks are misaligned or damaged. The rollers will be obstructed if the tracks are not precisely parallel to each other.
Therefore, you should look for bents or gaps between the rail and rollers to see if this is where the problem emanates.
In most cases, damages to the tracks is caused by heavyweight doors. And if you don’t solve this problem on time, the tracks can worsen and become weak, and this is dangerous.
Therefore, professional garage door repair experts should align the tracks to replace them if they have lost their regular shape.
5. Faulty remote
If you cannot activate your door to close, then this might be an issue with the remote. Check to see whether its batteries are drained or it’s not programmed correctly.
Replace the batteries if they are drained, or reprogram your remote. You can reprogram it by pressing the ‘Learn’ button, which you can access under the light cover on your opener control.
Once you press this button, a light will flash, and this is when you will press a button on your remote. It should be programmed to the door now. You can also call a professional to reprogram it for you.
6. Broken cables and tension springs
Your garage door relies on tension springs and cables to open and close safely. Once these springs lose their tension or break, your door will slam the ground when closing, and this can be dangerous because someone or something can be underneath it.
This is likely to send it back up, which means it won’t stay closed.
If this is your case, you need to call a professional to have the cables replaced. It is important to mention that snapped cables are dangerous as they can hurt someone.
Therefore, have the cables regularly inspected for any damages to prevent snapping.
7. Transmitters not working properly
One reason why your garage door transmitters might not be working properly is because you are out of range. Therefore, try to find a distance from which your garage door detects the remote button.
However, even if you are in range, but the garage door still won’t close, then you need to check the antenna. Make sure to remove all the obstructions hiding the antenna.
You can also check to see if the antenna is damaged. If so, call a technician to have it replaced.
Your transmitter may fail to work if your neighbor is using a similar transmitter frequency as you. In such a case, you should call a technician to change the frequency of your door.
8. Enabled disconnect switch
Sometimes your door doesn’t close even when the motor is running because of an enabled disconnect switch. This switch is fitted in the garage door opener to allow one to have an option to manually close the door, especially if there is no power.
If unhooked, your door will not be operated by its motor. Therefore, be sure to check this switch before calling a technician.
What to Do When Your Garage Door Will Not Close?
Now that we have discussed some of the probable reasons your garage won’t close and briefly discussed some quick garage door troubleshoot ideas, let’s discuss fixing the issue.
Step 1- Do a visual check of the door
The first thing you need to do is to scan your garage door visually. Look to see if there is an obstruction under it or something blocking the safety sensors.
Also, check the rails to see if they are damaged or have an obstruction.
Step 2- Check the safety sensors
If the rails are okay and there is nothing under the door, the next thing to check is the safety sensors. As we mentioned earlier, when safety sensors are dirty or not correctly aligned, your garage door will not close.
Even a cobweb on the lens can prevent the door from closing. Therefore, use a soft cloth and non-abrasive cleaner to gently clean the safety sensors. If they are misaligned, try to align them properly.
Step 3- Turn to the wall station
If cleaning and aligning the safety sensors doesn’t solve your issue, turn to your door opener’s wall station. Try long pressing the interior wall station until the door closes.
If the door closes with this method, then your safety sensors are the problem. You can try re-aligning them to see if the door closes.
Step 4- Manually close the door
If all the fixes we have discussed here do not work, you might need to call a professional. While you wait, you need to secure your garage by using the manual release code.
You can find this on the garage door opener. Once disengaged, you can lower the door manually. Your door should either have built-in locking latches or small holes on the tracks to allow you to feed a bolt through.
Bottom Line
There are garage door issues that you can solve, and some should be left for experts to handle. For example, a problem with broken cables and springs should be handled by a highly skilled expert.
We do hope that this guide was helpful.
