The 10 Most Common Garage Door Problems
Top 10 Most Common Garage Door Problems
Have you noticed your garage door making more noise than it’s usually smooth sound, even rumbling as it makes its way along? You’re likely hearing the start of typical mechanical noises associated with garage door problems, gradually growing louder due to a lack of lubrication or worn parts.
Noises tend to demand attention because they tell you to take a look and find out what’s causing the problem. After all, noise today may well turn into a more severe problem in a few days. In most cases, garage door problems occur due to normal wear and tear. Fortunately, modern garage doors are better equipped to deal with the changing of the seasons. However, time does not improve all things. For example, problems such as dirty or misaligned sensors can happen at any time.
1. Worn-Out Rollers
If you take a look at the overhead track as your garage door opens and closes, you’ll see the rollers connected to small axles on either side of the door. The rollers ride along tracks that guide the door smoothly up and down. They wear out over time due to wear and tear, and if neglected, small problems will continue to worsen. Soon, the tracks or rollers begin making the unmistakable noise of metal grinding on metal as the door rolls up.
When the rollers are worn out to the point where they stick or jam, the garage door can get stuck or even jump off the tracks because of the pressure applied by the opener when the unit is in motion. At this point, the door may not open completely or jerk erratically, forcing you to stop the door and call for a repair technician.
Never replace the rollers yourself because the tension of the torsion springs poses a serious risk of injury. Any repair or replacement that is related to the springs in your garage door absolutely must be carried out by a trained garage door technician who has the experience, skill and specialized equipment to complete the job safely and make sure the results are safe to use for a long time to come.
All of our Dodds Garage Doors come with Nylon ball bearings and are covered under Lifetime Warranty.
2. Broken Torsion Springs
Looking at your garage door tracks, you will see large garage door springs. Your garage door can weigh hundreds of pounds, which gives you a good idea of how powerful the springs must be to support it—and how seriously they could injure you if they’re not handled correctly by a professional.
The springs are under constant stress because their only job is to support the weight of your door and move it steadily along the tracks during opening and closing on command. The springs eventually wear out and lose their tension, or worse, they can break in two. When it comes to a garage door problem that requires repair or replacement of broken springs, it’s really important to have it taken care of by an experienced, professional garage door repair technician. Those tasks require specialized training and equipment to be handled safely, and there’s a very real risk of severe injury if they’re not done correctly. While there may be some garage door problems that homeowners can handle on their own, this is definitely not one of them.
3. Broken Cables
The cables used in garage door openers during motion are meant to apply steady pressure to the garage door for clean movement. When garage door cables wear, stretch, or break, the garage door can look uneven when it’s moving. A broken cable often causes the door to remain partially closed, and that garage door problem may cause the garage door to crash down, posing a danger to pets or people who are going under it.
4. Broken Sensor
A garage door can start doing unexpected things, such as suddenly opening/closing or being unable to use garage door remote control commands. This can be frustrating, but many times it simply requires cleaning the sensor lens. The photo-eye sensors sit on the rails on each side of your garage door. One is the emitter, and the other is the receiver. When calibrating the sensors, it means aligning them with each other and adjusting the amount of resistance required before activating the automatic reversal function.
The purpose of the safety sensors is to prevent the garage door from closing if the laser beam is broken. If anything trips the sensor, the opener assumes something or somebody is blocking the door. The door will then immediately reverse and go back to the open position.
5. Rattling Noises
If your garage door starts making strange noises, it’s time to check all the nuts and bolts of the system. Regardless if it’s old or new, loose bolts will make a strange sound that could signal the garage door is about to collapse. It may do that if you wait long enough. Needless to say, this is not a garage door problem that can be safely ignored. That being said, it may not be necessary to call for professional garage door repair if loose bolts turn out to be the issue at hand. If you remove all power from the unit and have the proper tools, a little elbow grease might make things all quiet again by tightening the screws and bolts.
6. Door is Lopsided
You try to open your garage door, and one side lifts up normally while the other one barely moves at all, and it quickly gets jammed in a half-open, slanted position. This is a particularly irritating issue, and it can be alarming as well, especially if you can’t get the lifted side to come back down because it’s leaving your garage open and vulnerable to anyone or anything which feels like coming inside. This typically happens because of a broken cable. That causes one side of the stuck garage door to start sagging because when the door moves, one side moves faster than the other. As a result, the door gets jammed up, and it can be almost impossible to pull it back down without professional intervention.
7. Door Won’t Move at All
It’s going to happen sooner or later that your garage door suddenly won’t budge. Most people assume this is a major problem with the garage door itself, but that’s actually not the case in most situations—it’s far more common for this garage door problem to be caused by a broken or malfunctioning garage door opener unit. Sometimes this is due to wear and tear damage or sudden damage that has affected the opener directly, and in that case, the best solution to eliminate your garage door problems is to simply have the opener replaced.
But because your garage door opener needs to be powered by electricity to work, it’s also fairly common that the problem isn’t actually the opener so much as a lack of power supply. A dead opener can be caused by a power surge, a blown fuse, or the outlet connected to it that has stopped working. If none of those provide the solution, check for a flipped breaker or bad circuit board, or use the reset button on the opener.
8. Garage Door Opens Slowly
One of the best things about a garage door that opens remotely is that you don’t have to get out of your car to open the door manually. But when the door opens at a snail’s pace, creating unpleasant noises the whole time, it no longer feels like such a benefit, and you could end up alienating your entire neighbourhood if they’re disturbed by your extra-slow garage door one too many times. Sticky or old rollers are garage door problems that create that awful noise but can also cause a slow-moving garage door. If your garage door isn’t actually all that noisy but still opens far too slowly, it could be because of the speed setting on the garage door opener. Luckily that’s an easy fix—try adjusting the setting to see if it improves at all.
9. Broken Wall Switch
A broken wall switch included with your opener will prevent the door from opening. Sometimes, the microswitch holder inside the case breaks off and won’t contact the plunger of the wall switch. Other times, it’s a wiring problem or a tripped breaker. It’s a good place to start troubleshooting problems with garage doors if everything else checks out.
10. Unintended Operation
Common garage door problems like unintended operation might startle you when the garage opens, and you see the door starting and stopping by itself. The most likely cause is a stuck key on your wall remote or the car remote.
Your Local Garage Door Company—Call Dodds Garage Doors Today!
If you’re experiencing any of the garage door problems listed above, call Dodds today at 1-877-503-6337 for 24/7 garage door repair and other reliable garage door services. We’ll ensure your safety features and sensor units are intact, and all tension spring issues are fixed.