My Garage Door Will Not Open
Three checks find the cause of most of these in five minutes: the opener's power, the red disconnect cord, and how heavy the door feels by hand. Navarro Garage Door fixes doors that won't open across Fremont, Newark and Union City, with spring repairs from $200. Open 24 hours, seven days a week. Call (510) 443-1883.
Right now
Do this before anyone arrives
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Check the power
A dark opener light and a dead wall button usually mean a tripped breaker or an unplugged unit.
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Check the red release cord
If it has been pulled, the opener runs without moving the door. Pull it again with the door fully down to reconnect.
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Test the weight by hand
Pull the release and lift the door a foot or two. A healthy door lifts with one hand and stays where you leave it.
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Stop if it fights you
Dead weight means a spring or a cable. Lifting further risks the door coming back down.
How to tell
What the door is doing
- Nothing happens at all from the remote or the wall button
- The opener runs but the door stays on the floor
- The door lifts a few inches, strains, and settles back down
- It feels far heavier than normal when you lift it by hand
- There was a loud bang from the garage before it stopped working
Why
What causes it
A door that won't open has one of three things wrong: the opener isn't getting the signal or the power, the opener is running but disconnected from the door, or the door itself has become too heavy to lift because a spring or cable has let go. The order matters, because the first two cost nothing to rule out and the third is the one that needs a truck. A bang from the garage followed by a door that strains and stops is a broken spring until proven otherwise.
Do it yourself?
Where the line is
The three checks above are safe and worth doing before you call, because they save you a visit when the answer is a breaker or a pulled cord. The line is the weight test. A door that is heavy by hand has lost its counterbalance, and everything past that point involves parts under load.
The fix
Spring repair in Fremontfrom $200
A broken spring is the usual mechanical cause. Single torsion spring, installed.
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Questions
Door won't open questions
Why won't my garage door open?
One of three things: the opener has no power or signal, the opener is disconnected from the door, or the door has lost its spring or a cable and become too heavy to lift. Checking the breaker, the red cord, and the door's weight by hand separates them in about five minutes.
How much does it cost to fix a garage door that won't open?
It depends on which of the three it is. Power and release-cord problems usually need no parts. A broken torsion spring, the most common mechanical cause, starts at $200 installed. An opener or cable fault starts at a similar figure, and we can usually tell which from what you describe on the phone.
My door opens a few inches then stops. What is that?
The opener is hitting more weight than its force setting allows, which almost always means a spring has broken or lost tension. The opener gives up early on purpose rather than burn out its motor. Stop running it and have the spring looked at.
Can I open the door manually to get my car out?
If the door lifts easily by hand after pulling the red cord, yes, lift it fully and prop nothing under it. If it is heavy or fights you, leave the car where it is and call. A door without its counterbalance can come down fast, and a car is cheaper to leave parked for a morning than a hand or a back.