Check two things before anything else: the safety sensors near the floor, and the red disconnect cord. Between them they account for a lot of the calls we take.
Look at both safety sensors near the floor on each side of the opening. Both should show a steady light. A dark or blinking light means one is out of alignment or something is sitting in the beam.
Find the red disconnect cord. If it has been pulled, the opener runs with the door disconnected from it. Pull it again with the door fully closed and the carriage usually re-engages.
Try the wall button and the remote separately. Which one fails narrows it down.
Lift the door by hand with the opener disconnected. If it is heavy, the problem is the springs and not the opener.
What the opener does tells you which part has gone. A hum with no movement is almost always the drive gear, a plastic gear driving a steel worm that is built to wear out before the motor does. A single click and then silence points to the logic board or the capacitor. A door that reverses before it closes is the safety sensors rather than the opener at all. An opener running while the door sits still means the carriage has been disconnected.
Sensor alignment and the disconnect cord are both reasonable to check yourself, and often that is the whole fix. Anything inside the housing is a different matter, because the capacitor in an opener holds a charge after the unit is unplugged.
| Job | Price | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Opener repair | $200 to $400 | Covers the common failures: the drive gear, the logic board, the travel limits and sensors out of alignment. What it costs depends on which of those it turns out to be. |
Every job we price is listed on the garage door repair cost page, and what each involves is under repair services.
$200 to $400 for most opener repairs. A drive gear kit sits at the low end and a logic board at the high end. A sensor realignment is often free while we are already on the job.
The safety sensors, nearly every time. The opener will raise a door with a blocked or misaligned sensor beam but refuses to lower it, because closing onto an obstruction is the thing those sensors exist to prevent. Check that both sensor lights are steady and that nothing is sitting in the beam.
The drive gear, in most cases. It is a plastic gear meant to fail before the motor does, so a hum with no movement usually means it has stripped. A gear kit is a routine repair and is well worth doing on an opener that is otherwise sound.
Under about ten years old, repair almost always makes sense. Past fifteen, once a logic board or a motor is involved, the repair gets close to the cost of a new unit with a battery backup and current safety hardware. We tell you which one you have before you spend anything.
Other problems we get called out for: broken garage door spring , garage door off track , garage door will not close , garage door will not open , snapped garage door cable , noisy garage door , garage door remote not working .
Call before early afternoon and we can usually get out the same day.
Call (650) 376-6070