If your garage door is no longer working properly, it can be an expensive repair. However, depending on what is broken, it can affect the price. On the lower end of the spectrum is the garage door sensors, and depending on the symptoms of your garage door, it should be the first place you look.
If you are having problems with your garage door, symptoms of a sensor issue include:
- Door will not open or close
- Door closes about half way, then the direction reverses and it opens
- The door closes halfway and then stops
- Your garage door opener flashes and the door doesn’t move
Some of these glitches can be caused by other issues, but typically it is a sensor issue. However, in many cases, sensor issues with a garage are not always that they are broken. Often it means the sensors are somehow impaired. Common sensor problems include:
- Dirty sensor lenses
- The sensors are no longer aligned
- Wiring or electrical shorts
In many cases, dirt or other obstruction is a common cause for a garage door not working. If the light of a garage door opener blinks twice, it means the sensors are obstructed. Holding down the garage door button on the wall will bypass this, but you will want to clean your sensors. However, often from sensor cleaning, the sensors can become misaligned, causing the door to close part way or not at all.
Unfortunately, if you try to fix these issues, and you are still having a sensor-related problem, you will want to contact a professional to investigate a short in the wiring. This is not something most people can fix themselves, and electrical work can be tricky.
If you are having garage door issues, we encourage you to contact us at Smokey’s Garage Door so that we can help to solve the issue and get your garage door working properly.