The answer to this question is very different now than it was a year or two ago prior to COVID. The issues with the supply chain, lack of workforce, shortages, price increases, and shipping costs combined with inflation have impacted how I’m going to advise you. It’s January 2022 and there have been a ton of changes in the garage door opener world.
Garage door openers are built to last 8-15 years on average. There are many reasons why you may need garage door opener repair prior to that. I’m going to cover a few of them below.
Common Garage Door Opener Problems
Garage Door Opener Won’t Open
This is a common garage door opener repair. However, in some cases when your garage door won’t open, it’s not the garage door opener at all. Sometimes the issue is with the garage door springs that assist with opening the door. Garage door springs are your counterbalance. The opener is designed to guide the garage door through the tracks. If the springs aren’t broken, the next obvious thing to diagnose is the weight of the door. The springs may not be broken but they could have relaxed prior to breaking that would cause the door to be too heavy for the opener to lift.
It’s important that you invest in a spring replacement or you could soon be replacing the garage door opener too. A heavy door will damage your garage door opener and require a fix. A simple fix is to confirm your remotes have good batteries. If the batteries are good and the door balances properly, consider the possibility of the circuit board or some sort of radio interference. A few other simple fixes are to check for a GFI outlet in the garage that could have tripped or the carriage carrier is disengaged. If all of that isn’t the issue, the last thing could be a stripped gear inside the housing. You can remove a few screws and if you peek into the housing of the garage door opener, you may see shavings from the nylon gear.
Garage Door Opener Won’t Close
Some of the same things apply from above, but the primary reasons a garage door won’t close is a loose cable or the safety sensors on your garage door opener are not powered on or something is tripping them. Check out our article about garage door sensors.
Garage Door Opens Randomly By Itself
This is commonly known as “ghost opening” when your garage door opener randomly opens or closes your garage door. It’s probably not as random as you may think. In most cases, it’s picking up a frequency from a neighbor’s remote. This is pretty common when a garage door opener has a bad circuit board. In some cases, if a specific part of the board is damaged, it can cause this. It’s definitely a security issue and we suggest replacing your garage door opener unless it’s under 5 years old.
So when do you replace your garage door opener vs fixing it?
This is up to you and can be determined by budget and your plans with the home. My garage door company, Aaron Overhead Doors, tries to treat every situation differently. If the homeowner plans to sell the home within a month or two, it may make more sense to fix it. Some homeowners feel it’s important and don’t want to risk garage door opener issues during inspection. It’s extremely difficult to diagnose an opener that isn’t working. A repair may just reveal more issues after it’s working. If you plan to stay in the home for a while and the opener is over 5 years old, it may be a great time to replace it. The quality of the existing opener should also be taken into consideration. A lot of homeowners have a builder-grade opener that may be loud or not built to last. All of these things can be considered with a great Q&A conversation.
See our article on “How long do garage door openers last?”
If you need garage door opener repair and you’re in the metro Atlanta area, consider my company Aaron Overhead Doors!
