Why won't my garage door open or close?

When a garage door stops working, the failure is almost always one of eight things. The good news: about half are simple checks any homeowner can run safely. The other half involve the spring system and the tracks, which store enough force to hurt you and belong with a technician. Work the easy list first. You may save yourself a service call.

The five things you can safely check yourself

1. A dead remote or keypad battery

It sounds too simple, but a dead coin-cell in the remote or a flat 9-volt in the wall keypad is one of the most common "the door won't open" calls. Try the wall button inside the garage. If the wall button works but the remote doesn't, it's the remote. Replace the battery and, if that fails, reprogram it.

2. The opener is unplugged or the breaker tripped

Look up at the opener motor. If no light glows when you press the wall button, check that the unit is still plugged into the ceiling outlet (vibration and bumped ladders knock cords loose) and that the garage circuit breaker hasn't tripped. A surge from a storm can trip it without anything else in the house noticing.

3. The door is locked

Many doors have a manual slide-lock on the track or a "vacation" lock button on the wall console. If the opener strains, clicks, or beeps but the door won't budge, confirm the slide bolts aren't thrown and the lock light on the console isn't on.

4. The safety photo-eye sensors are blocked or out of line

Two small sensors sit a few inches off the floor on each side of the door. If they're dirty, sun-glared, knocked out of alignment, or have a rake leaning across the beam, the door will refuse to close (and usually flashes the opener light or clicks). Wipe both lenses with a soft cloth and nudge them until their indicator LEDs glow steady. We walk through this in detail in won't close all the way.

5. Something is obstructing the track

Look along both tracks for a stray bolt, a bent bracket, a bike handlebar, or a build-up of debris where a roller rides. Clear anything in the path. Don't force the door past an obstruction. That's how a door jumps the track.

The four problems that need a technician

6. A broken torsion spring

The spring on the bar above the door counterbalances almost all of the door's weight. When it snaps you'll often hear a loud bang, and afterward the door is too heavy for the opener to lift. It rises a few inches and stops, or won't move at all. Look for a two-to-three-inch gap in the coil. This is the single most common reason a door won't open, and it's a pro fix: broken spring replacement with a free, up-front estimate.

7. A snapped or off-the-drum cable

The lift cables run from the bottom corners up to the spring drums. A frayed or snapped cable lets one side drop, so the door hangs crooked or binds in the track. Don't run it, because a crooked door climbs toward jumping the track. If a cable came off the drum, we put it back on; if one is frayed or snapped, we replace both: cable repair with a free, up-front estimate.

8. The door is off its track

If a roller has popped out of the track or the door sits visibly twisted in the opening, it's off-track. Stop using it immediately. Forcing it makes the damage worse and the door can come down. A technician re-seats it safely and replaces worn rollers. See off-track & roller repair and our guide on what to do with an off-track door.

A failed opener logic board (or a winter freeze)

Past those, two more show up. A dead or glitchy opener logic board makes a door unresponsive even with good power and fresh batteries; sometimes the maker's fault-code light tells the story. And in our climate the bottom seal can freeze to the slab, so the opener fights a door that's iced down. Break the seal loose by hand before assuming the opener failed. If the opener itself is the culprit, work through opener troubleshooting first, then call for opener repair.

The short version

Try the wall button, the batteries, the power, the lock, the sensors, and the track, in that order. If the opener strains against a heavy door, or you hear a bang, see a crooked door, or spot a gap in the spring, stop and call. We carry springs, cables, rollers, and common opener parts on the truck, so most stuck-door calls across the Grand Rapids metro are a one-visit, up-front fix, and the estimate is always free.

We cover the whole metro, including garage door repair in Grand Rapids, Wyoming, Kentwood, and Grandville.