Whether you have mechanical garage doors or automated ones, you must have some kind of garage door opener to help you operate them. Sometimes, these garage door openers malfunction, affecting the function and safety of the doors.

So here is a look at some of the issues that could arise with your garage door openers, what they could mean and how you could possibly fix them.

The door won't open

There are several possibilities here:

• The remote – The batteries in your remote could be dead, or the remote could be damaged and need replacement. You can confirm this by checking if the wall switch is working.
• The power – The power could be out, and the battery back-up may also be depleted or simply unable to kick in due to some connection issues. It could also be an electrical problem, so you can check the circuit breaker and the fuse of the ground fault circuit interrupter to make sure.

The door reverses before or after hitting the floor

Check if there are any obstructions along the path of the garage door that could be causing it to automatically reverse. Most garage doors come with safety sensors placed on both sides of the door. These sensors detect objects along the door frame and automatically reverse it to prevent injury or damage to the said object. Remove the obstruction and try the door again to see if it will close completely.

Alternatively, it could be an issue with the garage door opener close limit switch. This limit switch 'tells' the motor in the opener that lifts and lowers the garage door when to stop running. If it is incorrectly set, it could keep the door from opening or closing completely. Resetting the limit switch should resolve this problem.

The door opens and closes randomly

Sometimes your garage doors act as if someone else is operating them. This could be caused by the door's transmitters that may be stuck under something, causing the control mechanisms to be depressed. For instance, you could be sitting on your transmitter in the car and activating the controls using your weight.

Alternatively, your remote transmitter's frequency may be the same as that of your neighbour. So you may want to check that out to make sure your neighbour isn't opening your garage doors with their remote transmitter.

The opener stops in mid movement or doesn't engage at all

This is probably an issue with the sensor beams. They are designed to disengage the motor if they sense an obstruction in the path of the garage door. So make sure that the beam lights are on and that they are aligned properly. If there are no obstructions, clean the bulbs that produce the beam (dirt on the bulbs could be mistaken by the sensor beams as an obstruction).

If any of these problems are not resolved, be sure to call in the professionals.