Garage Door Opener Only Opening Part of the Way
As a garage door opener gets older, it develops characteristics. One is a garage door opener that only is opening part of the way. In this article, we take a look at why and what to do.
It is a Monday. You know what that means. Yep, a long, grueling day at work. You sit in rush hour traffic for an hour and think about some food and an adult beverage awaiting you at home. You finally pull up to the garage, push the opener button and watch the door open. Then it stops. Half way. And sits there. You push the button and it closes. Maybe it was just out of practice, so you give it another try. It goes half way again! Aaarggg!
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Is your garage door haunted? Do you have a poltergeist inside pushing the opener button by the door into the house? No. My friend, you have a garage door opener problem that most likely is a sign of wearing parts. Yep, your spry garage door opener is showing signs of old age.
Spring, Sprang, Sprung
The first area to take a look at is the springs. They are located on each side of the door. They can lose tension over time. When this occurs, they stop helping the opener with the maneuvering of the door. This can result in excessive weight on the opener and it can jam or just mistake the weight as a sign the door is closed. To figure it out, release the garage door from the opener. Now slowly close it. Do the springs offer a lot of resistance? If not, they are shot. Get some new ones and the problem should go away.
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Them Gears Are Made For Grinding
A garage door tends to be a fairly heavy structure. You would be shocked to see how puny the motor and gear is in your garage door opener. Most gears aren’t even metal – they’re plastic! Despite this, your opener lugs the door up and down repeatedly year after year. Well, eventually it will show its age. This can often occur when the gears start to wear or they gunk up. When this occurs, more energy is needed to move them. The prehistoric computer in most garage door openers will sense this as an indication the door has hit something or is closed. If the door stops about half way up, this is almost always the problem because that is where the tension is the highest.
What’s the solution? Well, you can have a go at repairing the gears. At a minimum, try removing the gunk and greasing the gear mechanisms. This may free everything up and do the trick. Even if it does, start saving your money. It won’t be long before the system will fail.
A garage door opener only opening part of the way is not the sign of a poltergeist. That being said, it isn’t exactly a good sign either. You can try to fix it yourself, but a good garage door repair specialist is probably worth bringing in.
