Why Won’t My Garage Door Close?

Homeowners typically store valuables and expensive tools in the garage, so it’s an extremely important part of the house. The garage may be home to one of the priciest items you own, your car. If you have a garage connected to your home, it can be an access point for intruders.

All this considered, it’s easy to see how a functioning garage door plays a key role in home security and why following solid garage door maintenance tips can be important. A well-maintained garage door acts as an aesthetically pleasing, functional centerpiece for any home.

If your garage door is having issues and you’re left wondering “why won’t my garage door close,” you have a serious security issue that you’ll need to handle as soon as possible. This guide may help you understand why your garage door won’t close and teach you how to close garage doors when their closing mechanisms don’t work.

Dead Remote Battery

When figuring out why your garage door won’t close, it might be smart to check the batteries in your garage door opener first. If dead batteries are the issue, this could be a pretty simple fix. Change the batteries on your remote to see if that solves the problem. You can also go to the wall-mounted button for your opener and see if that works. If it does, batteries are likely not the issue.

Safety Sensors Are Not Functioning

Garage doors are heavy and having one close on you is dangerous. For this reason, modern garage doors have safety sensors that help prevent garage doors from closing when something is in its path.

• Sensors are placed on both sides of the garage and towards the bottom. A beam of light is sent between the sensors. If anything blocks that beam of light, the garage door will not shut. If you’re wondering why your garage door won’t shut, there’s a good chance it might be an issue with the safety sensors.

• Check around the sensors to see if anything is blocking the beam. A small part of an item that is seemingly out of the way may be obstructing the beam. If you have things stored near the garage doors, try storing further away from the door.

• Dust on the sensors might also cause the beam from reaching across. If your garage door won’t close when it’s cold out, there could be some condensation on the lenses of the sensors. Try wiping the sensors clean to see if that solves the problem.

• Sensors must be properly aligned. If they aren’t, the beam won’t reach across the two sensors and the garage door will not close. If the sensors are out of alignment, adjust them and trying opening or closing the garage door again.

• Bad wiring may also be the cause of your sensor’s malfunctioning. If this is the case, you may want to call in a technician to help solve the problem.

Damaged Tracks and Rollers

Sensors aren’t the only safety feature of garage doors. When shutting, if your garage door feels resistance, it will open back up. Check around the garage door tracks to make sure there aren’t any obstructions like broomsticks or debris.

Warps in the tracks could also register as resistance to the garage door opener and cause it to reverse the door back open. This might be another reason why your garage door won’t close when cold out as the metal tracks might warp in the low temperatures. If you find a warp or break in the tracks, you may need to contact a professional to fix the issue.

Limit Settings Need to Be Reset

It’s possible that your garage door limit settings were inadvertently changed. You’ll likely notice bad limit settings if your door either closes partially before the opener stops running, or it closes completely to the ground before opening right back up. The former issue probably means the limit is too high while the latter issue might mean it’s set too low and the ground is registering as resistance. This causes the door to reverse open for safety.

It’s possible to reset your limit settings on the garage door opener. Consult your owner’s manual for specific information on how to set your garage door opener’s limits.

Power Loss

If the garage door opener isn’t getting any power, it’s not going to work. Take some basic steps if you suspect there’s a power issue with your opener.

First, check to make sure it’s plugged in. There’s a chance something might have knocked the opener’s plug out of its socket. You can also go to the breaker box and reset the breaker for the opener. If the power issue is more complicated, you might have to call in an electrician or garage door technician.

Antenna Issues

Your garage door might not close when you pull away and press on the remote to shut it. There’s a chance you might have an issue with the antenna. Perhaps something hanging from the ceiling is blocking the signal between your remote and the opener’s antenna.

The antenna is usually a wire hanging from the base of the opener. Check around the antenna to make sure nothing is blocking the signal.

There’s also a chance you pulled too far away from the garage and the antenna. Get closer to the garage and try your remote again.

Broken Garage Door Opener

As with all mechanical things, your garage opener isn’t going to last forever. It’s possible that you just happened to try and open your garage as the opener stopped working. It may be time to replace the opener.

How to Close a Garage Door Manually

When your garage door won’t close, it can feel very stressful. The good news is you don’t have to rely entirely on your garage door opener to close the door. You can disengage the door from the opener to manually close and open the door yourself. Consulting you owner’s manual can explain how to close a garage door without power or help you troubleshoot other potential problems.

There should be a long red rope and handle hanging from the top track of your garage door and near the top of the garage door itself. Pull this rope toward the garage door opener motor to detach it. Once you disconnect the door, you should be able to open and close the door relatively easily. When you get the door shut, make sure to use the manual lock to keep your garage secure.

We hope we provided some helpful answers about why your garage door won’t close. To learn about other ways we can help you, and for information about the way home warranties work, contact us at 1-888-492-7359.