If your garage door doesn’t open, but the opener motor runs for just a few seconds and then shuts off, the garage door itself may have manually been locked. If you’ve checked the door springs and the track for obstacles, and those things appear to be fine, check to see if the lock on the door is engaged.
Quite a few garage doors come with manual locks, especially older models, for added security for your house. These typically look like a knob or handle in the middle of your door with two bars running horizontally from each side. There may be a small button on the top or side of the handle that you can press to slide the bars across the doors, thus locking the garage door from the inside. It can be somewhat easy to accidentally hit that button, especially if you’re getting large objects out of the trunk of your car near the door.
To manually unlock your garage door, simply turn the handle until you hear a clicking sound. This will move the horizontal bars away from the edges and secure the handle in the open position.
At Rite A Way Garage Doors and Gates, we know the ins-and-outs of residential garage door repair, and we can help you diagnose and repair any garage door issue. We handle everything from automatic garage door repair to garage door replacement. We provide repairs and service to customers valley wide. Call us today to answer your garage door questions or to schedule a repair with our skilled garage door technicians.
photo credit: flickr.com
