Your garage door protects your garage, vehicles, and other property inside from the elements. With years of wear and tear, however, your garage door becomes less reliable and requires maintenance or repairs. A garage door not working after storms is an issue best addressed quickly.
What To Do If Your Garage Door Is Not Working After A Storm
Garage door failures can result in expensive repair costs. Luckily, this problematic issue has some DIY fixes you can try before turning to professionals for a reliable garage door repair in Napa, CA.
Familiarizing yourself with the steps to take can help you successfully repair your garage door if it fails due to storm damage. Your garage door can work like new again in no time, even better, with professional help.
How Do Storms Affect Your Garage Door?
If your garage door is not working after a storm, this could be for multiple reasons. Firstly, a power outage could be the culprit, so you should check your breakers. Your garage door opener connects to your home’s primary power source, putting those without backup batteries at the mercy of your home’s electrical supply. A power outage keeps the unit’s remote control from connecting to the opener.
Circuit damage
A lightning storm can easily damage your garage door opener’s circuitry. It doesn’t necessarily have to strike your garage, garage door, or the opener to fail. Electricity can travel through the nearby ground and into your garage’s electrical system, damaging the garage door opener’s electrical circuit without direct contact.
You likely have a damaged internal garage door electrical system if your home and garage still receive power, but the door won’t open or close. You can also check for unresponsive opener lights and remote controls. These elements may act sporadically or stop working altogether.
Mechanical damage
Lightning can also contribute to mechanical difficulties. You’ll notice mechanical damage when you try to open your garage door manually.
If the door won’t open or makes a grinding sound upon manual operation, this indicates a problem. You could have a broken spring or another faulty component if your unit doesn’t open before or after restoring the power. If so, contact a garage door service immediately to fix everything safely.
How To Restore Garage Door Operation After A Storm
You can take various steps to troubleshoot a garage door not working after storms. Several practical repair methods include:
- Attempting manual operation
- Resetting the motor
- Disconnecting the opener from its power source
- Reconnecting the opener to the door
If one of these options doesn’t work, move to the next fix or contact professionals for expert servicing.
Open the door manually
During a power outage, you can still open your garage door manually. Garage door openers have a special cord that disconnects the door from the carriage, allowing manual operation. If your entry doesn’t open with this method, you likely have mechanical issues and should contact professional garage door technicians immediately.
You’ll need to enter the garage through an additional entrance. Locate the emergency release cord from the door’s trolley and pull it down. This action releases the door.
After the power outage, you can reconnect the door to the opening system.
Unplug the unit
Sometimes a simple fix resolves the issue. Your unit may need a power reset after an outage. If you have an older garage door opener, this may repair it without the need to install new components. Here’s how to reset the power:
- Unplug the garage door opener and leave it unplugged for a few minutes.
- Plug it back in and check if lights appear on the opener.
- Cycle through different outlets in your garage to ensure it’s not a problem with the outlet.
- Alternatively, unplug and reconnect the sensor wires to see if the sensors are preventing the unit from operating.
Reconnect the opener to the door
After the power returns, you can reconnect the garage door to the opening component. To reconnect the opener, close the garage door and press the garage door’s opener control. If your opener has a “close” option, select this button.
As the garage door operates, the disconnected trolley and carriage will reconnect with the door to allow proper operation again. Some homeowners will need to pull the emergency release cable to facilitate the reconnection.
Reset the motor
Some garage door openers’ motors have a reset button allowing you to reset the system after a power overload. Depending on the opener’s design, you may have to remove a panel to uncover the reset button. Once you’ve found it, press and hold down the button to reset the system.
Contact the professionals
If none of the above solutions fixes your garage door not working after storms, circuit board damage is likely. So, you should contact professionals for repairs. A skilled garage door repair technician can replace the unit’s circuit board and restore door operation.
Professional garage door repair technicians know how to successfully examine, diagnose, and repair a failed garage door. They have the high-quality parts you need to replace your garage door opener’s circuit board and other damaged components. They can also install a surge protector to prevent future electric garage door opener issues.
Call Us To Resolve Your Garage Door’s Outage
If you notice your garage door not working and none of the DIY fixes resolve its power failure, you’re not out of luck in Napa, CA. The R&S Erection of Vallejo, Inc team is ready to assist at any time. We’re always happy to share vital information on preventing garage door outages and other related issues.
Contact our team for fast, friendly, expert service when your garage door stops working. We arrive with fully-stocked trucks to help repair your electric garage door. Whatever the issue, we’ll identify the problem and fix it for a fair price. We know the importance of garage door safety sensors and take them seriously.
Don’t let a power outage keep your garage door inoperable. Call the garage door professionals at R&S Erection of Vallejo, Inc. for help with a garage door not working after storms in Napa, CA, at 707-644-5537.