GARAGE DOORS EXPERT

More of an inconvenience than an actual safety or costly concern, a garage door remote that suddenly stops working under normal circumstances and exertion is not a cause for alarm.

Worst case scenario, your garage door can remain open until you can troubleshoot the problem, or you still have the old-school way to close the door manually, should you feel more comfortable with that as an option. 

In the case of malfunction due to an extreme weather condition, garage door damage, or other electrical problem, it would be better for you to take advantage of a professional work call to your residential or commercial site. 

When signals get crossed.

Before beginning a series of simple troubleshooting tips in an attempt to resolve your unresponsive remote control situation, it can be beneficial to become familiar with the science behind the technology. 

Essentially, a garage door remote is a radio. That is, more like a radio transmitter that operates within a standard range between 300 and 390 MHz, with each MHz operating via electromagnetic wave at one million cycles per second. 

So finely tuned are these signals that it is quite common that household appliances, other remotes within your region, and even airline radar activity can disrupt the bandwidth which is used to encode your remote with its unique binary code. If that is the case, it is time to “reset” the password.

Picking the lock.

Starting right from the beginning, let’s relive all the times our other electronic devices have failed, gone offline, or just plain stalled. So what was the first course of action? First, check the power source by powering it down and then back on again. It may sound too good to be true but to save a complete series of troubleshooting options, go for the main power first. Next, check the circuit breaker, electrical cord, or entire household or neighborhood power. 

If that isn’t the source, then you can start the easy process of a quick manual assessment and hopefully a successful, fully functional garage door remote again. To take safety precautions to double your assurance, you may want to remove any objects around your working space and if your vehicle is near any stalled open garage door, park it outside just to be safe. If you have an inquisitive child or pet within sight, keep an eye out for their well-being also. After you’ve checked the main power to no avail, then you can begin with these follow-up suggestions:

● Are you close enough to be on the right signal? 

Solution: Get “tuned in” within operating range. A standard distance should be 20 feet.

● No sound or movement at all.

Solution: Check for dead batteries in your remotes.

● The garage door opener overhead unit is the brain.

Solution: Make sure its antenna is in good repair and pointed in a straight downward line.

● The garage door opener overhead unit itself could be offline.

Solution: Make sure it is also plugged in.

● The manual wall panel does not function.

Solution: Reenter your access code at the manual keypad and reset a new code if necessary.

● All lights are green, the remote makes noise, and still, the door does not work.

Solution: Check that the “lock” feature on the wall panel hasn’t been activated by mistake. If a light is flashing, hold the button down to deactivate and override the lock.

● Another realignment possibility.

Solution: Look at the photo sensor eyes at the bottom of your garage door frame. If dirty or dusty, give them a quick wipe and remove any debris near them that may have broken the infrared connection beam between the two.

Suppose all of these nominal quick fix-it suggestions do not work. In that case, you should schedule a service call with us so that we can offer you a professional audit of what other issues may be the culprit behind your nonfunctional remote. Only a hands-on and deeper visual inspection of your entire garage door system can determine what your pros from Mass Garage Doors Expert need to repair, replace or reinstall.