An enclosed garage is convenient when it’s raining, or when you want to protect your automobiles and other valuables from weather and sun damage. It provides a safe place to get in and out of your car, and no one can tamper with your vehicles when they are safe inside.
Until your garage door opener stops working properly, you probably take its function for granted.
If you are having issues with your garage door, specifically that it won’t close unless you are holding the wall switch button, there are two basic issues that could be happening. First, something is wrong with the sensors. Second, something is in the way, preventing the door from closing.
Within those two general categories, there are several specific things that could actually be causing the problem. In the next section, we’ll outline several of these issues, as well as some other common garage door problems.
Reasons Your Garage Door Won’t Close
You take it for granted when something that works at the simple push of a button suddenly doesn’t anymore.
If you’re scratching your head wondering why your garage door doesn’t close unless you are holding the button down, let us clue you in to a few of the most common causes of this problem.
- Obstruction under the garage door – Garage door openers are programmed to go a certain distance. Even a rock or stick can interrupt its path, causing it to stop or go back up.
- Dirty sensors – Dirty sensors are the easiest fix. When cleaning them, just make sure you don’t scratch the sensor eye or move it so it doesn’t align with the one across from it. We’ll cover more about how these sensors work in the following section.
- Blocked sensors – With a little troubleshooting, it isn’t too hard to fix this issue. Blocked sensors can be the result of a leaf or spider web, or something in your garage that fell or got put in the wrong place (like kids’ toys or bicycles).
- Misaligned sensors – The sensors can get out of alignment if they get bumped by something. The photo eye receptor usually has a light on it that turns a certain color if it is in line with the infrared sensor on the other side, but a different color if they are not aligned. Usually, just working with it, moving the receptors slightly, will fix the misalignment.
- Faulty sensors – Sensors go bad sometimes and need replacing. You can probably do it yourself, or you can call a local contractor to make the switch for you.
- Loose wires – Loose wires near the motor overhead or near the sensors could be to blame for your trouble. Look for twisted or exposed wires, or contact an electrician to inspect and secure the wires.
- Damaged rollers – The tracks and rollers overhead are mostly protected from weather and moisture, but they can still get rusted, bent, or broken. If screeching, scratching sounds are coming from your garage door, it may just be in need of lubricant.
Other Common Garage Door Problems
When looking for the cause of their garage door issues, people also asked about the following problems:
Why your garage door won’t close
If the door won’t close at all, or if it stops part of the way down with no other cause, the problem is most likely related to the power supply. Either there has been a power outage or the garage door has lost its power supply for another reason. A tripped breaker may also be to blame.
Why your garage door won’t close all the way
Another common problem is when something is blocking the door, preventing it from coming all the way down. This could be a piece of loose hardware, a cable that is off its track, or something could be wrong with the rollers or hinges.
If one side of the door seems to be lagging behind the other, you’ll need to adjust the sensitivity settings of the motor, or have someone do it for you.
Why your garage door doesn’t close with the remote
Remote issues are either very simple or very complex, with little in between.
Some simple reasons your remote may not be opening your garage door include dead batteries or being too far away for the remote to connect. Blocked or dirty sensors can also be to blame, but in these cases, your wall mounted button wouldn’t operate the door, either.
The “lock-out” button could be engaged. This button on the control panel locks the garage door, preventing the garage door from opening or closing with the remote. Most systems have a light on the wall switch that tells you the lock-out feature is engaged. This feature is handy if your remote was stolen or if you are on vacation, but can get bumped accidentally.
The most complex issue would be the rare case that a power surge cleared the garage door opener’s memory and it needs to be reset.
How the sensors work
As you can see, problems with the garage door almost always have something to do with the sensors. To understand why this is so, we’ll explain how garage door sensors work.
Sensors operate your garage door, but they also function as safety features to prevent the door from closing when something is in the way. Because of these sensors, the garage door will not crush someone or something underneath.
Infrared signals from photo eyes mounted on each side of the garage door point at one another. Each eye simultaneously sends and receives a signal.
For the garage door to go all the way down without stopping or going back up, these eyes must be able to “see” each other, meaning that their infrared signals must not be interrupted, while the door goes down.
The garage door opener is designed to bring the door all the way back up if this happens. When the door is back in its fully open position, the opener will either blink a light or make a clicking or beeping noise to let you know something prevented it from closing correctly.
However, in rare cases, the door may simply stop.
Either way, this protects whomever or whatever was blocking the door from closing fully.
If you want to be sure your garage door sensors are working properly, watch this video showing how to check garage door sensors.
What to Do if Your Garage Door Won’t Close
It’s frustrating when you don’t know why your garage door doesn’t close unless you are holding the button down, but rather than just closing it manually every time, you need to get to the root of the problem.
Remember, it’s dangerous to hold the button down if you can’t see the door closing, because something valuable or someone could be in the way!
In most cases, it’s a simple issue of cleaning or redirecting the sensors. You will have to replace the sensors every 8-12 years, but it’s a quick, inexpensive maintenance service that will keep your garage door working correctly for many more years.
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