Garage door won't close? Start here

The door starts down, then reverses. Or the opener clicks, the light blinks, and nothing happens. It's one of the most common garage door calls in the Fredericksburg area, and often the fix takes two minutes and costs nothing.

General guidance only. Your opener's manual comes first. If the door is crooked, a spring looks broken, or a cable is loose, stop and call a professional. See broken springs.

1. Look at the safety sensors first

Federal rules have required automatic garage door openers to have extra entrapment protection since 1993 (CPSC). On most openers that's a pair of photo-eye sensors on each side of the door, which the CPSC says should be 4 to 6 inches above the floor. If anything breaks the invisible beam between them, or the opener thinks it's broken, the door won't close, or it reverses partway down.

Check these, in order:

• Something in the way. A broom, trash can, bike tire, leaves, a spider web or a toy.
• Dirty lenses. Wipe both sensor lenses gently with a soft, dry cloth.
• Sensor lights. Most sensors have a small light on each one. If one light is off or blinking while the other is steady, they usually aren't lined up. The fix, per door manufacturer Garaga: "realign sensor boxes so that the LED lights are steady and not flashing."
• Bumped brackets. Sensors get knocked out of line by cars, bikes and lawn equipment. Loosen the wing nut, aim the sensor straight at the other one, and tighten it again.
• Damaged wires. Look along the thin wires from each sensor to the opener for cuts, staples through the wire, or loose connections.
• Bright sun. Low sun shining straight into a sensor can sometimes confuse it at certain times of day.

2. Count the blinks

Many openers tell you what's wrong by blinking the light or an LED a set number of times. The meaning depends on the brand and model. For example, door manufacturer Garaga's opener guide says a blink pattern can point to sensors that are disconnected, miswired, misaligned or blocked (Garaga). Count the blinks, then look up the code in your opener's manual or on the manufacturer's support site.

3. If it goes down a few inches and reverses

If the sensors look fine but the door reverses on its way down, the opener may be sensing too much resistance. Common causes:

• Something binding in the tracks: a bent track, a damaged roller, or debris
• A broken spring, which makes the door far heavier than the opener expects
• Travel limits that need adjusting, often after a power outage or a repair

You can check whether the door itself is the problem by pulling the emergency release with the door closed and lifting the door by hand. A healthy door should move smoothly and feel fairly light. If it's very heavy, sticks or won't stay put, stop. That's a spring or hardware problem for a technician. See how to open a garage door manually for the safe way to do this.

4. Getting the door closed for tonight

• On many openers, pressing and holding the wall button until the door is all the way down will close it even when the sensors aren't working. Check your manual. Stay and watch the door the whole way down, and make sure nothing and no one is under it.
• Or close it by hand using the emergency release, then lock the door with its manual lock if it has one.

Don't disconnect or bypass the safety sensors. They're what keeps the door from closing on a child, a pet or a car.

When to call a pro

• The door is crooked, very heavy, or makes grinding or popping sounds
• You see a gap in a torsion spring or a loose cable
• The tracks are bent or rollers have come out of the track (see off-track doors)
• The sensors are lined up and clean, and it still won't close
• The opener is old and you're replacing parts one after another (see opener repair)

Tell us what the door is doing and where you are in the Fredericksburg area. We'll connect you with a local garage door company. It's free.