Your entire garage door system is an important safety feature of your home, and it is crucial for it to work properly. Phantom operation of your garage door is poses a safety risk for your loved ones and possessions.
Why Is It Important That My Garage Door Functions Correctly?
When purchasing a home, we make sure the doors lock, the gates are secure and the windows open and close effectively, but we often overlook potential garage door problems. Ensuring your garage door is working properly is crucial for safety and security purposes. Failure to do so can leave valuable possessions at risk of theft or damage.
It’s strange to think we overlook the operationality of garage doors the way we do, considering we often store some of our most expensive possessions here. Cars, tools, bikes and other gadgets and toys are generally kept in your garage, highlighting the importance of ensuring your roller door can close completely and functions safely and securely.
Potential Reasons Why Your Garage Door Opens By Itself
‘Ghost’ openings occur when your garage door is opening randomly by itself. The cause of these openings can vary from user error to damaged electrical circuits or malfunctioning parts. An open garage door poses a large security risk as it leaves your home or business open to intruders, thieves and the weather. Let’s take a look at some potential causes for ghost openings.
Faulty Remote
A faulty remote control can send flawed signals to your garage door opener. Commonly, garage door remotes are thrown into bags, left on your cars sun visor, on the outdoor table or hidden outside for others to access. These conditions and rough treatment can cause damage to the inner circuitry of the remote causing contacts to wear or fuse. This can cause the remote to send random signals to your garage door motor unit to open or close.
Cross Frequencies
If your door closes or opens by itself throughout the day and these ghost openings match up with your neighbours leaving or returning home, then a crossed frequency could be the cause. A nearby neighbour’s remote may be programmed with the same frequency and code as yours. While this scenario is unlikely, it is very much a possibility.
Frequency outputs from wireless internet, radio or mobile towers can also cause interference with older garage door openers. Troubleshooting this issue can differ depending on the brand of door installed, therefore reading your owner’s manual or calling a garage door service specialist, like the team at Jims Garage Doors, is recommended.
Incorrect Limit Settings
Garage door openers often include adjustable features, including two settings that can impact your door’s function: the open limit setting and the closed limit setting. These settings indicate how far up the track the door needs to travel before it is fully open, and how far it needs to go down to be fully closed. When the door reaches one of these limit settings, the garage door opener stops. If set incorrectly, these limit settings can be a cause of unusual garage door issues – particularly if the door stops before it reaches the floor or ceiling.
Blocked Safety Sensors
Modern garage doors often feature safety sensors within the motor, a sensor located on each side of the door and mounted on the tracks. The two sensors on the tracks function to tell the garage door to open when they detect an obstacle in the door’s path.
Garage door safety sensors generally operate by firing a light beam across the door – if your door has misaligned safety sensors or the beam is interrupted, then the reversing mechanism kicks in and door will not shut. This great feature is a safeguard for keeping pets and young children protected from extremely heavy garage doors.
Malfunctioning Circuit Board
The weather can also negatively impact the functionality of your garage door. Thunderstorms and other natural weather events can cause the common issue of power outages or electrical surges. If you have recently experienced a power surge or outage, the electric wires on your opener’s logic board responsible for the opening and closing your door may have experienced a short circuit or been damaged. This type of damage can lead to the garage opening by itself, usually in a completely erratic manner.
How Can I Troubleshoot My Garage Door Opening By Itself?
If you are experiencing ghost openings at your home, outlined below there are a few basic troubleshooting tips and safety measures you can attempt. If a solution cannot be found, then engaging a qualified garage door technician, like the experts at Jims Garage Doors is recommended for prompt garage door repairs.
- Ensure the door is actually closing and not reversing just before hitting the floor
- Reprogram your remote(s) and keypad & insert fresh batteries
- If you have an attached garage, ensure to lock the interior door restricting access to your house
- Check low voltage wiring for exposed or bare spots, and check for a loose connection to the mounted wall control and opener
- Ensure neighbours remotes and keypads aren’t linked to your opener
- Make sure the buttons on your remotes or keypads are not permanently stuck down
- With the door closed, unplug the opener’s power cord from the outlet while you are away
How Can Jims Garage Doors Help Me?
Jims Garage Doors have over 30 years of experience with garage door installations, maintenance and servicing. Our team of technicians undertake a rigorous training process to ensure they are fully equipped with the knowledge and skills to provide you with top quality service.
We pride ourselves on our customer service and aim to offer an exceptional service experience for you every time you deal with us. Each member of our garage door servicing team holds a current police clearance and white card, giving you the confidence your home or business is in safe hands. Get in touch with us today for all your garage door needs.