Garage doors opening by themselves aren’t just annoying, they also pose a security risk. If your garage door opens by itself, it exposes your belongings to your neighborhood and makes it so that anyone could walk into your house and steal your belongings or hurt your family. Garage doors opening on their own is a rarer problem homeowners will face, but it still happens. Here are some reasons why your garage door opens by itself.
There’s An Electrical Short In The System
Power outages and power surges can cause electrical shorts in your garage door’s transmitter system. This can damage the electrical circuits that operate your garage door, thus causing your garage door to open by itself. If this happens, have your transmitter serviced or replaced. You can take preventative measures against this by using a surge protector.
The Wiring Is Faulty
Faulty wiring in your garage door opener can malfunction and cause signals to get mixed up, leading to a garage door that opens by itself. In some cases, replacing your garage door opener’s battery fixes this. In others, you’ll need to replace the battery. Wiring within the wall control of your garage is more difficult. It can loosen and get damaged from contact, thus causing your garage door to open by itself. Call a professional for any questions about your garage door’s wiring.
Debris
If your garage door goes up by itself, it could be because of debris. Debris can block safety sensors on electrical garage doors. Safety sensors check for anything that could be caught under your garage door, so if there’s debris in front of them, that will cause your garage door to go up by itself, as the sensors are trying to keep the garage door from closing on anything. Clean up any debris, then see if your garage door opens by itself.
Similarly, if you try to shut your garage door and it goes down part way, then back up, check to see if there are objects blocking the closure path. If so, simply move them out of the way, and see if your garage door will close now.
The Limit Settings Need To Be Adjusted
A garage door’s limit settings tell your garage door how far up and how far down its track is open and closed. If the limit settings are off, this can cause your garage door to stop before it reaches the ground and to come back up. This can be fixed by readjusting your garage door’s limit settings.
The Control Buttons Are Stuck
Like any other button, the buttons on your garage door opener can get stuck, either because of age, dirt, or because buttons just get stuck sometimes. If your garage door opener’s “open” button is stuck, this can be why your garage door opens by itself. To unstick it, clear any debris, clean the button, and make sure the wiring is in order. If your garage door still opens and closes on its own, the control button likely needs to be replaced.
Radio Interference
This is more common with older garage door openers. If your garage door has an older opener and is going up by itself, see if any of your neighbors have the same one. Older garage door openers were made with the same transmitter, so if you and one of your neighbors have the same garage door, your garage could be opening by itself because it’s catching your neighbor’s signal. Talk with your neighbor and see if your garage door openers have the same code. If your neighbor presses the button to open their garage door, and yours responds, that is what’s happening.
Is Your Garage Door Opening By Itself?
If you are having trouble with your garage door opening by itself and can’t fix it, or have any other questions about or trouble with garage doors, our professionals at Advanced Door are here to help. Contact us at 888-377-3667 today!