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annie_lee_gw

Can't open garage door manually, why?

annie-lee
17 years ago

Hi All,

I have problems with my new garaqge door opener, am waiting for a new part to arrive, but that's a different story. I have been manually open the door for the last week or so without difficulties, but the last two days, I can't open it any more. I made sure that the door is disengaged from the opener's trolly, but when I lift to open it stop after listing only a few inches. I didn't want to force it too hard because I never have to do so before. Am I missing something? What should I look or do now? Thank you in advance.

Comments (9)

  • jason1083
    17 years ago

    sounds like maybe something is obstrucing the track. Either that or one or more of the rollers needs oil

  • rjoh878646
    17 years ago

    Is it a door with springs on the side of the tracks? If it is,one of the springs may have less tension than the other one causing the door to rack and hang up in the track. pull it up until it stops and see if one side is lower than the other. if it is get 2 people on the door and push it up until its open.

  • pew1
    17 years ago

    You could also have a broken spring, or the cable has come off the pulley, or the pulley has come off it's shaft. If the door takes two people to open, what ever you do, don't leave it open for ANY length of time.

    Paul

  • sdello
    17 years ago

    there is nothing magic and there should be nothing hidden with the door hardware. tracks/ springs/ rollers/ hinges/ etc. are typically out in the open and readily visible. As such, I would expect whatever is suddenly preventing the door from opening, to be quite obvious.

    No offense intended, but if you are not mechanically inclined enough to identify the obstruction, I would recommend calling a local overhead door company to come out and look at it. The springs associated with overhead doors are under a lot of tension and if not dealt with properly can be quite dangerous.

    Under no circumstance would I recommend attempting to use "brute force" to open the door without knowing exactly what is providing the resistance.

    good luck

  • gw:annie-lee
    17 years ago

    Thank you all for the insight and suggestions!
    sdello:
    "there is nothing magic and there should be nothing hidden with the door hardware."
    That's what I thought. I have two identical doors. The one on right is working normally, and I visually compare the two on tracks/springs/rollers/hinges/ etc. and was unable to find any noticable differences. The spring, by the way is a huge 2" coil laying on top of the door frame about 1/2 way to the right. When I lift the door, I can see where it stop, but I can't be sure where the actual obstruction or resistance force is. I don't know wether this could be a clue, the porblem started with my Genie Opener, which closed half way. When I pushed remote once, it went back up. But then when I pushed the remote one more time, the opener apparently went the wrong direction and the door went off track and three of the rollers droped off from one side of the track. Since the opener is still under warrenty, Genie has agreed to send a set of new sensors and a new circuit board, but they insisted that the opener doesn't have the force to push the door off the track. For this I am asking my door installer to return to take a look. I am just wondering whether the two probelms are related -- the door got pushed off the track, and unable to open the door manually, even though, I was able to open it manually for two weeks after the opener malfunction. Again thank you very much for all of your thoughts.

  • sdello
    17 years ago

    something is definitely, to use a technical term, "out of whack" with your door. LOL
    Time to call in the pros.

    Hope it all works out for you.

  • jason1083
    17 years ago

    Under no circumstance would I recommend attempting to use "brute force" to open the door without knowing exactly what is providing the resistance.

    I can attest to this. It happened at a friend of mines house the door was stuck and we tried to force it. The whole door had be dissasembled and new rollers and tracks installed (somehow one the tracks was damaged.

  • gw:annie-lee
    17 years ago

    Thanks. It turns out that the manaul opening problem is related to the opener's problem. My door installer came out yesterday, he can't open it either, so he took off the L-shape lever that connect the door to the drive chain from the motor, and the door now open freely. I am waiting for the Genie guy to come to replace the opener together with the drive chain. But I learned a lesson that releasing the drive lever may not mean that you can open it manually and I am glad that I did not force to open the door manually.

  • sdello
    17 years ago

    Glad thing are looking up.
    good luck