Why Your Garage Door Opens on Its Own
Have you ever closed your garage door only to come back to an open garage? If you’re certain you closed it, and nothing is missing with no signs of forced entry, what could it be? Read on to find out.
1. Faulty Remote Control
Like most remotes, garage door remotes are often tossed aside in the house. Your kids or even pets might play with the remote control without care. Eventually, the remote control will begin to malfunction. This is why the remote control could send wrong signals to your garage, causing it to open randomly. Fixing the malfunctioning buttons or replacing the remote should remedy this.
2. Door Never Closed
Your garage door might never have closed even after activating the closing mechanism. Like many homeowners, you’ll likely press close on your remote control and drive away without confirming whether the garage closed. Therefore, unless you watch your garage door close entirely and confirm, you have no surety that it’s 100% closed. Your garage door could have attempted to close but activated the reverse mechanism.
The mechanism can reverse the closing action if it senses any object in the door’s path. A bicycle, broom, spanner, or wrench could have dropped to the floor and are in the garage door’s path. Similarly, if you haven’t cleaned your garage door in ages, dirt will accumulate under the garage door. The reverse mechanism will activate if it senses sticks, rocks, or other debris. Cleaning the dirt buildup and fallen items should resolve this.
3. Misaligned Garage Door Sensors
Garage doors rely on sensors to identify objects in their paths. Sensors consist of a sensor emitter and receiver. If either one or both are out of alignment, this could trigger the reverse mechanism even when the door path is clear.
Start by ruling out that no objects are in the door’s path. Next, locate the sensors on either side of the garage door. Check that the sensors are a few inches above the floor. Both sensors should be the same height and face each other.
If not, the sensors are misaligned and could affect the closing mechanism. Fortunately, misaligned garage door sensors are easy to realign. You can realign the sensors yourself if you have the tools and the sensors are damage-free. However, contact professionals if the problem persists even after your DIY fix.
4. Identical Frequencies
If you reside in a gated community where the houses were built simultaneously or one after the other, garage doors and openers likely were also installed around the same time. This means that programming occurred at the same time.
Your neighbor’s garage door could have the same frequency as yours. Test the theory by opening your garage door using the remote control and check if it affects your neighbor’s garage door. If it does, contact garage door professionals for reprogramming.
5. Circuit Board or Logic Board Issues
Frequent power surges can damage your logic board. Issues such as loose connections are easier to fix as they only require resoldering. Other complex issues may require extensive repairs or replacement. Logic board repairs and replacements are also expensive.
A garage door that opens and closes at will at any time of day or night is a security issue. Burglars can access the rest of your home through your garage door. This is not a risk worth taking, so, troubleshoot the issues above and implement the fixes.
If the fixes don’t work, call professional garage door contractors to inspect your garage door. You might need to replace parts such as the garage door opener, sensors, logic board, or remote control. Fortunately, here at Beacon Garage Doors, we can handle these repairs and end the ghost opening. Contact us today.