Why is my garage door opener not working?
Opener not working? What it does tells you why
The useful question is not whether the opener works but exactly how it fails. An opener that hums without moving has usually stripped its drive gear or is trying to lift a door with a broken spring. One that does nothing at all is power, the wall button, or the logic board. And a remote that has stopped while the wall button still works is nearly always a battery — the cheapest fix on this page.
Before you go further
If lifting the door by hand takes real effort or it slams back down when released, stop. That is a spring, not an opener, and forcing the motor to work against it will destroy the opener and can bring the door down.
Work through it in order
How to narrow it down
Cheapest and safest first. The ones marked you can do this genuinely need no tools and no technician.
- 1
Remote dead, wall button fine
Start with the remote battery. If a new battery does not help, the remote needs reprogramming to the opener — a short sequence with the LEARN button that most manuals cover.
You can do this yourself
- 2
Nothing at all, no lights, no sound
Check the opener is still plugged in and that the outlet has power. Garage outlets are often on a GFCI that has tripped, sometimes one that is inside the house rather than the garage.
You can do this yourself
- 3
Check the emergency release cord
If the red cord has been pulled, the door is disconnected from the opener. The motor will run happily and move nothing. Reconnecting is usually a matter of pulling the cord back toward the door and running the opener once.
You can do this yourself
- 4
Motor hums but the door does not move
Either the drive gear has stripped, or the door itself has become too heavy to lift — which means a spring. Test by pulling the release and lifting the door by hand: if it is very heavy or will not stay up, the spring has gone and the opener is not the problem.
- 5
Works intermittently, or reverses at random
Often a failing logic board, a limit switch drifting out of position, or wiring that has been chewed or corroded. Diagnosis needs the covers off.
Still not right? We'll tell you what it is on the phone.
Describe what the door is doing — we usually know from the description alone. No service fee to come out, and the price is agreed before any work starts.
Also asked
Questions that come with this one
- My opener is 15 years old. Repair or replace?
- Past about fifteen years, parts get scarce and the next failure follows the last one quickly. If the drive gear or logic board has gone on an opener that age, replacing usually costs less over the following two years than repairing does.
- The opener runs but the door only moves a few inches.
- Usually a limit switch, or the force setting cutting out because something is binding. Both need adjusting properly — set wrong, the safety reverse stops working.
- Can I replace just the gear?
- On many chain-drive openers, yes, and it is a genuine repair rather than a stopgap. Whether it is worth it depends on the age of the unit.
- Why does my remote work from inside but not from the driveway?
- Weak signal — a dying battery, a damaged antenna wire hanging from the motor, or interference from an LED bulb in the opener. LED bulbs are a surprisingly common cause.
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