A door that sinks a little way, changes its mind and rises again is usually taking orders from its safety eyes. Here is how to recognize the pattern, what tends to cause it in Shawnee County garages, and what a visit looks like.
Tell us what the door is doing. The estimate is free; the work waits for your yes.
Near the floor on either side of the opening sits a small photo eye. One is a sender that projects an infrared line across the doorway; the other is a receiver that expects to see it. A closing door checks that line the whole way down, and if it vanishes even briefly, the opener stops and reverses.
The practical upshot is that a door refusing to close is seldom a failing opener. It is an opener obeying a warning, and the question is whether the warning is real.
None of this calls for action on your part. Simply tell us what the lights show and when the trouble started, and the technician arrives with the parts that pattern tends to need.
A door that reverses only now and then is worth reporting too. Intermittent faults are the early warning; a door that won't close at all is usually the same fault a few weeks later.
Listed roughly in the order they turn up.
An open garage after dark is a priority call from Oakland to Sherwood and out to Tecumseh. Tell us which lights are showing and which brand is printed on the opener, and suitable eyes come with the technician. Most are resolved on the spot.
Please avoid the shortcuts: eyes taped together, eyes laid on a shelf facing each other, or wires pulled free. Each lets the door close, and each leaves nothing between the door and a child, a pet or a windshield.
If both lights hold steady and nothing obstructs the path, yet the door still turns back, the investigation moves on. Reversing just as it touches the floor usually points to a close limit set slightly long. Reversing partway, on a door that feels heavy when raised by hand, usually points to a spring that is weakening.
Ice storms produce their own version: a bottom seal frozen to the concrete, an opener that strains against it and trips its force limit. That is a seal and balance matter, and fresh sensors would not help.
Photo eyes can fail outright: moisture inside the housing, a crack from a mower strike, or a circuit damaged by a storm surge. They are replaced as a pair, using eyes made for your opener, since they seldom interchange between brands.
Heat-cracked or stapled wire is replaced in one continuous run, routed away from shelving and tools, and secured with insulated clips.
The mounting is corrected as well: both eyes at the same modest height above the slab, squarely facing one another, on brackets that stay put.
The technician reads the lights, follows the light path, inspects both lenses, checks alignment and traces the wire back to the motor. The opener is then released and the door raised by hand, since a sensor complaint can conceal a spring that is losing strength.
A finished door should close smoothly to the floor, reverse promptly when something blocks the eyes, and hold still halfway when lifted by hand. We check all three before we go.
A blinking opener means the motor is failing. Usually the blinking is the opener reporting a sensor problem, not a problem of its own.
Disconnecting the eyes is a reasonable stopgap. It is not. With the eyes out of service, the door will close on whatever is beneath it. A proper repair is rarely a long job.
New eyes require a new opener. They do not. A replacement pair is wired to the opener already in place.
Probably neither. The dark one is usually the receiver, which goes dark as soon as it loses sight of the sender. The path, lenses and wiring are examined before any part is exchanged.
That generally points away from the eyes, toward the remote or its pairing, and both are examined on the same visit.
Seldom. The usual remedy is the eyes, a wire or a bracket. A new opener enters the discussion only if the motor unit itself has failed, and the reason is explained in person.
The setting sun is likely striking the receiver. The technician can shield it or exchange the eyes' positions so the receiver faces away from the west.
No. The estimate is free, and should the eyes need replacing, you are told why before any work begins.
On most days, yes. A garage that cannot be closed is given priority.
Call and we will agree on a time that suits you, with a courtesy call once the technician is on the way.
Free estimate. Throughout Shawnee County, including Potwin, Westboro, Oakland, Lawrence, Silver Lake, Auburn, Rossville, Carbondale, Tecumseh.
Leave a name, a number and a sentence describing the door; that is sufficient. Both the visit and the estimate are free.
Quicker to talk? Call (785) 498-8618.
Tell us what the door is doing. The estimate is free; the work waits for your yes.