How to Open Your Garage Door When the Power Goes Out

Power outages are common especially when there is a storm. You may not notice this unless you have a need or emergency but one of the biggest inconveniences of a power outage is the inability to operate your garage door.

The good news is that it is possible to open a garage door even without power. The process is a bit involved than the electric method but is still simple once you understand how to do it.

Here is how to open your garage door when the power goes out.

Step 1: Disconnect the Garage Door from the Opener

The first thing to do is to disconnect the garage door from the door opener after ensuring that the door is in a closed state. How you disconnect depends on the type of door and opener. Most garage door openers have an emergency cord with a red handle that you pull out to disconnect. Don't perform this action on an open door, as this can result in your damaging the door.

Step 2: Open the Door Manually

Once you have disconnected the door from the opener, it is now possible to open the door manually by sliding or pulling up the door depending on the way it opens. Ensure that the door is stable in position and does not fall back when you leave it on its own. This can prevent injury and damages. You can then access your garage.

Step 3: Close the Garage Door

Close the garage door manually using the manual lock to secure the door and keep away intruders. The next step is to reconnect the opener. Do this when the door is in a closed but not locked state to avoid damaging both the door and opener.

Sometimes, you may not be able to open your garage door when the power goes out even after performing the above steps. The most common causes of this failure are a faulty or damaged garage door opener, or a broken spring.

Other reasons include a detached opener, faulty runners or cables. Most of the times, it is the garage door itself that fails and not the garage door opener. Using a reputable garage door service such as Katy TX garage door specialist is the best way to diagnose and correct the problem.

In case of a faulty opener, you can use the emergency release to open the door manually and then call a garage door service to repair the door and the opener.

In case of a broken garage door spring, it is impossible to open the door and applying force will only cause more damage. The best action to take here is to call a professional to fix the problem and have your garage door working properly again.

Now that you know how to open your garage door when the power goes out, there is no need to panic. The best way to avoid problems opening your garage door when there is no power is to perform regular garage door maintenance.

You can also replace the opener with a modern one that has battery power backup so that the door operates normally even after a power failure.