How to Open a Garage Door Manually When Your Opener is Broken

A lot of folks call for garage door repair in Parker because their opener has failed and they’re stuck in their garage. There are a lot of reasons why the door may be stuck including a power outage, a tripped circuit breaker, a broken torsion spring, a blocked photoelectric eye and more. Fortunately, no matter the cause, there is a way to open your door manually so that you can get out and go about your life. In this post, we’ll tell you how to do just that.

How to Open Your Garage Door Manually

There are a lot of reasons why an automatic garage door might refuse to open. But whatever the reason the most important thing to remember is that you have options. Every modern garage door has a method baked into it that you can use to open the door in an emergency. You don’t need to wait for the garage door repair company to arrive. You can do it yourself and get yourself to work or the kids to school on time.

Opening Your Garage Door Manually from Inside the Garage

If you get in your car and the door won’t open, don’t worry. Here are the steps to take that will get you on your way quickly and safely.

• If the door has manual deadbolts or other locks make sure they’re not engaged. Sometimes the door won’t open simply because someone engaged one of these locks. Once you’ve released any locks check to see if the door will open. If it won’t, continue on to the next step.
• Disengage the power for the garage door opener. Just follow the power cable from the opener to wherever it is plugged in and unplug it.
• Once you are sure there is no power to the motor it’s time to locate the Emergency Release Cord (ERC). Every modern garage door has one. To find the ERC walk over to the center of the door and look up. The ERC is a red handle or cord hanging down from the center track.
• Pull the ERC firmly. By pulling the ERC you disengage the door from the opener mechanism. What you now have is a garage door as they existed before automatic openers became popular.
• Lift the door pulling straight up from the bottom at the center of the door. Keep pulling until the door is above your head then let go. The door should slide back into its accustomed space above the car. Just make sure there are no kids or pets around when you lift the door.
• Once your car is out of the garage go back and close the door. If your door has an external locking mechanism on it, make sure you lock it before leaving. You should also call us and schedule garage door opener repair.

What if I Can’t Get In? Do I Have to Call for Garage Door Repair?

If you arrive home and find the garage door won’t open there’s no need to panic. You can still access your garage manually. Here’s how.

• Some, not all, contemporary garage doors have an emergency release mechanism built into them. From the outside, this looks like a simple key slot located in the center of the door near the top.
• If your door has such a mechanism you should have a key that fits into this lock.
• Put the key in the slot and turn it, then pull the entire mechanism toward you. The tumbler should come out with an emergency release cord attached to it. Pull on the cord until the motor is disconnected.
• Find the handle at the bottom of the door and lift the door straight up. In order to avoid injury, use your legs to lift, not your back.
Once safely inside close the door, lock it and call us for Parker garage door repair.

If your garage door does not have an emergency release kit built into it you can still open the door. But you will need to revert to the method burglars use. What’s that? You didn’t know there was a way for burglars to open your garage door when you weren’t home? Well, there is and we’ll explain it to you now.

This method involves pulling the red ERC that we mentioned above. The one that’s inside the garage. It’s actually easier than you think. But it does require a coat hanger. So if your garage door does not have an emergency release kit built-in, then consider carrying a coat hanger in the car at all times, just in case.

• Unwind the coat hanger until it is one long straight piece of wire with a hook on the end.
• At the top center of the door slip the coat hanger between the door and the frame.
• You want to grab the emergency release lever inside. The same lever that is activated when you pull the ERC.
• Once you locate the lever with the end of the coat hanger pull firmly until you hear a loud click.
• Remove the coat hanger and open the door by pulling up on the handle at the bottom.

Better Garage Door Repair in Parker, CO

If your garage door won’t open use the above tips to disengage the motor and open the door manually. Then contact the pros at A Better Garage Door. Our experienced technicians will get to the heart of the problem in no time, and fix the garage door properly so you can get on with your life.