10 Reasons Why Garage Door Is Opening By Itself (Fix Tips)

Wants to know why garage door is opening by itself? Are you worried about the likely causes and negative impact on your household? Worry no more! We understand how annoying and frightening it can be to find your garage door ajar in the morning or hear it open widely when expecting no one.

Indeed, it’s a situation that can constitute a threat to life or expose your valuables to pilfers. In this piece, we touch on the likely reasons behind your garage door opening by itself.  We provide useful troubleshooting tips that might be helpful in preventing your garage door from opening by itself ever again.

Why Garage Door Is Opening By Itself

1. Dirt Buildup

If your garage door has dirt built up in it, then it will always open up again once you set it to close.  Garage doors have a reversing mechanism sensor that prevents you or your belongings from getting crushed when the door is closing. The door automatically opens up once it senses something on the way while closing.

Not only does this sensor aids safety, but it also becomes annoying when you are closing your garage door and its censor identifies large debris, rock, leaves, twig, snow buildup, or stick. Its reverse mechanism will be initiated immediately and the door won’t close until you clear the dirt.

Solution

• Take out objects or dirt that can activate the reverse mechanism.
• Ensure none of the items in your garage are close to the sensor to avoid the doors opening again after shutting it.
• If your door sensor is faulty, check for damages, loose, or bet wire and ask a professional to come to get it fixed.

 

2. Damaged Electrical Circuits

Your garage door might be opening by itself due to a damaged electrical circuit. This is often caused by unexpected surges and power outages consequent upon heavy rain, thunderstorm, or windstorm.

Solution

Fixing damaged electrical circuits require that you invite a garage door expert. You might not be able to DIY (do it yourself) unless you are skilled in working with electricity.

 

3. Faulty Remote Control

If your garage door’s remote control is faulty, it might send an incorrect signal to the garage door, making it open by itself. If your garage remote is handled by many people, it might get faulty easily. Their inner circuit gets damaged if they are constantly banged on the floor by kids or are not properly handled by adults.

Once the contacts and wires of your garage door get fused, become loose, or wear out, this can send the wrong signal to your garage door. Your remote control can also send inaccurate signals to your garage door if some of its buttons are stuck.

Solution

• Check your remote control and be certain non of its buttons are stuck. If you are dealing with a stuck button, find a way to push it up.
• You can also replace the remote control batteries as this might be another reason for transmitting the wrong signals.
• Open the remote and blow out any debris or dust in the circuit board with compressed air. You can also check for any fused, loose, or broken wire and fix them immediately.

 

4. Misaligned Safety Sensor

Aside from your safety sensor being triggered by dirt, a misaligned sensor is another factor that upsets your garage door reverse mechanism. Every garage door has two safety sensors located on each side of the door opening.  Each sensor must be properly aligned for your garage door to function properly.

The reverse mechanism will be initiated if there is an interruption with the light as the sensor might suggest that something is blocking the way. The safety sensor might also become misaligned and the ray of light that should be pointing at one another will now point at different spots.

This will also trigger the reverse mechanism and will leave the door open until it is fixed. Also, garage door misaligned safety sensors can occur as a result of poor connection, and wrongly connected wires.

Solution

• If your garage door is opening by itself as a result of misaligned sensors, have your garage door checked by a professional who will fix the problem and at the same time give you tips on how to avoid future sensor misalignment.
• Before calling a professional, carefully examine the door tracks and the space around the door for bent or bumped tracks as these are the signs of sensor misalignment.

 

5. Radio Interference

Your garage door might open and close unexpectedly as a result of radio interference such as police radio, a CB radio, a radio station, or a local radio tower in your neighborhood. Once the radio frequency interferes with the garage opener’s frequency, there’s bound to be a problem with your garage door.

Solution

• Change your garage opener’s code or frequency to an entirely different one to solve this problem.

 

6. Damaged Controlling Wire

Your garage door is functioning properly as a result of small gauge wires connecting the safety sensor to the motor unit and the door. Your garage door might always open on its own after closing if there is a short circuit or bare area in any of these wires.

This can be caused by friction wearing the wires over time, nails piercing the wire, damage from garage equipment, or a hungry mouse.

Solution

• Contact a professional to inspect and repair the control wires. If you have no prior experience working with electricity or how garage door wiring works, do not attempt to fix it yourself.

 

7. Conflicting Wireless Signals

Your garage door will open by itself if the signals overlap. This happens if you are using the same opener code with your neighbor hence your garage door opens every time they input their code.

Solution

• Implore your neighbor to open and shut their garage door while monitoring your closely to see if it reacts to their signal.
• If you’ve confirmed that your garage door reacts to its frequency, change your opener’s frequency and check if it works out.
• You might not be able to outrightly ask your neighbors to change their code so you have to change yours. Since garage door has different models and makes, changing their opener’s frequency might also be different. Contact the manufacturer for guidance or carefully read your opener’s manual to understand how to change your opener’s frequency.

 

8. Incorrect Limit Settings

Every garage door has an open and close limit setting. These are one of the important settings in garage door openers and if not properly done, you might experience difficulty opening and closing your garage door.

The open-door limit indicates how far up the door needs to go before it stops and a problem with this setting means the door will always stop before reaching the floor or ceiling.

It also tells the door how far it should go before it stops. The door might not open up or close all the way down if there is a problem with this setting.

Solution

• The practical way to fix this issue is to adjust your limit setting. This might vary based on your door’s model or make. Generally, most doors often have the limit switch adjustment screw close to the opener’s motor mechanism.
• You can also turn the limit screw anticlockwise if the problem is with the garage door closing.

 

9. Damaged Controlling Board and Transformer

If all the problems listed above are not why your garage door is opening by itself, you can consider checking its controlling board and transformer. Certain electrical problems or a sudden electrical spike from a lightning strike can damage the control board and transformer.

Solution

• You can use a multimeter to check the voltage that comes in and out of the board and transformer. This will help you ascertain which one is bad and needs replacing.
• Contact a professional to check, repair, and if necessary replace your garage door controlling board and transformer.
• After getting your garage door fixed, install a surge protector to prevent such an incident from repeating itself.

 

10. Broken Spring

The garage door spring is an essential part of its operation. When your garage door spring is broken, the door stops working. Springs are the powerhouse and motor of your garage door even though they vary in size.

Most times, you can see the broken spring but do not touch it as replacing the broken spring can be dangerous because the doors are heavy.

Solution

• Call a garage door professional to take a look and fix the broken spring.

 

Conclusion

Your garage door opening by itself is not something to joke with. Not only can it expose you and your properties to danger, but pests and intruders can also enter your garage freely without your knowledge. Also, you might be unable to control energy costs if your garage door is closing and opening at will.

We’ve listed the reasons behind your garage door opening by itself and most of the causes can be easily fixed. Minor problems such as removing obstacles close to the safety sensors, changing the door opener’s frequency, and replacing remote control batteries are issues you can solve on your own.  But damaged electrical circuits or misaligned sensors are better fixed by contacting a professional.

Talk to a garage door specialist today for expert’s advice as well as garage door fixing and replacement.

Leave a comment below if you have further questions regarding your garage door.