Ever tried to open your garage door and watch as it only goes up a foot or so, then slowly goes back down?
Are your thinking that your sensors are fried?
While that would be a good guess, the results of fried sensors still allow your garage door to go up and down as long as you are holding the hard wired button down.
So the first thing to try is to hold down the hard wired button by the door from your house to your garage. Not getting satisfaction?
Then it’s not your sensors.
Look at the picture again. Can you spot the problem?
No? Look hard at the left side of the photo. Look at the coiled spring. See that gap between the left edge of the spring and the center of the spring.
That is called the “Your Spring is Broken” gap. They call it that because the spring is broken. And there is a gap.
Nuts.
Not quite the bad news you may think though. True, while you won’t be able to raise and lower your garage door until you get it fixed, the damage is done. You don’t have to be fearful of the already broken spring uncoiling. That part of the fun and games is over.
All you need to do is to call a garage door company and have them come replace the spring. Replace them both if they are old. You can find quality garage door folk on this web-site, and can probably get 24 hour service.
Side note – don’t go poking around with the other spring. No good can possibly come out of you doing that. Your garage door tech will be able to tell you if it needs replacing or not and will be able to make sure it is properly installed.
More good news. This is a project your garage door technician is born to do. They can have it done in one hour, usually less. And – it won’t cost you an arm and a leg.
This is a great project for a pro. Not only will they have the correct parts, but they are accustomed to working with the springs and the amount of torque involved in installing.