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If you’re standing in your garage right now hitting the button and nothing’s happening, or worse, you heard a loud bang earlier and now the door won’t budge, here’s what’s probably going on and what to do about it.
This is the call we get more than any other. Most of the time it’s one of three things, and you can figure out which one in about two minutes.
First, look at the door itself
Before you keep mashing the opener button, walk over and look at the door from the inside.
Do you see a gap in the spring above the door? That long spring that runs across the top — if there’s a visible break in it, that’s your answer. The spring is broken. Do not try to force the door open. The door is heavy (most residential doors are 150–200 pounds) and the spring is what carries that weight. Without it, the only thing holding the door up is the opener, and the opener was never designed to lift the full weight of a door. You’ll burn out the motor or strip the gear.
If you absolutely have to get the door up — say your car is trapped inside — there’s a right way to open a door with a broken spring that doesn’t damage anything else. Otherwise, leave it alone and call us. Most spring repairs are a same-day or next-day fix, and we keep the common spring sizes in stock.
Not sure if your spring is the issue? These are the top signs a spring is failing or already failed.
Does the door look crooked or off the track? Same answer — don’t run the opener. Call us.
If the door looks fine, check the opener
Pull the red emergency release cord (the one hanging from the rail above the door). This disconnects the door from the opener so you can lift it by hand. If you’ve never done this before, here’s the full walkthrough on opening a garage door manually.
- Door lifts easily by hand? Your door is fine. The opener is the problem. Skip to the next section.
- Door is super heavy or won’t budge? That’s a spring or cable problem even if you can’t see obvious damage. Re-engage the opener if you can and call us.
Opener troubleshooting (the easy stuff)
If the door moves freely by hand, the issue is electrical. Run through these in order:
- Is it plugged in? Sounds dumb. Check anyway. Garage outlets get bumped, breakers trip, GFCIs trip after a thunderstorm.
- Try the wall button, not just the remote. If the wall button works and the remote doesn’t, your remote needs a new battery or needs to be reprogrammed — here’s how to program a remote, keypad, or in-car button.
- Look at the safety sensors near the floor. Those two little eyes on either side of the door, about six inches off the ground — they have to see each other. If one is knocked out of alignment, dirty, or has a cobweb across it, the door won’t move. A solid green light on both sensors means they’re aligned. A blinking light means they’re not. Wipe them off and gently nudge them until both go solid.
- Lockout mode. Some wall consoles have a vacation lock button that disables the remotes. Make sure it’s off.
That sensor issue alone is the fix for a huge chunk of “my door won’t work” calls. Five minutes with a paper towel solves it. For a deeper rundown, here are the most common opener problems we see and what causes them.
When to just call us
If you’ve checked the above and the door still won’t move, it’s one of the things we need to be on-site for:
- Broken spring → spring replacement service
- Snapped cable
- Door off track
- Burned-out opener motor → opener repair
- Bad logic board (more common on older openers — they get dusty, components fail)
We charge a flat $140/hour with a one-hour minimum for service calls, and most of these jobs are done in 1–2 hours. For context on what specific repairs run, here’s what spring replacement typically costs. If your opener is more than 12–15 years old and the logic board is shot, sometimes a new opener (around $1,000 installed) makes more sense than a $800 board replacement. We’ll tell you straight up which way to go.
Every door we touch gets a full once-over while we’re there — lube on the rollers and hinges, a check on the rest of the hardware, make sure nothing else is about to fail. We take doors personally. If we fix it, we want it healthy when we leave.
Don’t try this if…
A few quick warnings, because we see the aftermath:
- Don’t try to replace a torsion spring yourself. They store enormous energy and have hurt a lot of people. Here’s the honest answer to whether you should DIY a spring replacement — short version: no.
- Don’t run the opener with a broken spring. You’ll cook the motor and turn a $400 spring job into a $1,400 spring + opener job.
- Don’t pry a frozen door off the concrete. Use a heat gun or hot water along the bottom seal. Forcing a frozen door tears the seal off and bends panels.
Stuck and need someone today?
We cover the Black Hills and out to about a 100-mile radius from our shop — Rapid City, Spearfish, Sturgis, Belle Fourche, Lead, Gillette, Sundance, and everywhere in between. Same-day service when we can swing it. See our full garage door repair service page or contact us directly.
Call Seamless Systems: (307) 680-6103
