Your One Stop Garage Door Shop

F.A.Q.

Here is a list of the most frequently asked questions that we hear at Secured Entries. If you don’t find any answers to your question here, please send us an email at info@securedentries.com for a quick and detailed response.

1.) When I hit my electric garage door operator console or transmitter, my garage door only opens about 6”-12”. Why is this?

A) There can be a number of reasons why your garage door won’t open fully. THe main reason is that you have a broken spring. Springs are a compenent of the garage door that does the actual lifting of your door. Without springs on your door, you would have total dead door weight sitting on your garage floor.

Garage doors vary in size, weight and components used. THere are an infinite number of sizes in springs and other components which use complicated mathematical formulas to make your door roll with ease. If any of these components are broken or damaged, this causes your electric garage door opener to work too hard lifting too much door weight.

If your garage door won’t open, you may want to physically look at the hardware (rollers, springs and cables) and components that make your door work to see fi you notice any misaligned or borken parts. It’s very easy to tell if torsion springs are broken as they are located on the insdie of the door, just above the top of the door, and you will see what is called a torsion tube assembly. This is basically a tube that extends across the top of the door that has springs on either side of the tube. The size and weight of your garage door will determine how many springs that you have. Some doors only have one spring (single cam garage door) and others may have as many as four springs (double cam garage door). Whether you have a single cam or double cam setup depends upon the specific weight of your garage door.

Double cam garage doors have two springs on the torsion tube spring assemley, located just above the top of the door on the inside of your garage. These looks like coils of wire with a round tube through the center. If any coil has a separation in it, you have a broken spring and the door won’t open with just the operator. Electric door operators are designed to lift only a few pounds of weight off of the floor. Consistently trying to open a door with a broken spring could cause damage to the opeartor as well as the door.

If you notice a broken spring, please call to have it replaced immediately so that you don’t cause further damage to any of the other components of your garage door. Always call a qualified technician!! Springs hold a lot of tension and can cause serious injury if not properly handled! This is NOT a job that you want to do yourself! A qualified technician can also replace springs to the proper weights and balances for smooth and easy operation of your garage door. With the proper springs installed, your garage door should be lifted with ease when lifted manually (sans the operator) with very little effort. Please contact us if you have any doubts at all as to whether or not you should tackle this job yourself at dave@securedentries.com and we will be more than happy to check out the situation for you and replace any parts as necessary.

2.) My garage door opens, but it won’t close. What could be the problem?

A) There are many reasons why your garage door may not close. The main reason is that there is a problem with a safety device on your electric garage opener called photo cells. These are small photo electric devices which are mounted approximately 8” off of the garage floor, on or near your garage door’s vertical track. These devices stop your garage door from going too close if there is an obstuction in the way of its operation. From time to time, they do malfunction.
The most common cause of malfunction in the photo cells is something that may be obstucting their view. Most residential homes equipped with photo cells have two photo cells--one on each side of the garage door opening. These devices need to be able to ‘see’ each other. If there is something blocking the path, or view, of these photo cells, the garage door will not close. Check to make sure that the photo cells are not obstructed in any way. Garden tools, bicycles, balls and even cobwebs can obstruct the view of the photo cells.

If one of your photo cells have ben hit by an object or knocked out of alignment, your photo cells can’t ‘see’ each other and your garage door won’t close. Simply re-align the photo cells, by straightening the brackets or using the adjustment screw located on the photo cells and your door should close without any further problems.

There are also small indicator lights om most photo cells. The type of indicator lights on the photo cells vary between manufacturers. Most photo cells have an indicator light on each photo cell but on earlier models, they may only have one indicator on one of the two photo cells. In either case, whether there is an indicator light on both photo cells or on just one photo cell, this light should be lit, indicating successful operation.

If there is an indicator light out on one or both photo cells, you have a malfunction, which is telling your garage door that it is not safe for it to close. Certain manufacturere’s lights will blink if there is an obstruction, but once again, check the alignment of the photo cells, or look for a possible broken wire(s) leading from the photo cell.

Sometimes a photo cell issue can be a simple matter of cleaning debris from the lens of the obstructed photo cell to enable your door to work properly once again. With some manufacturer’s photo cells, sunlight hitting what is called the receiving cell will cause your garage door not to close properly. This may happen at certain times of the day or year, depending upon the sun’s position in the sky.

If you have a problem with your photo cells and are unabel to remedy it, you can still close the goor by holding constant pressure on the wall button or console. This will override the photo cell operation amd allow you to continue with your day until you can have a professional look at the issue. Please remember that photo cells are powered by low voltage from the garage door operator head, and may have an internal malfunction in the circuitry itself. This will require the assistance of a professional. Please feel free to contact us with your questions at info@securedentries.com and we will answer your questions as soon as we can.

3.) If the battery goes dead in my keypad and I have to change it, will I have to reprogram it?

A) No. Most generally, when the battery goes dead, the keypad has its own internal memory that retains these settings. If the battery has been dead for a prolonged period of time, it’s possible that it may not retain these settings and they may need to be restored by either a qualified technician or by the homeowner.

4.) My transmitter isn’t working. What is my first step?

A). The first thing that you need to be concerned about is a faulty transmitter. Try replacing the battery. This is the most common cause of failure and you should not have to reprogram the transmitter after replacing the battery. In very rare circumstances, such as when replacing the transmitter’s battery, if the transmitter has not been used for a period of time, it may have lost its internal settings and may need to be reprogrammed. Please refer to your owner’s manual or call Secured Entries to reprogram your radio controls.

5.) Neither my keypad nor my transmitters are working. What could be the problem?

A.) The problem could be that, in some situations, it may be due to an electrical surge or electrical failure in your home, such as a strong thunderstorm with a lightening strike very close to your home. This will sometimes erase any programming for your keypad and/or transmitters. In this case, these units will require reprogramming, either by yourself (please see your owner’s manual) or called Secured Entires for the reprogramming of your radio controls. Electrical surges in your home may cause the same problem.

Please continue to check this page for updates, and as always, if you have any questions for us, please contact Secured Entries at dave@securedentries.com or info@securedentries.com and we will be more than happy to answer any questions that you may have.

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