Why Isn’t My Garage Door Opener Working?
Chances are that you use a garage door opener when you drive into or out of your garage. Garage door openers are a tremendous convenience, especially when you live in an area like Las Vegas where high temperatures year-round can make getting out of a temperature-controlled environment like the inside of your car or the inside of your garage very uncomfortable. Your remote entry device is actually a small radio transmitter, and if it begins to malfunction, a technician that does garage repair in Las Vegas can fix it for you.
How Does Your Garage Door Controller Work?
Your garage door has a radio receiver that typically operates on a frequency between 300 and 400 megahertz. The controller itself contains a radio transmitter attached to an antenna that transmits a radio signal that’s keyed to a randomly generated number. The receiver in the garage door will only be activated if the correct random number is generated. This prevents your garage door from responding to transmissions that were not initiated by you. The generation of these random numbers is controlled by a transistorized computer chip. Once the garage door receives the signal, an electric motor is activated that engages the track and pulley system that opens or closes it. Garage doors are also equipped with photo eye sensors that prevent them from closing when an object is within the door’s parameters.
Batteries and Photo Sensors
Garage door controllers are battery operated, and so is the receiver on your garage door. The most common reason for garage door controller malfunctions is actually dead batteries. If your batteries are okay, and you can open your garage door, but you can’t close it, the problem may lie with misaligned or dirty photo eye sensors. While you can safely clean your photo eye sensors with a microfiber cloth, it’s best to leave alignment to a trained technician.
Check the Position of Your Antenna
Faulty transmission can be another source of trouble. Make sure that nothing is blocking the antenna that contains the radio receiver your garage door relies upon in order to operate. If the antenna is damaged in any way, you will need to call a technician to come and replace it.