Diagnostics
Garage Door Keeps Reversing
Where in the travel it reverses tells you what is wrong. That one detail narrows it down immediately.
Where does it reverse?
Reverses just before touching the floor: the down travel limit is set too far, or the close force is too sensitive. The opener thinks it hit something.
Reverses partway down, at no consistent point: the photo-eye sensors. Wipe the lenses and check both LEDs are solid.
Reverses on the way up: unusual, and normally means the door is binding in the track or the up force is set too low.
Why does my garage door reverse before it closes?
Every opener has an adjustable force limit: how hard it will push before deciding something is in the way. Set too sensitive and the door reverses on ordinary friction. Set too high and it becomes genuinely dangerous, because it will keep pushing against an obstruction.
Adjust force in small increments and test after each one. The standard safety check is to lay a length of timber flat on the floor under the door. On contact the door should reverse. If it does not, the force is too high and needs backing off, not raising.
What we see most in Lubbock
Doors reversing because the tracks are full of grit. The door drags, the opener reads resistance, and it reverses. People then raise the force to compensate, which masks a mechanical problem with a safety setting. Clean the tracks and lubricate the rollers before touching the force adjustment. Detail on the noise page.
Questions we get asked
Where are the force adjustments?
Usually two dials or buttons on the back or side of the motor unit, marked up force and down force. Some newer units set them automatically during a learn cycle and have no dials at all.
Should I just turn the force up?
No. If the door needs more force than it did last year, something mechanical has changed. Raising the force hides that and removes a safety margin.
It only reverses in cold weather.
Cold thickens old grease and stiffens the whole assembly, so the door needs more force on a January morning than a July afternoon. Proper lubrication usually solves it. It can also be a warning that the springs are tiring, which is covered on cold snap spring failures.
Does the door reverse going up as well as down?
That is a different fault, and worth telling us on the phone. Reversing on the way down points at the safety sensors or the down force setting. Stopping or reversing on the way up points at the up force, a binding track, or a door that has become physically heavier — often a spring that has lost tension.
Could a dirty lens really stop the door closing?
Routinely, and it is the single most common cause we see here. The photo-eyes sit a few inches off the floor, which is exactly where caliche dust settles. A dry cloth on both lenses fixes a surprising share of these calls, which is why we ask you to try it before we drive out.
Why does it only happen in the middle of the day?
Direct low sun landing on the receiving eye can wash out the beam, and in Lubbock that happens most in the hour or two either side of the sun being lowest in the west. If the fault tracks the time of day rather than the door, that is usually what it is, and a shield or a small bracket change solves it.
Get it fixed today
Not sure whether it is the sensors, the force, or the door itself? Call and we will work it out on the phone.