Garage door opener won’t close? Let’s take a look at the most common causes. Does your garage door opener attempt to close, only to reverse course? If you have a Craftsman brand do the lights flash five times (or if you have no lights do you hear it click five times?) This is a sign that there is an issue with the safety sensors. They are the “electric eyes” at the bottom of the rails at either end of the garage door. Their job is keep the garage door from coming down on you or your property, so they serve an important purpose.
One of the eyes is the transmitter and the other is the receiver. Each has an led on the side and should be lit. The transmitter led is always on, while the receiver led is only lit while it can “see” the beam from the transmitter. If one or both are out, there’s your problem.
Possible Causes
The most common cause for failure is also the easiest to fix. Make sure there are no objects in between the sensors blocking the beam. If you have an over abundance of stuff in your garage its easy for things to get shifted around, and it doesn’t take much to block the sensors. Spider webs, leaves and other debris stuck on the sensors will prevent it’s operation. Also check to make sure the bottom of the garage door is clean, if anything is dangling on the end of the door it might block the sensor as the door comes down.
Another common and easy repair is when the safety sensors are out of alignment. The vibration of the door overtime can shift the position of the sensors and knock them out of whack (yep, that’s a technical term). Each sensor has a wing nut. Loosen up the wing nut and move the sensor until they line up. If the receiver led comes on, they are lined up. Re-tighten the wing nut.
Bad wiring can also cause the sensors to fail. Most sensors have a couple of feet of wire which are spliced into a larger piece of wire that runs to the opener. You can try shaking the wires to see if the led on the sensor flickers. If it does, this connection may be faulty. Unplug the garage door opener from power before attempting repair. You’ll need wire cutters and some electrical tape. Re-splice the wires making sure that you observe polarity, so hook it up the same way it was. Tape up the connections so that they can’t short out. Don’t forget to plug the garage door opener back in. If you’re sure the connections are good but the led still flickers when you shake the wires the sensor itself may have a problem. In that case of course it would need replacement.
