How To Reset Your Garage Door After A Power Outage

Power outages are common in Texas — most notably, when a 2021 snowstorm left millions without electricity. In such emergencies, many people quickly try restoring electricity to their essential devices and appliances. However, incorrectly resetting your garage door could lead to damage and expensive repairs. Keep reading to learn how to fix an unresponsive garage door.

Common Causes for a Power Outage

Several environmental disasters and human errors can result in a power outage. While some power outages only last a few seconds or minutes, others can persist for hours or days, depending on the situation. Typical reasons for blackouts include the following.

• Human errors: People can accidentally trigger power outages in various ways, such as improperly installing essential equipment. Additionally, vehicle accidents or purposeful destruction can impact power grids or lines, leading to widespread blackouts.
• Natural disasters: Natural disasters like severe storms, floods, tornadoes or hurricanes can impact the power grid, damaging essential structures or components. 
• Infrastructure failures: Old or worn equipment can lead to a blackout. As infrastructure ages, it can experience additional stress or malfunctions that can disrupt the power supply or cause a failure in transmission lines. 
• High power demands: The power grid has a limited capacity. If demand surpasses this, the grid can experience a strain that breaks the connection. 

While some locations rarely face outages, others experience them frequently, making it even more essential to understand how to reset your garage door if you need to do it often. For example, Texas has the third-highest rate of outages in the United States, with nearly 20 hours of outages in 2021.

Steps to Reset a Garage Door After a Power Outage

Garage door openers run on the same electricity as the rest of your appliances, so you’ll need to restart yours to get it to function correctly again. There are several steps to resetting your door, but you must work carefully to prevent injuries. 

Doors can become jammed during operation, leaving you in limbo. Attempting to disengage and connect the opener with the door halfway open can be dangerous. For instance, the door may slam to the ground, crushing anything beneath it. If your door gets stuck, contact a professional for emergency services rather than attempting to fix the issue alone. 

Follow these steps to reset your door.

1. Disconnect the garage door opener: Disengage the opener from its power supply to ensure nothing unexpectedly starts operating while you’re resetting it. Additionally, disconnecting the opener will guarantee no one else attempts to open or close the door while you’re working. 
2. Pull the release mechanism: The emergency release hangs from the trolley, which connects to the carrier, allowing your door to open automatically. Pull this cord to open the door manually. 
3. Manually pull the door down: You will need to pull the door down to continue the rest of the process. However, if the door’s weight prevents you from moving it, you may have a broken spring, which can be highly dangerous. Immediately call a professional if you suspect a broken spring.
4. Engage the emergency release: If you can’t disconnect the opener from the door, you must engage the carrier to operate it. Pull the cord toward the door to compress the spring lever, connecting your door’s components. Ensure the door has closed completely and press the opener button. This process should automatically reconnect the door.
5. Attach the trolley if necessary: Reconnect the trolley by running a complete cycle. Sometimes, you may need to manually connect the door’s arms to the trolley. After the door has opened and closed again, a loud click should sound, indicating that maintenance was successful. Contact a professional if you do not hear this noise. 
6. Test the door: After carefully completing each step, you should have a working door. If not, you may have a more extensive issue. Do not use your door until a professional can assess the cause. 

Safety Aspects to Consider

Whenever you work on your garage door, keep safety at the forefront for you, any people in the area and all vehicles or objects that could face damage. You must consider several things when completing this task.

Above all else, proceed cautiously when working in an environment with low light or other less-than-ideal conditions due to the outage. Garage doors can weigh hundreds of pounds, making them challenging to work with. Always use a light source, such as a flashlight, when resolving garage door issues in the dark. Additionally, ask another adult to help you reset the door so you can have both hands to work on the system. If you ever find this process too challenging or doubt your ability to complete the task safely, contact a professional immediately.

Contact Viking Overhead for Assistance

Viking Overhead is a local and veteran-owned garage door company headquartered in Burleson, and we’ve repaired garage doors in the Dallas-Fort Worth area for over three decades. Our team proudly serves more than 45 communities in Texas with efficient and fast repairs. 

We also provide 24-hour emergency repairs to address any problem you might encounter. Our same-day service technicians walk you through your options so you know what to expect before we get started. We’ll come with all the tools needed to address the issue and complete a speedy repair. 

Our team has the experience and skill to address everything from bent tracks to snapped cables to broken springs. Our well-trained technicians quickly complete installations and repairs, and we back our work with warranties so you can feel confident in our abilities. 

When you have an issue with your garage door, contact our team at Viking Overhead for a quick and professional solution.