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There have been several occasions where people ask why their garage door won’t close unless they hold down the button. Well, this is pretty self-explanatory; whatever the cause would be should be related to a dead door sensor.
But, that’s not entirely what could have caused the problem. If you’re one of those troubled homeowners seeking answers to the keyword, “my garage door won’t close unless I hold the button down.” Pretty enough, you’re reading the right blog.
When your garage door stops closing automatically, the first thing to check out is the sensor(s). When one or more sensors attached to the door are no longer operational, you’d need to manually close the door by pressing the button.
What Happened To My Garage Door?
The garage door is not like the doors inside your house, which are probably opened and closed frequently; thus, it is not expected to get damaged – at least not so soon.
However, garage doors can get nasty, and some factors contribute to that.
Over time, as you use your garage, dust, dirt, and grime can get into various corners, including the door. This can affect the components used in designing the door, and thus, can possibly cause the situation you’re facing currently.
It is important to note that all garage doors are not entirely the same, but they are installed with almost the same component (suite of sensors).
Just like your vehicle, when a sensor or a component is failing, it can affect the general performance of your car.
Hence, when one of the components used for your garage door begins to malfunction, the sensors could read a negative sign, and as such, would not close the door automatically.
Also, you should know that the door sensors could get dirty or even physically affected (if you had at some time crashed into the door when moving in or out of the garage).
My Garage Door Won’t Close Unless I Hold The Button Down
Let’s take a look at some factors that could cause your garage door not to close when you use the remote control.
1. The Lock-Out Button is Engaged
There is a vital component of garage doors called the “Lock-out” button. If the lock-out button is engaged, your garage door is unlikely to close itself unless you manually press the close button on the door (not the remote button).
This button is installed for safety purposes, and depending on who installed your garage door, the location of the button varies.
How do you fix this?
Typically, the lock-out button is installed with a led indicator situated next to it. The led indicators tell you when the button is activated or deactivated. So, look out for the button, check it is activated or engaged, then deactivate it.
If you can’t find the button and can’t find a way to activate/deactivate it, contact your garage door installer.
Most apparently, once the button is deactivated, your garage door should be working automatically or with the remote control.
2. Check The Eyes and Sensors
Here are the most common causes of garage door problems – blocked sensors, unaligned eyes, bad wiring.
These three factors mentioned here are critical and must be properly working for your garage door to function as expected.
Your door sensor can get dirty due to accumulated dirt and grime; the green receiver’s wiring could have gone bad due to several reasons, and the door eyes may have gone out of alignment – these could be the reason(s) for the issues you’re facing.
How to fix this problem?
Start with the door eyes; check if they are aligned and seeing each other. After confirming that the eyes are now sorted out, check every other sensor and confirm that they are not physically damaged or obstructed by any obstacle.
You may also need to unplug and re-plug the garage door opener unit into the outlet. Cross-check to see if the sensors blink when you press the door to close; if they blink, they are working fine, then you should check the wiring.
One more thing you may need to do here is to clean the receiver and transmitter with alcohol to remove any debris or dirt that may be disturbing the sensitivity.
If the problem is from the wiring, you should call a professional to fix back the wiring. If you try to fix the wires yourself, you may make wrong connections, which may wreck your garage door’s remaining functioning parts, thus resulting in costlier repairs.
With the garage door eyes adequately aligned and the wires are well connected, most apparently, the issue you’re facing should be solved.
In most cases, you’d find tips on how to fix the most common garage door problems in the manual provided by the installers.
What Actually Happens When You Press and Hold The Button Down?
When you press the button, it overrides every automatic setting and forces the garage door to close; however, different garage door installers set up garage doors with different installation techniques.
Some people would prefer removing all automatic settings and use their garage manually; well, that can be very stressful, as you’d have to come down from your vehicle to open and close the door every time you’re driving in or out.
Summary
What to do when my garage door won’t close unless I hold the button down? Simply inspect the sensors, eyes, and wires; these are the three factors that can cause your garage not to open or close as usual.
However, dealing with these components can be a little bit technical. You should read the garage door manual or call on a technician to help you with that. Operating your garage manually can be very stressful and tiring.
Furthermore, once in a while, it is advisable to check your garage and ensure that everything is in order. Routine checks help to mitigate costlier repairs and fixes. Hopefully, this article helped you.
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