Garage Door Won't Open?
Here's What's Wrong.

Step 1 — What does the opener do?

Motor runs but the door doesn't move → broken spring, stripped drive gear, or a pulled release cord. Motor hums and strains, then stops → almost certainly a broken spring; the opener is hitting its force limit against the door's full weight. Nothing at all — no lights, no sound → power. Check the plug, the GFCI, and the breaker.

Step 2 — Look at the spring above the door

Stand inside and look at the steel shaft mounted above the door opening. A healthy torsion spring is a continuous tight coil. A broken one shows an obvious two-to-three inch gap where it separated. If you see that gap, stop here — you have your answer, and nothing else on this list matters.

Step 3 — Check the red release cord

If the cord is hanging loose and the carriage on the rail moves without the door, it has been disconnected. Close the door fully by hand, pull the cord toward the door until it clicks, then run the opener — the carriage should re-engage. If the door is heavy to lift by hand, do not do this; you have a spring problem.

Step 4 — Is the door sitting level?

A door that is visibly crooked in the opening — one side several inches lower — means a cable has snapped or come off its drum. Do not run the opener again. A door in that state is under uneven spring load and can drop.

Step 5 — Check the slide lock

Look at both vertical tracks for a slide bolt or T-handle that has been thrown. It happens more often than you would think, and forcing the opener against a locked door is how drive gears strip.

Frequency: ~45% of all won't-open calls. This is the one. The springs — not the opener — lift the door. A torsion spring stores rotational energy as the door closes and releases it to counterbalance the weight on the way up. When one breaks, a 150-250 lb door becomes dead weight, and a residential opener rated to lift roughly 10 lbs of imbalance simply cannot move it. Look at the steel shaft above the door: a broken spring shows a clean two-to-three inch gap in the coil. Many homeowners hear it let go — a single loud bang, often overnight, that sounds like a gunshot in the garage.

Frequency: ~15%. The motor runs, the light comes on, you hear the unit working — and nothing moves. Inside the opener head is a nylon drive gear that meshes with a worm gear on the motor shaft. Nylon is used deliberately because it is the designed failure point, sacrificing itself instead of the motor. After 10-15 years those teeth shear off. You will often see plastic shavings on the garage floor directly under the opener.

Frequency: ~10%. The red cord hanging from the opener rail disconnects the door from the carriage so you can operate it by hand. Once pulled, the opener runs normally but the carriage travels the rail without the door attached. Kids pull it, people pull it during a power outage and forget. To re-engage: close the door fully by hand, pull the cord toward the door until it clicks, then run the opener — the carriage will snap back onto it.

Frequency: ~8%. The lift cables run from the bottom bracket up to drums on the torsion shaft. If one snaps or unwinds off its drum, the door binds in the tracks and sits visibly crooked — one side several inches lower than the other. Cables almost never fail alone; they usually go because a spring broke first and the sudden slack let a cable jump the drum. Do not run the opener against a crooked door, and never put your hands near a bottom bracket — it is under full spring tension.

Frequency: ~7%. Worth ruling out before anything else because it costs nothing to check. Garage outlets in Central Arkansas homes are frequently on a GFCI circuit shared with an exterior outlet — one trip outside takes the opener with it. Check that the unit is plugged in, look for a tripped GFCI in the garage or on the outside of the house, and check the breaker panel. If the opener has no lights and makes no sound at all, start here.

Frequency: ~5%. If the wall button opens the door but the remote or keypad does not, it is the remote, not the door. Replace the battery first. If a fresh battery does not fix it, reprogram the remote to the opener — the learn button on the back of the motor head, then press the remote within 30 seconds. Rolling-code openers occasionally lose their pairing after a power surge.

Frequency: ~4%. Most doors have a slide bolt or T-handle lock on the inside of the track. If it is thrown, the opener will strain against a mechanically locked door — which is a fast way to strip a drive gear or bend the top section. Check both sides of the door before you keep pressing the button.

Frequency: ~3%. Openers have adjustable up-travel limits and force sensitivity. If the up-limit has drifted, the door may open a few inches and stop, or refuse to start. If the force setting is too low, the opener reads normal resistance as an obstruction and quits. These are adjustment screws or buttons on the opener head — a genuine DIY fix if you have the manual, and a five-minute job for a tech if you don't.

Frequency: seasonal — spikes after ice storms. After an Arkansas ice storm the bottom weather seal bonds to the concrete. The opener strains against a door that is physically stuck down, and the force sensor cuts the motor. Do not keep pressing the button — that is how drive gears strip. Break the seal loose with warm water and a plastic scraper, never a metal one, and never a heat gun against vinyl.

Frequency: ~2%. Usually the result of backing into the door, a snapped cable, or a roller that came out of the track. The door will sit visibly cocked in the opening and may be jammed against the frame. This is not a DIY repair — a door off track is under uneven spring load and can drop without warning.

Frequency: ~1%. Old steel rollers with unsealed bearings eventually seize, especially on doors that have gone years without lubrication. The door binds partway or refuses to start. Look for a roller that is dragging rather than rolling, and check the tracks for a bolt, a bike handlebar, or storage that has shifted into the path.

Frequency: ~1%. The least common cause and usually the last thing we check. Symptoms are erratic: the unit responds intermittently, the lights flash a diagnostic code, or it works from the wall button but never from a remote after a storm. Central Arkansas gets enough lightning that surge damage to logic boards is a real if infrequent failure. On a unit over 12 years old, a new opener is normally the better spend.

Springs fail earlier here

A standard torsion spring is rated at 10,000 cycles, which works out to roughly seven years at four cycles a day. Our climate runs from single digits in January to over 100°F in July, and that repeated expansion and contraction accelerates metal fatigue. We routinely replace standard springs at five to seven years in Pulaski, Saline and Faulkner counties. It is the main reason we fit high-cycle springs on nearly every replacement — the incremental cost is small and the service life roughly doubles.

Ice storms freeze doors to the slab

Every Central Arkansas ice event produces a run of won't-open calls where nothing is mechanically broken — the bottom seal has simply frozen to the concrete. The damage comes from what happens next: homeowners press the button repeatedly, the opener strains against a door that cannot move, and a nylon drive gear that had years of life left shears out. If the door will not budge in freezing weather, stop pressing the button.

Humidity corrodes cables and bearings

Arkansas summer humidity works on the parts nobody looks at. Lift cables fray from the inside out where they wind on the drum, and unsealed roller bearings seize. Both show up as a door that binds partway or refuses to start. An annual lubrication with a garage-door-specific product — not WD-40, which strips lubricant rather than adding it — prevents most of this.

Safe to check yourself

Power supply, GFCI and breaker. Remote and keypad batteries. The emergency release cord. The manual slide lock. Obstructions in the track. Whether the door is frozen to the slab. Between them these account for roughly a quarter of won't-open calls, and all of them cost nothing to rule out.

Leave these alone

Torsion springs, lift cables, bottom brackets and drums. A torsion spring holds hundreds of pounds of rotational force, and the bottom bracket stays under full tension even when the door is down. Spring replacement is the one garage door repair we never recommend as DIY, regardless of how mechanically capable you are — the failure mode is severe injury, not a botched repair.

Why won't my garage door open?

The most common cause is a broken torsion spring. The springs counterbalance the door's weight — the opener only automates the movement. When a spring breaks, a 150-250 lb door becomes dead weight and an opener rated to lift roughly 10 lbs of imbalance cannot move it. Look for a visible gap in the spring coil on the shaft above the door.

My opener runs but the door doesn't move.

Either the emergency release cord has been pulled, disconnecting the door from the carriage, or the nylon drive gear inside the opener head has stripped. Check for plastic shavings on the floor under the opener — that points to the gear.

Can safety sensors stop my door from opening?

No. Photo-eye sensors only prevent a door from closing, never from opening. If your door won't open, the sensors are not the cause. This is the single most common misdiagnosis we hear over the phone.

Is it safe to force the door open with a broken spring?

No. Without a working spring the door's full weight is unsupported — it can slam shut. Running the opener against that weight strips gears and bends the top section. If the door is already up, leave it up and call us.

What does it cost to fix?

Single torsion spring $150-$350. Both springs $250-$500. Cables $100-$200. Opener repair $100-$275. Opener replacement installed $350-$900. We quote flat-rate before any work begins.

How long do springs last in Arkansas?

Standard springs are rated 10,000 cycles — about seven years at four cycles a day. Central Arkansas runs harder on them because of the swing from single digits in January to 100°F+ in July. We commonly see five to seven years here, which is why we fit high-cycle springs on replacement.