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A door that will not open is a sorting problem. Sumo Garage Doors in Westbury names four usual causes: a broken spring, a dead opener motor, safety sensors out of line, and a door that has left the track. Those four are different bills and different risks. This page is how to tell them apart from the driveway. The part prices live on the pages linked below, not here.
Hear a bang, or the door feels like a wall
Island Door Pros in Plainview describes the spring failure homeowners actually notice: a loud bang from the garage, then a door that will not open or feels dangerously heavy. Sumo says not to run that door again. The opener is trying to lift weight the spring used to carry, and the door can slam.
If that is your morning, go to spring repair for what torsion and extension springs are, and to the spring cost page for the one-versus-both price. Do not put a ladder under the shaft to look at the coils. DASMA, cited on the spring page, wants a trained technician on spring work because of the tension.
The motor runs and the door does not
Stand at the wall button and listen.
- Hum for a few seconds, then silence, sometimes with a blink from the light on the unit: treat it as an opener until a technician says otherwise. Opener repair has Chamberlain’s flash chart for Chamberlain and LiftMaster motors, and Sumo’s prices for a gear kit, a logic board, and a motor.
- Click, and no hum at all: check the bulb on the unit and the breaker before you book a spring call. Sumo says to see whether the opener has power, and whether someone already pulled the manual release, before assuming the spring.
- Two flashes, and the wall button still works while the car remote does nothing: Chamberlain says that pattern is the lock feature, not a dead motor. The opener repair page has that line. Turn the lock off and try the wall button again.
Sensors are a poor first guess when the door never starts up. They are built to stop a door that is coming down. If the door will not close, that is the will not close page.
The door is crooked before it is stuck
Look along the bottom edge. If one side is lower, or a roller is out of the metal track, this is not an opener job you can force. Precision Garage Door Service of Long Island says a snapped lift cable makes the door lift unevenly, and lists that cable, bent track, worn rollers, loose hardware, and a car hitting the door as ways a door leaves the track.
Use off track if you can see the roller or the track, and cable replacement if a line is hanging loose. Both pages carry the same warning in their own words: leave the red cord alone.
What to say when you call
Precision answers with a live operator and says it tries for same day, or within 4 hours in ordinary business hours. The visit fee it prints is $69, waived if you approve a repair, and waived if it misses that 4 hour window. Evenings and weekends are listed at no extra charge on its repair page. Confirm that on the phone. The emergency page shows a company that does add an after-hours amount.
Tell them four things: bang or no bang, whether the motor hums, whether the door is level, and whether a cable is hanging. That is enough for the truck to carry springs, or an opener part, or cables.