How to Open a Garage Door During a Power Outage

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How to Open a Garage Door During a Power Outage

August 1, 2017

A power outage is inevitable, whether it’s from bad weather, a blown transformer, or something else. Knowing ahead of time how to operate your garage door during a power outage will save you time and frustration.

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Here’s what you need to know about operating your garage door when the power is out.

Manual Release

Every electric garage door has a manual release, which can bypass the motor when something goes awry. Most of the time, it’s attached to the motor itself. Typically, it’s a red cord with a red handle or ball attached. Your door should have handles that you can use to open and close the door in manual mode. If your torsion springs and cables are in good working order, the door should stay up on its own so you can back out. If the door doesn’t stay open on its own, have somebody hold the door for you while you back out, and be sure to have the cables and torsion springs replaced to avoid more issues down the road.

We cannot emphasize enough how important it is that you disengage this when the garage door is already down. It will release the door, which could crush or kill somebody when it falls, not to mention the damage you could do to the door itself.

Keep Your Belongings Safe

If your power is going to be out for a while, you’ll want to take precautions to ensure that nobody can open your door from the outside. Take a look at the side of the track next to your wall, where you’ll find a manual lock. When you’re not at home or while you’re sleeping, you should lock the door. Be sure that you disengage the lock before you engage the manual release. When the power returns, you could seriously damage your door if you use the electric garage door opener while the lock is employed.

When The Power Returns

When the power comes back, it’s time to reconnect the opener. Make sure that if you’ve used the lock, it’s now disengaged. This is likely going to be a two-person job. Sometimes, you might be able to simply run the garage door opener, and it’ll reconnect automatically. If you try this route, hold the door open a little and run the opener. If that doesn’t work, you’ll have to do it manually. Look for the carriage, which is the part of the chain that connects the door to the motor. You might want to run the door automatically until the carriage is where you want it. Now, lift the garage door until it locks with the carriage. Run the opener, and you should be all set. If you run into any issues, have a professional take a look.

As you can see, a power outage can expose issues you weren’t aware of. We recommend running your door manually a few times a year, which can expose these issues before an emergency comes up. Further, have your garage door maintenanced on a regular basis.

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Ways to Make Your Garage More Useful

February 8, 2018

So many of us use our garage for one purpose: to keep the cars safe. While this is certainly the main purpose of most garages, the fact is, you can use this space for a number of things that will free up space in your home. Not to mention, you can increase the organization and efficiency of your life by making use of a few square feet of space in the garage. At Factory Direct Garage Doors, we are the number one place to buy garage doors in Melbourne. When you want custom doors—timber, sectional, roll-up, and other custom styles—simply submit a request for a quote through our site or give us a call. We will go over your options and give you a quote ASAP. Not only that, we’ll have your new residential garage doors to you within 5-7 business days, which is much faster than the competition. Contact us now! Here are some ways you can increase the efficiency of your home by using space in your garage.

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