How to Open Your Garage Door Without Power
When your garage-door opener fails to open the garage door, it’s like: “C’mon, man, you had one job to do!” Be it because your power went out or there’s some other snafu preventing your garage door from raising automatically, this frustrating malfunction probably won’t happen at a convenient moment. More likely than not it’ll be when your car’s trapped inside and you’re running behind. You’re gonna need to do more than say “open sesame!” — but don’t worry, opening your garage door manually is almost as easy as saying the magic words.
Here’s how:
1. First, pull down on the emergency release handle to disconnect the door from the trolley. This will enable you to operate it manually.
2. Now you should be able to pull the door straight up from the bottom, using your hands, taking care not to let it bounce and potentially fall on someone.
3. Pull your car out a safe clearance distance from the garage door and park it while you go back inside.
4. Pull the door carefully back down into the closed position.
5. Now, secure the door using the manual locking mechanism.
6. Then head back out to your car through the house.
Once you’ve returned home — hopefully to restored power — you’ll want to re-engage the trolley so you can resume using your automatic garage door.
Follow these steps to do so:
1. Disengage the manual locking mechanism you secured the door with last time you left the house.
2. Pull the handle again, this time into the “engage” position.
3. Then press the garage door opener button again and let the trolley click into place with the door.
One safety pointer to keep in mind: If the door initially got stuck in the open position, take care in pulling the emergency release lever, as the weight of the door could bring it down suddenly.
One last thing: If your garage door is difficult or impossible to lift even after you’ve disengaged the automatic opener, you might have a damaged torsion spring, in which case, call a pro. Or, you may just be a bit of a wuss in need of a gym, in which case … CALL A BRO!