How to Open Your Garage Door Manually When the Power Is Out

Automatic garage doors are an essential feature of modern luxury homes across the globe. Whether you live in San Diego, California or Calgary, Alberta, an automatic garage door makes life much easier when you enter and exit a property with an integral garage. However, some homeowners are reluctant to have such doors installed in their properties as they fear they will be unable to open them in the event of a power cut. Consequently, they miss out on all the advantages that remotely operated doors have to offer. We think this is a shame and as a leading Calgary garage doors repair and installation company, we wanted to share our knowledge to help alleviate these fears, so that homeowners around the world can enjoy the benefits of automatic doors. With this in mind, we have put together a short tutorial on how to open this type of door when the power is out.

Opening a Remotely Operated Garage Door

You will be delighted to learn than all modern doors, including our Calgary garage doors, feature a bypass that allows the homeowner to open them in the event of a power failure. Once you have familiarized yourself with the process of opening your automatic door manually, never again will you have to worry about what to do when the power is out. Simply follow the steps below and you will be able to get your car out of your garage with ease:

• Locate the Bypass Lever – Whether you have a belt-driven or chain-driven door, there should be a lever hanging by a cord from the spring-loaded trolley assembly that is attached to top of the door. The assembly will be affixed to the inside wall, directly above the door itself. In most cases, this will be a red lever, to make it easy for you to find.

• Pull the Lever – In order to release the mechanism, you should pull down and slightly back on the lever (by back we mean slightly toward the inside of the garage). This action will engage the spring in the open position, allowing you to manually open the door. If your door is quite tall, you may need to use a ladder to reach the lever.

• Pull the Door Up – Using both hands, pull the door up. Now that the spring has been released it should move freely but you will need to use a little more effort to move heavier doors. Once you have lifted the door high enough to drive your car out of the garage, do not just let go of it! As there is nothing to keep the door in the open position, it will simply roll back down again and could hurt you if you are standing in the way. If you have a friend or family member who can help, ask them to hold it open until you have driven your car out of the garage. If there is nobody who can help, find a piece of wood that is large enough to hold the door open. If you have to use this method, make sure that the wood is securely in place and is not likely to slip, before you attempt to drive your vehicle out of the garage.

• Close the Door – Once your vehicle is safely outside, you can remove the wood and hold the door, slowly letting it back down until it is fully closed again. You won’t have to pull it down as gravity will do all the hard work, but you will need to provide a little resistance to ensure that it rolls down slowly and smoothly, avoiding the possibility of damage.

• Re-Engage the Spring – Pull down hard on the lever to re-engage the spring and lock your door in the closed position. Alternatively, you can wait until the power comes back on to do this, in case you need to open and close the door manually again.

It is a good idea to keep the chain and rollers well lubricated at all times, so that your door opens and closes smoothly. Doing so will also ensure that you are easily able to open it manually in the event of a power outage.

Our Calgary garage doors repair team were consulted when putting the above list together so you can rest assured that it is expert approved! However, we do urge you to exercise caution when opening or closing your door manually and only to do it when absolutely necessary. One final word of warning from our Calgary garage doors team: if the power goes out while your door is in the open position, do not pull down on the red lever to release it. If you do, the door will drop to the closed position at a speed that may result in serious damage, either to the door itself or to anything that might be in the way.