1. Homeowner Care
  2. General Maintenance

Garage Door & Opener

Garage door safety, operation, maintenance tips, and more.

Safety

Your garage door openers have some nice built-in safety features:

  • Optical sensors stop garage doors from closing on someone or something
  • Safety Reversal System senses resistance against the door and will reverse itself if it encounters elevated resistance in case of entrapment
    • Important: Do not attempt to adjust tension spring, as this can cause serious injury or death. Consult a professional if adjustments are needed.

General operations:

  • Push main button on wall to operate door, and smaller button to operate light

  • Pull cord to release from opener to operate manually

  • Push button (or largest button if multiple) on remote to operate garage door

Wifi Enabled Garage Door Help: LiftMaster myQ Support 

Maintenance and cleaning:

Batteries

  • If the remote or keypad no longer operates as expected, change the batteries to see if that solves the problem.

Every Six Months

  • Manually operate the door; if it is unbalanced or binding, call a trained door systems technician
  • Check to be sure the door opens and closes fully; adjust if necessary
  • Test the safety reversal system; adjust if necessary 

Every Year

  • Oil bearings and hinges; the garage door opener does not require additional lubrication; do not grease the door tracks
  • Test the battery backup (if applicable) and consider replacing the battery to ensure the garage door opener will operate during a power outage
  • Pressure-wash the door Every Two to Three Years
  • Use a rag to wipe away the existing grease from the garage door opener rail
  • Reapply a small layer of white lithium grease to the top and underside of the rail surface where the trolley slides