A winter storm takes the lights out, and the garage door opener does nothing. The wall button, the remote and the keypad are all dead, because they all need the opener, and the opener needs power. If the car is inside, you can still get it out. The safe way depends on whether the door is fully closed, and on whether a spring is already broken.

This is the outage version. If the lights are on and the door still will not move, start with what to do when your garage door won't open. If you heard a bang, or you can see a gap in the spring, go to garage door spring snapped in the cold and do not pull the red cord.

First, is the power actually out?

Press the wall button and look at the opener.

  • No lights on the opener, and the rest of the garage is dark. The power is out, or the breaker that feeds the garage is off. A battery backup, if the opener has one, is the exception: its light may still come on and the door may still run. If it does, use it, and skip the red cord.
  • The house has power, and only the garage opener is dead. Check that the opener is plugged into the ceiling outlet. Then check the garage GFCI outlets (press reset) and the breaker panel. That sequence is the same one in the emergency checklist.
  • The opener's light is on, or you hear a click or a hum. This is not an outage. A hum with no movement can be a door frozen to the floor, a broken spring, or a stripped gear. Stop pressing the button.

Remotes and keypads do nothing useful during an outage. A fresh battery in the remote will not open a door whose opener has no power.

Getting the car out

Do this only if you need the car and the power is not coming back in time. The door has to be fully closed before you disconnect it.

  1. Look at the springs above the door and the cables on each side. A gap in a spring coil, a slack cable, or a door that sits crooked means stop. Do not pull the red cord. A released door with a broken spring can drop. Call for spring replacement or, if you cannot wait, emergency garage door repair.
  2. Pull the red emergency release cord down and toward the opener, away from the door. That disconnects the door from the trolley on the rail.
  3. Lift the door by the handle. About 10 to 15 pounds is normal. If it feels like the whole weight of the door, set it back down, leave it closed, and call. That is a spring, not the power.
  4. Drive out, then close the door by hand. Lock it if the door has a lock. A released door can be lifted from the outside, so do not leave it open and unattended.

Do not pull the red cord if the door is open or partway open. With the opener disconnected, nothing powered is holding the door up.

When the power comes back

The opener will not move the door until the trolley is connected again.

  1. Close the door fully by hand if it is not already closed.
  2. Push the trolley on the rail toward the door until it clicks onto the carriage. The emergency checklist shows the same step.
  3. Press the wall button and let the door run one full open and close. Watch that it meets the floor and that it reverses on the photo eyes.

If the opener light is on and the motor runs but the door does not move, the trolley is still disconnected. If the motor hums and the door does not move at all, stop. Forcing it can strip the drive gear, and that is an opener repair, not another pull on the cord.

Battery backup

An opener with a battery backup keeps working through an outage, so you do not have to pull the red cord. It does not help a door that is frozen, off its track, or sitting on a broken spring. Those still need the matching repair.

Battery backup is built into some of the openers we install, including belt-drive and wall-mount models. It is optional in Massachusetts. The current choices are on the opener installation page. If your opener is older and every storm leaves the car stuck, that is the reason to look at a replacement before the next one, on a day you choose.

Test a backup before you need it: unplug the opener for a minute and try the wall button. If the door does not move, the battery is missing, dead, or not connected. Plug the opener back in when you are done.

When to call

Call if any of these is true:

  • The door is open or partway open and you cannot leave it that way.
  • The door is too heavy to lift once it is disconnected.
  • You see a gap in a spring or a slack cable.
  • The power is back, the trolley is clicked in, and the opener still will not move the door.
  • You got the car out, and the door will not lock or will not stay down.

If a car is trapped and the manual release is not safe, that is an emergency garage door repair call. The page lists the hours and what an emergency visit costs. The rest of the cold-weather problems (ice, a spring that snaps overnight, stiff tracks, seals) are in the winter guide.

Power out and the door will not move? Call Murray's Garage Door Services at (978) 758-0690 or book online. If the opener itself has failed, see opener repair. If you want a battery backup before the next storm, see opener installation.