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An automatic opener holds a closed door shut through its drive, and on most doors that is the only lock in daily use. It stops working the moment the power fails or the motor is released to get the car out, and it is not a lock in the sense an insurer means. Knowing how to lock the door itself, by hand, covers the blackout, the holiday and the day the opener dies. Find your door type below.
The rule that saves the lock
Never engage a manual lock, slide bolt or padlock while the opener is connected and powered. If someone presses the remote, the motor drags against the lock until something gives, and it is usually the lock, the door skin or the opener's gear. Release the opener or switch it off at the wall before locking by hand, and unlock before reconnecting.
Roller doors
The centre key lock
Most residential roller doors have a key cylinder in the middle of the bottom rail. Turning it drives a pair of lock arms outward into the guides on each side, so the curtain cannot be lifted. Close the door, turn the key, and give the bottom rail a light upward tug to confirm the arms have engaged. From inside, the same lock has a knob or a latch on the back of the rail that does the same job without the key.
Lock arms wear, bend and seize, especially on doors near the coast where the mechanism rusts. If the key turns but the door still lifts, or the key will not turn at all, the lock and arms need replacing; Elite fits a new roller door lock and lock arms for $380–$440 incl. GST as part of roller door repairs.
Slide bolts and the opener's own lock
Some roller doors have a slide bolt at one or both ends of the bottom rail instead of, or as well as, the centre lock. Slide it into the hole in the guide and, if you want a real lock, drop a padlock through the bolt's eye. If a roller door opener is fitted, remember that the motor itself holds the axle, and many roller openers include a locking mode that resists lifting; check the manual, because that hold is lost the moment you release the drive.
Sectional doors
A sectional door locks through its track. On the inside, near the bottom of one or both vertical tracks, there is a slide lock: a spring-loaded bar that pushes through a slot in the track so the roller above it cannot travel. Close the door, slide the bar across, and check it has passed fully through the track. If your door has no slide lock, most tracks have a hole above the second roller where a padlock or a bolt through the track does the same thing.
Sectional doors that were fitted with an opener from new often have the slide lock removed or fixed in the open position, precisely so a family member cannot lock it against the motor. If you rely on the opener's hold and want more than that while away, the wall console's holiday or lock mode disables every remote so the door only operates from the console inside the house. That is a setting, not a lock, but it closes the most common way a garage is entered.
Tilt doors
A tilt door usually locks through its handle: a T-handle or lever on the outside turns a cam that throws a bar into the frame on each side. Turn the handle to the locked position, remove the key if there is one, and test by pulling the bottom edge. Older tilt doors may also have a slide bolt at the bottom corner. The same opener rule applies: an opener on a tilt door will pull a locked handle apart.
Locking by situation
Which lock, when
- Power cut with the car inside: release the opener, lift the door, drive out, lower the door, and lock it by hand. Our manual opening guide covers the release for each door type. Unlock before you reconnect the opener when power returns.
- Opener has failed: switch it off at the wall so nobody can restart it, then use the manual lock every time you leave until it is repaired. Elite's garage door motors service attends 24/7.
- Going away: leave the opener connected but turn on the wall console's lock or holiday mode, and lock the internal door between the garage and the house. Only engage the manual lock as well if you also switch the opener off.
- No opener at all: the manual lock is the only lock. Fit a padlock to slide bolts and keep the key lock lubricated with a dry lubricant so it turns freely.
- Door opens on its own: switch the opener off at the wall and use the manual lock until the fault is found; our door opens by itself guide explains what is sending the signal.
Locking from outside
With a key lock on a roller door or a handle lock on a tilt door, you lock from outside exactly as you would from inside. Sectional doors are the exception: the slide lock is inside the garage, so from outside you rely on the opener's hold or on an external key release cylinder, which unlocks but does not lock. If your garage has no other entrance and no key lock, lock it from inside and leave through the house.
When to call a technician
Book a visit when the key turns but the door still lifts, when the lock arms have seized or rusted through, when a slide lock no longer lines up with its slot because the door has dropped in its tracks, or when a lock has already been run against by the opener and something is bent. A garage door service checks and lubricates the manual lock along with everything else, from $140 plus parts, incl. GST.