Garage Door Won't Close or Reverses? Start With the Beams
A door that opens fine but will not close, or starts down and comes back up, is nearly always a safety system doing its job. Here is how to find what it is reacting to, and when it is the door itself.
Quick Answer
When a garage door won't close, the safety beams are the first suspect: a blocked, dirty, misaligned or sun-struck sensor makes the opener refuse to close or reverse straight back up. Clear the doorway, wipe both lenses and check that both indicator lights are steady. If the beams are fine, the close limit, the force setting or a binding roller is stopping it. Elite Garage Doors Perth fixes sensor faults for $150–$300 incl. GST, 24/7 with no call-out fee.
What's Usually Behind It
Safety beams blocked or misaligned
A bin, a cobweb, a low-hanging tool or a bracket nudged out of line breaks the beam. Late-afternoon sun straight into a lens does the same. Our safety sensor troubleshooting guide has the two-minute test.
Force setting tripping
The opener stops and reverses when it meets more resistance than its force setting allows. A door that has become stiff or heavy trips it on the way down even with nothing in the way.
Opener logic or limit fault
A close limit set short leaves a gap at the floor; one set long makes the door hit the slab and reverse. A board fault after a blackout can do either. A limit re-learn or a reset usually cures it.
Door binding in the tracks
A dented track, a worn roller or debris in the guide makes the door snag on the way down. The opener reads the snag as an obstruction and backs off.
Slack cable
A cable that has jumped its drum lets one side of the door lag, and the door twists and jams before it reaches the floor. This one needs a technician; see the broken cable page.
Springs out of balance
Over-tensioned springs hold the door up so hard the opener cannot push it fully closed; under-tensioned ones let it slam. Either shows up as a door that stops short of the floor.
Safe Checks Before You Call
Fine to check yourself
- Clear everything from the doorway and the area around both sensors, then wipe the lenses with a dry cloth.
- Check the sensor indicator lights: both should be steady. A flickering or dark light means the beam is misaligned or the wiring is damaged.
- Check the close limit: a door that stops a few centimetres short of the floor and then reverses usually has a limit that needs re-learning, not a beam fault.
- Watch the door on the way down for a shudder or a lean at the point where it reverses; that points to the track or a cable rather than the sensors.
Leave to a technician
- Do not disconnect or tape over the safety beams to make the door close; they exist so the door stops for a child or a car.
- Do not turn the force setting up to push the door through an obstruction it is sensing.
- Do not adjust springs or cables to change how the door sits at the floor.
When to Stop and Call
Put the tools down and ring us if you notice any of these:
- The beams are clean and aligned and the door still reverses
- The door reverses at the same height every time
- One side of the door reaches the floor before the other
- A cable is loose or a roller is out of the track
- The opener flashes a fault code
- The door slams the last part of its travel
Recommended Services
What This Repair Costs
| Fault | Guide range (incl. GST) | Notes |
|---|
These are guide figures and include GST. The final price turns on which part has failed and the door you have; you hear the exact number from the technician before any work starts, and quoting is free.
Door open and it is getting dark?
Call 0412 988 733. We attend 24/7, close and secure the door on the night, and fix the cause with the price agreed incl. GST before we start. No call-out fee across the Perth metro area.
Frequently Asked Questions
In order: clear the doorway, then clean and check both sensors and their lights. Some openers allow a constant-pressure close from the wall button as a temporary measure; check your opener's manual first, and only do it standing with a clear view of the whole doorway, with people, pets and cars kept clear, releasing the button to stop the door, and book a beam check afterwards. If the door still reverses, re-learn the limits and check the force setting. If it reverses at the same spot each time, look at that point in the track. Anything involving a cable, a spring or a bent track is a repair visit.
Because the opener thinks there is. A sensor knocked slightly out of line, a lens fogged by dust, sun on the receiver, or a stiff door tripping the force limit all look like an obstruction to the logic board. Check the sensor lights first; then, if the door feels heavy on the manual release, the springs are the real cause and a service visit rebalances the door.
Then it is mechanical or electrical rather than optical. A close limit set wrong, a force setting too sensitive, a roller or track making the door snag, a cable that has slipped, or a board that has lost its settings. A reset and a limit re-learn clear the first two; the rest need the door looked at. Our sensor troubleshooting guide covers how to rule the beams out for good.
Pull the manual release with the door stopped, then lower it by hand; a balanced door is light and stays where you leave it. Lock it with the slide bolt or key lock, because the opener cannot hold it shut without power. Our manual opening guide has the sequence and the cases where you should not do it, such as a door that feels heavy.
Opening ignores the safety beams; closing does not. So a door that opens normally and refuses to close, or reverses on the way down, is almost always the beams or the force setting. If the beams check out and the door is heavy by hand, tired springs are making the opener trip on the way down, and a re-tension at $280–$330 fixes it. The repair cost guide lists the prices for each outcome.
24/7 Emergency
Garage Door Repairs Perth
Door jammed at 11pm? Spring gone on a public holiday? Ring 0412 988 733 whenever it happens, or book a slot online. Technicians cover every Perth suburb.