Having an automated garage door is a real convenience – from safety and security to ease of access. However, living in South Africa means periodic load shedding; and when the power is out, your automated garage door cannot perform its designated tasks dutifully.
With winter on the horizon, the frequency of load shedding is bound to increase and the last thing you want is to be unable to open your garage door when you need to get in or out.
In this article, we’re going to cover a list of steps you can follow to manually open your garage door without damaging it or running into any problems.
How to manually open your garage door
So, the electricity is off, and your garage door opener won’t work without a battery backup. Here’s how you can safely open your garage door.
Before you get started it’s important to note that you should never try to disconnect your garage door when the door is open – this can be extremely dangerous.
Step 1: Locate the bypass handle
The first thing you’re going to want to do is to locate the bypass handle. Generally, this comes in the form of a rope hanging down near the rail that runs from your opener to the door. When your garage door is in the closed position, this emergency release cord should be located towards the front of the door.
Step 2: Pull the emergency release cord
Once you’ve located the emergency release cord, you’re going to need to pull on it to disconnect the trolley from the carriage. Pull gently on the cord until you feel a click. Note – take care when doing so, especially if you’re using a stepladder to help you reach the cord.
Step 3: Lift the door using the lifting handle
Once you’ve pulled the emergency release cord, you should be able to freely move the garage door to open and closed positions. Your next step is to locate the lifting handle which is generally found on the bottom panel. If the door does not want to open easily, do not force it as this can mean that you possibly have a broken spring. If this is the case, you will need to have your garage door serviced.
Step 4: Close the garage door and reconnect it
Once you’ve successfully opened your garage door and have gotten your car in or out, you need to reconnect it. To do this, close the garage door and pull on the red emergency release handle. If you have done this step properly you should hear a click sound.
Once the power is back on, make sure everything is working as it should by using your remote control to open and close the garage door.
