Why Does My Garage Door Close and Then Open Again?
A garage door that starts closing and reverses is usually detecting an obstruction, misaligned safety sensors, excessive resistance, incorrect close travel, or a damaged or unbalanced door. Clear the path and inspect the sensors before adjusting anything.
What to know
- Keep people, pets, and vehicles away while testing.
- Clean and align the photoelectric sensors and record the opener’s diagnostic light pattern.
- A door that reaches the floor before reversing may have excessive down travel.
- Do not touch garage-door springs or lifting cables; damaged or unbalanced doors require a trained technician.
The direct answer
A garage door that begins closing and then reverses is usually responding to one of these conditions:
- Something blocks the doorway.
- The photoelectric safety sensors are blocked, dirty, misaligned, disconnected, or damaged.
- The door encounters excessive resistance.
- The close-travel limit is set too far.
- The door hits the floor before the opener expects it to.
- Tracks, rollers, hinges, springs, or cables are damaged.
- The door is unbalanced or binding.
Chamberlain explains that its openers reverse when they encounter resistance and that sensor or travel problems can interrupt closing. [1]
Keep people away from the door
Do not stand beneath the door while testing. Keep children, pets, vehicles, bicycles, tools, and storage bins clear.
Stop using the opener when the safety reversal system fails to respond correctly.
Clear the full path
Check the floor and doorway for boxes, toys, hoses, leaves, snow, ice, gravel, vehicle bumpers, damaged weather seals, and objects extending from storage racks.
A small obstruction can trigger contact reversal even when it does not block the entire opening.
Do not repeatedly close the door against an obstruction to confirm what physics has already reported.
Inspect the safety sensors
Photoelectric sensors are normally mounted near the floor on both sides of the opening.
Check that:
- Nothing blocks the beam.
- Both lenses are clean.
- Sensors face one another.
- Brackets are not bent.
- Indicator lights match the manual.
- Wires are intact.
- Sunlight or reflective material is not interfering.
Chamberlain says blocked, misaligned, disconnected, or damaged sensors can make a closing door reverse or refuse to move. [2]
Use a dry soft cloth unless the manufacturer permits another cleaning method.
Do not relocate sensors higher so the door can close over an obstruction.
Read the diagnostic lights
Many openers use flashing lights, beeps, or error codes to identify sensor, wiring, travel, motor, or control trouble.
Record the number of flashes, the color and stability of each sensor LED, and the exact opener model.
Patterns are not universal. Use the manual for that opener.
Does the door reverse before touching the floor?
Stronger possibilities include a blocked sensor, an object in the path, a binding door, damaged rollers or hinges, excessive resistance, or incorrect force and travel calibration.
Do not increase force simply to make the opener overpower a sticking or unsafe door. Chamberlain warns that force adjustments must not compensate for a binding door because they can interfere with safety reversal. [3]
Does it touch the floor and then reverse?
When the door reaches the floor and immediately opens, the close-travel position may extend too far. The opener interprets the floor as an obstruction because it is still attempting downward movement.
Adjust travel only through the exact model instructions, then perform the required reversal test. [3]
Do not touch springs or cables
Stop and call a trained garage-door technician when you see:
- Broken torsion or extension spring.
- Loose or frayed lifting cable.
- Cable off its drum.
- Bent track.
- Door hanging crooked.
- Roller leaving the track.
- Cracked top panel.
- Hardware pulling from the wall or ceiling.
- Door dropping rapidly.
Springs and cables store substantial mechanical energy.
Test the reversal system
Follow the opener manual after any adjustment.
Chamberlain’s current procedures include testing the photoelectric beam and placing the specified one-inch obstruction or a 2-by-4 laid flat beneath compatible doors so the closing door must reverse. [4] [3]
Use the exact model procedure. If the door closes despite an obstructed safety beam, stop using the opener and obtain service.
When to disconnect power
Disconnect power and obtain service when the door operates by itself, the motor continues after travel ends, the opener smells burned, the unit sparks or smokes, the safety sensors fail, or the door slams or drops.
Use the manual release only when the door is fully closed or safely supported. Releasing an open unbalanced door can let it fall.
Bottom line
Start with the door path and safety sensors.
If the door reverses before reaching the floor, look for sensor trouble or mechanical resistance. If it touches the floor first, the close-travel limit may be wrong. Stop immediately for broken springs, loose cables, severe imbalance, or failed reversal protection.
Limits and cautions
- Diagnostic lights, travel programming, and safety tests vary by opener model and production date.
- A powered opener cannot compensate safely for a binding or unbalanced door.
- Spring and cable systems store substantial energy and are not ordinary homeowner adjustment points.
Source notes
- Door Travels Less than 6–8 Inches, Stops and/or ReversesChamberlain Group Support
- Error Code 1-1: Safety Sensors Are Obstructed or Not ConnectedChamberlain Group Support
- Program Travel on a Security+ 2.0 and myQ Enabled ModelChamberlain Group Support
- How to Test the Protector SystemChamberlain Group Support
See something wrong or out of date? Report a correction.