Your home's automatic garage door gives you easy access to park your car without having to get in and out to manually operate it. However, there may come a day where the door stops working, where it becomes stuck in the open or closed position. You can't just leave the door broken during the day while you're gone, which is why it helps to know how to troubleshoot this problem on your own.

Inspect The Safety Sensors

Sometimes the safety sensor is giving a false reading and prevents the door from closing. Make sure that nothing is blocking the path of the sensor, which includes cleaning and dirt on the sensor that could be blocking the infrared beam the extends across the opening of the garage. There could also be an issue where a pest has chewed through the wiring, which causes it to malfunction.

Look At The Extension Springs

Automatic garage doors use springs in order to close and open the door. Doors use two kinds of springs to get the job done, which are torsion springs or extension springs. A torsion spring is attached to your door and lifts it by moving in a twisting motion. Springs have plenty of energy stored in them that help with lifting the door, which takes pressure off the chains or belts so that minimal stress is put on those parts. You'll find the torsion springs on a bar that runs parallel with the garage door when it's in the open position.

Extensions springs work a bit differently, which start with the position they are installed. Extension springs run in a perpendicular direction to your door and are essentially a counterweight when the door is closing. The springs are what prevents the garage door from closing too fast and slamming hard against the ground.

No matter what kind of spring you have, it will cause a major problem with closing the door if the springs aren't working properly. A damaged extension spring will cause problems trying to open the door. You may notice that the door closed very fast the last time you closed it, and now the opener doesn't seem to have the strength to open the door on its own. A damaged torsion spring will cause a problem where the door is unable to open or close, and essentially stuck in its last position.

Springs can be difficult to repair due to the amount of tension that needs to put on them to install the part properly. This is one job worth leaving to a professional, so contact a garage door replacement and repair professional if you suspect a spring needs to be replaced.