Start with what the door is doing rather than a guess at the part. Each symptom below leads to the Ottawa write-up for that fault, and the van for every one of them leaves 46 Grenfell Crescent Unit A in Nepean. The line answers at any hour: (613) 845-9950. Most of these faults show up between December and March. The two near the end belong to summer: an opener killed by a thunderstorm, and a remote that only works once the opener light is off.
A bang, then a door too heavy to lift
Treat it as a broken spring until somebody has looked. Leave the door where it is and unplug the opener, because each try loads its gears with the full weight of the door. Spring repair in Ottawa explains why springs here let go on the coldest nights and on doors that grew heavier than their springs.
Crooked, jammed partway, or scraping
A roller has left the track or a cable has slipped off its drum. Do not run the door to free it. Off track in Ottawa goes through the two usual local causes: a February snowbank that narrows the driveway, and the light track on older detached garages.
Down, then straight back up
Look at the small lights on the two photo eyes near the floor. One blinking or dark means the sensors, and sensor repair in Ottawa covers ice on the lens and the wire hidden behind a finished wall. If both are steady and the door still returns, the opener is reading the door as an obstruction, which in January is usually cold grease and stiff hardware, and that is opener repair in Ottawa.
Frozen, stiff, or not moving
Pull the red release cord and lift by hand. The door will feel held down by ice, heavy as a car, or free, and the Ottawa stuck door check takes each case from there.
Dead after a summer storm
Environment and Climate Change Canada counted 38,452 cloud-to-ground lightning flashes within 25 km of central Ottawa from 1999 to 2018, and lightning on 33.4 days in an average year. Gatineau, across the river, is almost the same at 33.2.
Chamberlain's instructions for its plug-in [opener surge protector](https://www.devancocanada.com/files/manuals/990LM:Installation-manual.pdf) say surge current reaches an opener through the wall-button wire and the safety sensor wires as well as the power cord, which is why that unit takes both pairs of wires besides the plug. The same sheet warns that a surge can trip a ground-fault (GFCI) outlet, and the opener then stays dead until somebody resets it.
So after a storm, work from the wall inward. If the light on the motor head is out as well, find the GFCI outlet with the test and reset buttons and press reset. It is not always the one the opener plugs into, since one GFCI can protect other outlets on its circuit. Then check the breaker. If the head lights up but the wall button and every remote do nothing, the surge reached the board or the low-voltage wiring, and that is a visit.
The remote only works with the light off
[Chamberlain's support notes](https://support.chamberlaingroup.com/s/article/Why-do-the-remote-controls-and-keypad-only-work-when-the-opener-lights-turn-off-1484145678324) put the bulb first on the list, and warn that low-quality LED bulbs can interfere with remote controls. That is why the remote and keypad wake up only once the opener light times out. The test: unplug the opener, take the bulbs out, plug it back in and try the remote. If it works, the bulbs go, replaced with a regular A19 incandescent, a CFL or an LED Chamberlain has tested with its openers. If it still fails, the wall control or the logic board is next.
Wearing out rather than broken
Grinding, or a door that has slowed down over a season, means parts are wearing, and a service call from the Ottawa branch catches them before one becomes a spring or a cable. Rollers, hinges, the bottom seal and its retainer are on the Ottawa parts list. A bottom section rusting through from the inside is past fixing with parts, and replacement in Ottawa sets out when a door here is due.
What cannot wait for morning
Call tonight if the door is stuck open, if it is shut on a car somebody needs early, or if it came down fast and hard. A door that still opens and closes under its own power can be booked for the day. The number is (613) 845-9950. Repairs are booked same day.
Everything we do in Ottawa · Garage door problems: what the job involves
Ottawa branch
- Ottawa
- The van leaves from
- 46 Grenfell Crescent Unit A, Ottawa, ON, K2G 0G4
- Phone
- Hours
- Open 24 hours, seven days
- Brands installed and serviced
- Garaga, Amarr, Stanley, LiftMaster, Chamberlain, Genie
Related
Everything else we repair and install
Every one below has a page of its own, written the same way this one was.
Garage door spring repair in Ottawa
Broken garage door springs? We replace torsion and extension springs safely and professionally to get your garage door working properly again.
Garage door safety sensor repair in Ottawa
Garage door sensor repair: the door starts down and reverses, or the opener light blinks. What the photo eyes are telling you, and when it is only alignment.
Garage door off track in Ottawa
Garage door off track or not moving properly? Protech can safely realign the door, repair damaged tracks, replace rollers and get it running smoothly again.
Garage door parts in Ottawa
Springs, cables, drums, rollers, hinges, brackets, seals and opener parts. What is on the truck, what is matched to the door, and what is not a DIY part.
Stuck garage door in Ottawa
A door that will not move, or stops halfway. The check order that tells you whether it is the opener, the springs, the track or ice, before anyone touches it.
Garage doors in Ottawa
Steel, aluminium and glass, wood and composite garage doors from Garaga, Amarr and Stanley. What the material, the layers and the insulation actually change.
Garage door installation in Ottawa
Headroom, backroom and track type decide which doors will fit an opening. What an installation involves, and why the springs are sized to the new door.
Garage door replacement in Ottawa
Panel damage, rust at the bottom section, repeated failures and an uninsulated door on a heated garage. The four cases where replacing beats another repair.
Residential garage doors in Ottawa
Raised panel, carriage, flush contemporary and full-view residential garage doors. How the style, the windows and the hardware change the front of a house.
Asked before booking garage door problems
Answered for Ottawa, on the number this branch answers.
A spring broke, and now the opener hums while the door stays put. Is that two faults?
Often it is. With the spring gone, the opener tries to raise the whole door on its own, and the drive gear inside the motor head can strip in a cycle or two. Mention both when you call, and which happened first, so a gear kit comes out with the springs. Pulling the plug the moment a spring goes is what keeps it to one repair.
Daylight shows under one side of the closed door. What is that?
A gap along the full width is a bottom seal that has flattened or split. A gap at one corner only means the door is sitting crooked, often from a cable gone slack on that side, or the floor is not level across the opening. A slack cable deserves a call before it jumps the drum. A tired seal can wait for a service visit, though not past the first hard frost, when that gap starts letting meltwater in.
Which of these can I fix myself?
Wiping the photo-eye lenses, nudging a knocked eye until its light holds steady, resetting a tripped outlet, changing a remote battery and swapping the opener bulbs are all owner jobs. Anything under spring tension is not: the springs, the lift cables, and the bottom brackets those cables are fixed to. They carry the force that lifts the door, and loosening one on a closed door is how people get hurt.
Talk to Protech Garage Doors today
Call (613) 845-9950 at any hour, or email info@protechgarage.ca for a new-door quote with no rush.