Catching your garage door opening on its own can be scary and concerning, but there are usually very logical reasons for this occurrence.
There are many different causes of this phenomenon that generally aren’t too hard to resolve, so there’s no need to fear if you’ve found yourself wondering, “Why would my garage door randomly open?”
To get to the bottom of why your garage door has been opening at random, one of the possible answers below might help you figure out your next steps in fixing this problem.
Remote-related causes:
Stuck buttons
Remote buttons are prone to being surrounded by built-up dirt over time–this debris can eventually get the buttons mounted on the device to stick.
Buttons that stick have the tendency to get caught half-pressed when used, easily triggering unintended movement on the garage door it controls.
This is a minor setback that can be dealt with using cotton swabs and a small amount of soap; simply clean around the buttons to get them back to their proper, unstuck positions.
Draining/aged batteries
If your overhead door remote’s batteries have been sitting in there for quite some time now, you might want to see if they need replacing.
Aging remote batteries are actually a common cause for garage door malfunctioning, so if you find that switching your old ones out for new ones completely stops the issue, you’re good to go!
Other electrical matters:
Power surges
Power overloads from shared power grids or electrical storms are potential candidates for causing strange behavior in garage doors, including eerie self-opening.
If you’ve only once noticed your garage door open or close on its own, or only on very rare occasions, this could be why.
Fortunately, if the power surge or lightning storm that caused your overhead door’s random movement didn’t bring any further destruction to the door opener, it won’t be necessary for you to get any professional maintenance as your overhead door is likely to return to regular operation soon.
Interrupted safety sensors
Sensors exist to be effective at preventing hazards, but sometimes they’re so sensitive that the tiniest detection or misalignment can confuse them.
If your sensor itself isn’t broken, investigate your garage door’s area for any disturbances that could act as blockages.
Make sure that your sensors are properly aligned as well, as misalignment can result in unusual functioning.
Defective wiring
Plenty of things, such as aging or the nibbles of a curious animal passing by, can cause wires to become faulty.
Damaged wires can easily result in an electrical system shortage which could bring your garage door to unexpectedly open and close.
If you have reason to think your wires are acting up, this is an issue that can most safely and correctly be diagnosed and repaired by a professional.
Problematic circuit board
An extremely vital component to any garage door is its circuit board, which essentially serves as the garage door opener’s control system by managing the entirety of its external operations.
A circuit board that seems even slightly damaged must get looked at by a licensed and trustworthy garage door repair company that can fix it with the appropriate services or, if necessary, replacement.
Outdated transmitter
There are plenty of garage door openers from way back in the nineties that are still around today, and all this old equipment shares matching transmitter frequencies.
If your garage door operates on old parts (an old transmitter in particular) and you know one or a few more people in your close vicinity with the same aged transmitter, you just might be picking up on each other’s signals and unintentionally moving one another’s garage doors.
Additional possibilities:
Overweight door
It is possible for overhead doors to put a little extra weight on as time passes, due to swelling.
Sometimes, when this happens, these heavy doors come down too hard on their sensors whenever they try to close, which results in them coming up again.
If you still can’t figure out your answer to, “Why would my garage door randomly open?”
Or if you already have and now know that it’s something you can’t fix on your own, we’re one call away!
