Garage Opener Light Blinking: A Troubleshooting Guide
You open and close your garage door at least 5-6 times a day. Such repeated use can cause garage door issues to crop up. One of the common issues that arise with your garage door opener is its light blinking continuously. This happens when there is something wrong with the locking feature of the garage door.
What does this garage door light issue mean? What should one do when the light blinks on the door opener? Are there any DIY hacks to solve this issue? Or should I call a garage door repair professional? May such questions are bound to flood your brain. Let us find answers to these.
Common Reasons why your garage door opener light blinks
The lock button is on or faulty
Sometimes, the lock button gets turned on, by oversight. When this occurs, the opener light blinks. All you need to do is to locate the lock button, check if it is on, and then turn it off. Just remember one thing, your garage door opener remote will not work when the lock button is on. Your door can operate only through the switch and not by remote control.
If the lock button is on and you are unable to turn it off, it means that the button is faulty. Now, you must call a garage door repair technician to repair it.
Safety sensors misalignment
If the lock button of your door is not on or faulty, the next thing you must check will be the safety sensors. Your door has Photo eye sensors or Infrared sensors to sense any obstruction in their path and prevent the door from closing on any person or pet.
If you have a Chamberlain, LiftMaster, or Craftsman garage door opener model, your sender sensor will shine with yellow light and the receiver sensor will shine with a green light. If these sensors are not shining in these colors, you must check the sensor boxes immediately.
Wiring issue
Loose wires are another reason why your lights must be blinking. Look for disconnected or damaged sensor wires near the sensor boxes.
Troubleshooting guide to handling a blinking garage door light
Unlock the garage door opener
When you see the lock button on, try to unlock it at once to stop the light from blinking. To do this, push the lock button and press it for 5 seconds. Now, the light will blink twice. On seeing this double-blink, press the control button of your garage door remote.
Align the safety sensors
If your safety sensors are misaligned or turned off. Then too, the LED indicator light will blink. To troubleshoot this, follow these steps.
- Locate the transmitter sensor and receiver sensor. You can find them near the garage door tracks.
- Arm yourself with a measuring tape or ruler to measure the distance between the sensors. Usually, the sensors are spaced 6 inches above the garage floor.
- Measure the distance of the sensors from the floor. If it is not 6 inches, adjust and bring them to the correct position.
- To readjust the sensors, loosen the wing nut using a wrench.
- Now, once the wing nut is loose, move the sensor up or down until the LED light stops blinking and glows steadily.
- Now, tighten the nut back and check to see if the garage door is opening properly.
Check the wire connection
The last thing to do is to check for a disconnected wire in your opener. Check power head wiring and motor wiring too. Replace them by calling a professional technician.
Check the Circuit Board Safety Sensor
At the back of the motor is a Circuit Board with a service light that flashes when the mechanism malfunctions. Check this Circuit Board Safety Sensor.
If the Circuit Board Safety Sensor blinks once, look for disconnected sensors. If it blinks twice, look for short wires. A third blink indicates misaligned sensors.
In newer opener models, you must look at the arrows. If the arrow light blinks once up and down, it means sensor wires are disconnected. If the arrow flashes up once and down twice, shorted wires are the reason. For misaligned sensors, the arrow goes up 4 times and down 6 times.
The blinking of the garage door light is a safety feature that alerts you that your door is not in its normal operation. Look at the screen display of the opener for any error messages. Or look for the above-listed common problem indicators in your opener.
Call an expert at Thrifty Garage Door Repair at 604-901-7676 to resolve the blinking issue immediately. We provide both unscheduled and scheduled garage door repair services to Vancouver residents.
