It may go without saying that you rely heavily on your garage door opener. You probably do not even realize how often you use it until it is not available to you. The same is true for your electricity. You know you need it, but you do not realize how much you need it until the power is out. When the power is out, it impacts you in ways that you do not even consider. One of the impacts is on your garage door opener. It may not be that big of a deal if your car is not parked in the garage and you have a key to your front door. It becomes a huge problem for you when you have your car parked in your garage and you have to leave the house. There is no worse feeling in the world than not being able to get your car out of the garage.

The good news is that your garage door opener has an override that allows you to operate it even when the power is out. Your garage door has a mechanism that is a quick release and allows you to move your garage door manually. You should keep in mind that your garage may be dark because when there is no power. The quick-release is usually red and has a red handle so that you can find it easily. You may want to consider having a light in your garage that has a battery back up or operates off the battery. Not only is it important for you to know how to operate your garage door when there is no power. It is just as important to know how to operate your garage door once the power is back on. If you used the quick release while the power was out, you will have to re-engage your garage door. Regardless of your garage door model, the process is typically the same.

You will use the same emergency release mechanism that you used when the power went out to re-engage your garage door. You will have to manually open the garage door one more time. You pull the red rope back towards the motor that operates your garage door to fully open your garage door. Once it is open, pull down straight on the emergency rope which allows the trolley to connect back to the carriage. Once you have done that, you need to make sure that you use the control button on the remote or the button on the wall to engage the garage door. This will ensure that your garage door is functioning properly. In some cases, you may need to pull the garage door closed manually to make sure the trolley engages fully. If it seems as though your garage door is not functioning properly as soon as the power comes back on, do not worry. You may need to follow the above steps in order to activate it. Some garage door openers have a battery back up and there is no disruption, but not all of them do.