Guide

Your Garage Door Stops Halfway. Here Are the Eight Causes, in Order

A garage door that stops halfway is telling you something specific. The eight causes, from the most common to the least, and which ones you can check yourself.

A door that stops partway is almost always one of three things: the opener hitting its force limit because the door has gone heavy, something physically in the way of a roller, or the travel limits being set wrong. The order below is the order to check, most likely first.

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First, Which Direction?

This one question halves the list. A door that stops on the way UP is usually a weight or a force problem. A door that stops on the way DOWN and reverses is usually a safety system doing its job. Note which one yours does before you start looking at anything.

1. A Broken Spring, Which Reads As Weight

The most common cause by a wide margin. The opener lifts a few inches or a few feet, senses more resistance than it is allowed to push through, and stops. Look at the bar above the door: a two inch gap in the coil means the spring is broken. Stop using the door, because every attempt is grinding the opener gear.

2. The Force Setting Has Drifted

Openers have a force limit so they stop instead of crushing something. On an older unit that setting drifts, and on a door that has got a little stiffer with age the two meet in the middle. This is adjustable, but adjusting force up to mask a heavy door is exactly the wrong move: the setting is not the problem, the weight is.

3. Travel Limits Set Wrong

The opener learns how far to travel in each direction. If it thinks the floor is a foot higher than it is, it stops there and calls it closed. Doors that stop at the same spot every single time, with no noise and no strain, are usually a limit problem rather than a mechanical one.

4. A Bent Track Or A Seized Roller

The door runs fine until one roller reaches the damaged inch of track, and then it stops in the same place every time. Look along the track at eye level for a kink, a flat spot, or a bracket that has pulled away from the wall. A roller that has stopped spinning leaves a shiny polished stripe. Nylon rollers for the whole door are 249 dollars.

5. Photo Eyes, If It Stops Going Down

The two sensors near the floor have to see each other. Sunlight straight into the lens, a cobweb, a bike leaning nearby, or one bracket knocked out of line will stop the door and send it back up. One light on the sensor blinks when the beam is broken. This is the single most common cause of a door that will not close, and it is often just alignment.

6. Something Actually In The Way

Worth saying because it is embarrassing to pay for a service call over a bin lid. A trash can, a hose reel, a stack of tiles, a pet bed. The door reverses because it hit something, which is the system working correctly.

7. Cables Off The Drum Or Uneven

If one cable has slipped, one side of the door lifts before the other and the door binds in the track. This shows as a door that stops and sits visibly crooked, one corner higher than the other. Do not run it again. A door that is binding is a door on its way off the track.

8. The Opener Gear Or The Trolley

A chewed drive gear will move a door part way and then slip, usually with a grinding whirr from the motor head. A trolley that has come loose from the door arm will run the whole travel with the door barely moving. A gear kit is 289 dollars, and a logic board depends on the model.

The Two Minute Test You Can Do Safely

With the door CLOSED, pull the emergency release cord to disconnect the opener. Lift the door by hand to about waist height and let go.

It stays where you left it: the door is balanced, so look at the opener, the limits and the sensors.
It drops or it feels far too heavy: that is a spring problem. Put it back down, leave it, and call.
It binds, grinds or goes up crooked: track, roller or cable. Stop.

Do not do this test on a door that is already open, and do not do it if you can see a gap in the spring.

Answers

Questions People Ask About This

Why does my garage door stop halfway and then go back down?

Stopping on the way up is usually weight or force: most often a broken spring, sometimes a bent track or a seized roller. Stopping on the way down and reversing is usually the photo eyes or something in the doorway.

My door stops at exactly the same spot every time. What is that?

A physical obstruction in the track or a travel limit set wrong. Same spot every time with no strain points at the limits; same spot with a bump or a grind points at a kinked track or a dead roller.

Should I just turn the force setting up?

No. The force limit is a safety feature, and turning it up so the opener can push through a heavy door hides the real fault and destroys the opener. Find out why the door got heavy.

Is it safe to keep using a door that stops halfway?

Not if it feels heavy or looks crooked. Both mean the counterbalance or the alignment has failed, and running it makes the repair bigger.

If You Would Rather We Just Looked At It

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