Need To Open Your Garage Door Manually From Outside?
Garage lockouts can happen all the time.
If you don’t have a stable power supply, the door opener can’t lift the sectionals along the door tracks automatically.
You’re stuck with a stubborn garage door, and you may experience hassle and annoyance when it happens.
When emergencies strike inside the garage, you need a way to access the space.
What happens if you can’t open the doors to the garage?
There are some instances where you can’t command the opener to lift the door panels.
There is one way to do this.
You need to access the emergency release cord of the opener.
Pulling the cord disconnects the door panels from the opener.
When this happens, you can move the panels along the tracks by lifting them manually.
Consider this as an effective way to “break in” your garage without damaging the doors.
Learning how to open the garage door manually from the outside can save you money from simple and solvable issues.
Before you book services like us, Long Beach Garage Door Repair, try out some methods first.
You may find that it’s easy to access the garage without the remote or wall switch controlling the door panels.
Emergency key release method
The emergency key release method is one of the ways you can access the garage.
Here are the steps on how to open the garage door manually from outside using the emergency key release kit.
Step 1: Find the emergency key release
Many garages have an emergency release kit installed with the garage door.
Find the emergency key release within the panels from the outside.
It’s a cylinder lock that you need to access to get to the emergency release cord.
Step 2: Unlock the lock
When you find it, there should be a respective key that can open the lock.
Unlock the lock and pull the lock tumbler from the hole.
Doing this move gives you access to the emergency release cord.
Step 3: Disengage the opener from the door panels
Pull the emergency release cord from the hole in the panel.
Make sure that you pull the entire cord length to disengage the opener from the door itself.
When the emergency release cord disconnects the motor from the panel, you can now open the garage.
Step 4: Open the garage manually
Lift the door manually.
You may need to exert more effort as the sectional panels may be heavier due to the absence of the opener.
Be careful and open the garage manually.
Step 5: Set back the key release again
Return the emergency release cord in place to re-engage the opener and door slabs.
Once you attend to the garage, close the garage.
Return the emergency key release kit in the door panel from the outside
Things to consider
The typical method of opening the garage manually is using the emergency release cord.
It’s a standard for all types and brands of garage doors.
However, the emergency key release kit may not always be available in your garage.
The emergency key release kit is an additional installation to the mechanism.
One thing you can do is find a make-shift way to pull the emergency release cord.
What you can do is this:
Try forming a wire hook to pull open the emergency release cord.
Find an opening in the door panels, e.g., a detachable glass window or an opening slot between the panels.
Try reaching the cord from the opener by using the makeshift wire hook.
The emergency release cord is usually a red tag dangling in the motor on top of the garage.
If you still can’t open the garage, give our team a call
We are Long Beach Garage Door Repair, and we give professional garage door services in town.
Our team can help you open your garage manually if you have problems with the remote control devices or the opener.
It’s not uncommon to have homeowners or business owners losing access to their garage.
Don’t worry, as our team of repair technicians also knows how to open the garage door manually from outside.
We can open your garage manually without damaging the door.
Give our team a call for urgent situations where you can’t open the garage normally.
We know emergencies like this happen all the time.
Our garage door repair in Long Beach is available for any damage to your door mechanism.
We also offer garage door installation in Long Beach if you decide to get a new garage door for your property.