How to Open Garage Door Without Power? The first electric overhead garage door opener was invented in 1926 by C.G. Johnson in Hartford City, Indiana.
Since then, the garage door opener has evolved, including the implementation of wireless remote, and new mechanisms.
However, the basic concept remains the same, and it allows us to open a garage door without having to lift it.
However, in certain situations where there’s an electricity outage, you might need to open a garage door manually. So, here are the complete instructions on how to open the garage door without power.
Opening the garage door from the inside
Electricity outages can be disastrous events. Especially if you’re late for work and unable to open the garage door to let your car through.
However, there’s an easy solution for this. But first, you have to understand the garage door mechanism.
When a garage door is closed, a set of torque springs will wind up to store potential energy. This stored energy is what makes your garage door easy to lift.
If the torque springs are broken, your garage door will be extremely heavy to lift. So, make sure that those springs are intact before opening the garage door.
Next, to open the garage door manually, you have to disengage the mechanism that attaches the garage door to the carriage.
To do this, you just have to pull down the release chord. It is usually located in the middle of the ceiling with a brightly colored chord handle.
The next step on how to open the garage door without power is to pull down the chord until you hear a clicking noise.
The clicking noise indicates that you’ve successfully disengaged the automatic mechanism. After that, you only need to lift up the garage door with your hand.
If the power backs on, reengage the automatic mechanism to allow the garage door to open automatically.
Opening garage door without power from the outside
Opening a garage door from the outside could be very tricky. However, it is not impossible to do. All you need is a long stiff wire with a hook-shaped end.
The basic concept is the same. However, you have to reach the disengagement chord from the outside, which could look very forced.
To slip the wire in, find a small opening at the top of your garage door. That’s the first step on How to open garage door without power from outside.
Once the wire is slipped inside, carefully hook the cord handle with the end of the wire. Once you feel that the handle is hooked, pull the wire back.
Now, you should be able to lift the garage door manually. This method is safe as long as you are able to do it carefully. The key is to prepare a long stiff wire in your house in case of an emergency situation like this.
So, those are the steps on how to open garage door without power. Remember to reengage the automatic mechanism when the power has come back on.
To do this, just pull the chord in the opposite direction from when you disengage it. Also, please mind your own safety when doing one of those methods.