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Repair first, replace only when it's right
Garage door opener repair & installation
Chain, belt, screw and smart openers — motors, gears, sensors, remotes and full replacements when repair no longer makes sense.
An opener that's misbehaving is one of the more frustrating household faults, partly because the symptoms are so varied. It works sometimes. It reverses for no reason. It hums but nothing moves. The remote works from inside the car but not from the kitchen.
Most of these have straightforward causes, and a good number turn out to be cheap fixes that get mistaken for "time for a new opener." We'd rather diagnose it properly and tell you it's an inexpensive sensor than sell you a whole new unit you didn't need.
Symptoms and causes
What's actually going on
Motor runs, door stays put
Stripped drive gear, sheared shaft, or a trolley that's come disconnected from the rail. The nylon main gear is a known wear item on chain drives past about a decade.
Door reverses on the way down
Safety sensors out of alignment, obstructed or failing — or a close-force setting that's too sensitive. Both are adjustable.
Nothing happens at all
Power, the wall control, the logic board, or a tripped GFCI outlet. Worth checking the breaker before you call, though we won't charge you for feeling silly.
Loud grinding or rattling
Often not the opener at all — worn rollers, loose hardware or a door that's out of balance making the opener work harder than it should.
Remote works intermittently
Battery, receiver board, or radio interference from an LED bulb in the opener itself. That last one surprises people constantly.
Door won't open in a power cut
No battery backup. Illinois doesn't mandate one, but on an attached garage with no side door it's worth having.
Repair or replace
The honest calculation
We repair openers wherever repair is the better value, and we'll say so when it isn't. Roughly how we think about it:
Repair usually wins when the unit is under twelve years old and the fault is a gear, sensor, capacitor, remote, wall control or belt. These are contained problems on a machine with plenty of life left.
Replacement usually wins when the logic board has failed on an older unit, when parts are no longer made for it, or when you're looking at a second significant repair within a year. Past about fifteen years, a new opener frequently costs less than the repair and brings rolling-code security, quieter belt drive and battery backup.
We'll give you both numbers and let you decide. We don't work on commission, so there's nothing in it for us either way.
Brands
What we service
LiftMaster, Chamberlain, Genie, Craftsman, Sommer, Overhead Door, Wayne Dalton, Marantec, Linear and Guardian, among others. Chain drive, belt drive, screw drive and direct drive. Wall-mount jackshaft openers too, which are increasingly common on the higher-ceiling garages around Winnetka and Lake Forest.
If your opener has an app, we work on it. myQ, Aladdin Connect and the rest — though it's worth saying that most "smart opener" problems turn out to be ordinary mechanical faults with connectivity layered on top.
Common questions
Opener repair, answered
My opener runs but the door doesn't move. What's wrong?
Usually a stripped drive gear or a disconnected trolley. If the motor hums and nothing happens, the nylon gear inside the unit has likely worn through — a common failure on chain drives after ten or so years, and often repairable without replacing the whole opener.
The door goes down then immediately reverses. Why?
Almost always the safety sensors. The two photo-eyes near the floor have to see each other; a knocked bracket, a cobweb, or low sun through the opening will break the beam and the door reverses as designed. Sometimes it's the close-force setting instead, which we adjust.
Is it worth repairing an old opener or should I replace it?
If the unit is under about twelve years old and the fault is a gear, sensor, capacitor or remote, repair is usually the better value. Past that, or if the logic board has gone, replacement often costs less than the repair and gets you rolling-code security and a battery backup.
Do you work on smart and Wi-Fi openers?
Yes. LiftMaster, Chamberlain, Genie, myQ-enabled units and the rest. Most smart-opener problems turn out to be ordinary mechanical faults with an app sitting on top of them.
My remote stopped working but the wall button is fine.
Start with the remote battery, then try re-programming it to the unit. If neither works it's usually the receiver logic board. Worth a call before you buy a new opener — this is a cheap fix mistaken for an expensive one all the time.
Get it sorted
Opener acting up?
Tell us what it's doing and we'll often narrow it down on the phone before we come out.