Garage door remote not working: what to check, and how to fix it

Hydro Doors puts it simply in its Digidoor manuals: one dead remote points to that remote, two or more at once point to the receiver. If nothing runs the door, start with garage door not opening instead.

Each of these garage motors can lock out its remotes on purpose, for when you're away, and it's the first thing to check when every remote fails together:

• Gemini: the wireless wall console has a lock button. While it's on, a remote makes the motor's light flash three times quickly and nothing moves. One press of the lock button unlocks it.
• Digidoor III: a red indicator means it has been locked from the wall console, and a remote gets one beep and a flash.
• Centurion SDO4 and RDO, ET DC Blue: holiday lockout, switched on and off by holding a remote button learnt for it. Each answers other remotes with its own beeps or flashes.
• ET DC Blue Advanced: holiday lock-out, or party mode, which answers every press with rapid beeps.

What each motor's signals mean is set out in garage door motor beeping.

A remote's battery is still the first suspect, but a new one has to go in right:

• The right battery: the same type and voltage as the one that came out.
• The right way round. Gemini's instructions have the negative end facing the spring contact.
• Clean contacts. Gemini also asks you to check the battery holder and its contacts are clean and free of corrosion; a remote that has been wet often isn't.
• The remote's light. If its LED doesn't light when you press a button, the remote or its battery is the problem. A Digidoor III remote's LED flashes when its battery is low.

If the LED lights but the door ignores it, and the wall button works, the remote has lost its place in the receiver or has failed. Try learning it in again, below.

After a power cut, the remote usually isn't the problem. Two things are more likely:

• The motor's battery ran flat. A garage motor on battery power stops when its battery runs low, and won't move for any remote until the mains is back and the battery has recovered. An ET DC Blue Plus says so with 15 beeps.
• The door was opened by hand and the motor wasn't re-engaged. Until the drive is connected again, the motor runs but the door doesn't move, or the motor refuses. On Centurion's SDO4, pulling the release handle back towards the motor until it clicks re-engages it; on ET's DC Blue Advanced roll-up, one pull down on the release cord does. Other makes are on how to open a garage door manually.

Centurion warns that a door may fall sharply when it's released, so keep people and cars out from under it, and never open or close the door by pulling on the release cord. If the door feels very heavy or hangs crooked, leave it closed and call us.

Every receiver holds a set number of remotes, and some make room for a new one by pushing out an old one. ET's original DC Blue keeps just five places for the door. When a sixth is learnt, its ten beeps mean the new remote worked and an older one was deleted to make room, so a remote can stop working the day someone else's was added.

Two more reasons a remote won't stay learnt:

• It's the wrong kind of remote. Hydro Doors notes that a remote of another make won't code to a Digidoor, and the same goes for most motors: the remote and the receiver must use the same system.
• The receiver's memory is full. Digidoor's Digi One shows Fu and the Digi 6 shows F; a Digidoor III beeps for four seconds. Clearing every remote and learning back the ones you use frees the space.

How many remotes each receiver holds is on garage door remotes.

A remote that has to be held ever closer before the door responds usually needs a battery. If a new battery doesn't help, Hydro Doors' next checks are the motor's aerial, which must be attached and stretched out, not coiled or tucked behind the motor, and anything nearby causing interference. A receiver tucked behind a steel shelf or a new metal structure near the garage cuts range too.

If two or more remotes have all lost range at the same time, the remote batteries are an unlikely cause: look at the receiver's aerial, or call us.

The full steps for each are on SDO4 remote programming, ET DC Blue, DC Blue Advanced remote programming, Gemini and Digidoor. Use a step stool you're steady on, and keep clear of the door while it moves.

Call us when every remote has stopped and lockout isn't on, when a remote won't learn, when the range has collapsed for every remote, or when the motor or door itself is the problem. We supply and code remotes for the motors we work on, clear lost ones from the receiver, and repair the motors. All our spare parts are genuine, and every repair carries our six-month guarantee on our repairs. No call-out fee when we do the work. If no work is done, a R650 call-out fee applies.