It opens a few inches and quits. The door is probably too heavy for the opener
An opener that stops partway is protecting itself against a load it should not be carrying. Something in the door has changed.
What is probably happening
- A spring is broken or badly weakened. The opener lifts a few inches, hits its force limit, and stops or reverses. Check the spring from the floor for a gap.
- The door is binding: a bent track, a broken roller, a snapped hinge, or a frayed cable catching on the drum.
- The opener's force or travel limits have drifted. This is the least likely of the three if the door was fine last week.
Do this in the next five minutes
- Unplug the opener.
- Look at the springs from the floor. A gap in a torsion coil, or a loose extension spring, means a broken spring. Stop there.
- With the door fully closed, pull the release and lift by hand. A balanced door lifts easily and stays halfway up on its own. A heavy door has a spring problem. A door that catches or jerks has a track or roller problem.
- Look along both tracks for a bend, a missing roller, or a cable that is frayed. DASMA: frayed or worn cables are in danger of breaking and can cause injury.
- Photograph what you find and send it with your call.
Do not
- Do not turn up the force setting on the opener to make it push through. That defeats the entrapment protection and can bend the top panel.
- Do not touch springs, cables or bottom brackets. DASMA: replace cables only by a trained technician because of the spring tension.
- Do not pull the release cord with the door open. Chamberlain: only when the door is fully closed.
Who to call
A garage door technician
Springs, cables, rollers and opener adjustment are all the same trade, and the fix is usually one visit.
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What it should cost
$80 to $700
Full range of garage door repairs, average $265. Springs $150 to $350 each plus labor, rollers $110 to $230, cables $100 to $400
Source: Angi, garage door repair cost, updated August 2026. View source
National published range, not a quote for your job. The full cost table for this trade is on the garage doors page.
Ask this contractor, on the phone, before anyone comes out
Tap each one as you ask it.
- Is the door balanced with the opener disconnected? If not, which spring and why?
- What did you find in the tracks and rollers, and can I see it?
- Will you test the safety reversal after adjusting the opener? It must reverse on a 1.5 inch object.
End the call if
- Force limits turned up as the whole fix. The CPSC has said since 1983 that the reverse mechanism should be adjusted for sensitivity per the owner's manual, not defeated.
- A rebuild package with no visible damage. Angi lists this as a common scam.