How to Open a Garage Door From the Outside

The whole point of having a remote-controlled garage door is so that you don’t have to reach down and open it. But what if you get home and your power’s out? You need to get your car into your garage, but the garage door won’t open because there is no power. This is just one scenario for why you would need to know how to open a garage door from the outside.

Although you don’t want your garage door to be easily opened from the outside, it’s good to know how to open your garage door from the outside if you should need to. If you have a modern garage door, this should be relatively easy, but it’s a good idea to go over how to do it before you’re stuck outside trying to get your garage door open.

Your garage door should have an emergency release kit installed. If yours does not or you do not know where it’s located, you may need to call a professional to help you with this. Newer garage doors should already include an emergency release kit.

How to open a garage door from the outside using the emergency release kit.

• First, locate the emergency release kit. It’s at the top of the door. A small lock to open it.
• Use your emergency key and unlock the lock. This lock holds a release cable. The cord triggers a mechanism that switches your garage door from automatic to manual mode.
• You’ll see another lock next to the garage door handle. Use your key to unlock the door and turn the handle so it’s turned up and down vertically.
• Once unlocked, you should be able to slowly open your garage door manually.
• You can now drive your car into the garage, but you will need to close the garage door manually until the power is restored.

You will need to reset the garage door once your power is back on.

Once the power is restored, you will need to put the door back into automatic mode. If you don’t switch it back, open and close the door manually until it’s reset. You can do this from inside the garage. Simply pull on the red bypass cord. Pull it towards the garage door and then pull up on the garage door. This should put the door back into automatic mode.

You can also try using your garage door opener to see if it gets the door back on track. If you have problems getting your garage door back into automatic mode, consult your garage door manufacturer’s instructions or get in touch with a professional garage door installer

Power outages happen.  If you’re struggling to get into your garage, there’s no need to be frustrated. Give Environmental Door a call at 616-453-0614. We are the garage door experts and can help you get your door working again, whether it’s because of a power outage or any other issues.