With summer storms a regular occurrence here in Georgia, it is important to understand how lightning can affect your garage door and its working properties. It is estimated that one out of every 200 homes will be struck by lightning each year. While most homes will not undergo extreme damage from a lightning strike, there are complications within the home that can occur.
Lightning tends to strike electrical surges in the home, and your automatic garage door is controlled by electricity. Any type of electronics has a high risk of damage during a storm because lightning can travel through the electrical wiring of a home: Ethernet cables, phone jacks, electrical outlets, etc. There are even instances of electromagnetic pulses generated by a lightning strike still being able to short out appliances in a home that is more than two miles away.
Many people fail to recognize the occurrence of lightning damage to their garage doors because they do not think of them as an electrical appliance. You do not turn on your garage door with a light switch or plug it into an outlet each time you want to lift or lower your garage door, so it’s easy to forget that the garage door opener is actually plugged into an outlet. Signs that your garage door opener may have been hit bay lightning or an electrical surge from lightning are:
- Garage door fails to open with the push of your garage opener button
- Garage door functions erratically
- LED lights on garage door opener and/or safety sensors are not lit
- Opener acts as if it has no power even when your electricity in the home is on
- The light on the back of the circuit board flashes continuously
If you are experiencing any of these signs after a recent storm, please contact HABPRO Garage Doors. In most cases, we can diagnose your problem over the phone by asking you several questions regarding how your garage door is (or isn’t) behaving, recent issues, and by having you do a visual inspection with us guiding you over the phone. We are the garage door experts here in the North Georgia and Atlanta area. With over 35 years of experience, we have built our reputation on quality service and high customer satisfaction.
Jamie H.