Why does my Pell Lake garage door stop short of the floor

The garage door opener on her Pell Lake garage works great. It glides up and down in its tracks as though a hot knife flowing through butter. There’s only one fly in the ointment; the door stops just short of closing all the way.

In the winter, snow will blow under the door. In the summer, rain washes below the door and wets the floor for a wide area in the front of the garage. You can learn to live with it – to accept that your garage door doesn’t want to close completely – but why should you?

The garage door is supposed to go all the way down when it closes. If it doesn’t, there is something wrong; there is a reason that it won’t close properly.

There are several explanations as to why your Pell Lake garage door won’t close completely. For instance …

• You could have a problem with the safety sensors: There are safety sensors on both sides of the door. If one, or both, are damaged or worn out, you’re liable to have a problem closing your garage door completely.
• Your safety sensors are out of alignment: When aligned properly, your garage door should go all the way down. But, maybe someone kicked one of the sensors by mistake (who would kick a safety sensor on purpose?) or something else knocked a sensor out of alignment. If this is the case, the sensors need to be realigned. 
• Your garage door opener may require travel adjustment: Inside the opener casing, there are two knobs for adjusting the travel of the garage door. These may need a little tweaking so the garage door will go all the way down.
• You could have a problem with mechanical parts of the garage door: A bad gear or a binding track may stop your garage door short of its intended destination all the way down to the floor.

There are all potential problems that could keep your Pell Lake garage door from closing all the way. While you may be tempted to fix the problem yourself, you may prefer to call in a professional since there is a way to adjust the travel of the garage so thieves have a harder time breaking into your garage.

Security tip of zip tie to disable garage door emergency release is a bad idea and here’s why …

This emergency release cord is not disabled
with a zip tie. Some are in an attempt
to thwart any efforts by thieves to break
into the garage. A zip tie on the garage
door emergency release is actually a
very bad idea.

A zip tie strapped around the emergency release of a garage door opener mechanism is a tip often prescribed by those who claim they’re in the know. Yes, this can make it harder for a thief to break into your garage (fortunately, there are other ways to confront thieves) but think about the name of this device.

It’s not called the ‘convenient’ release cord. It’s not called the ‘optional’ release cord. This, usually, red cord with a handle found having down from the trolley on the drive chain, is called the ‘EMERGENCY’ release cord. This is because when you need it, you might just have an emergency.

If the power goes out, your electrically-operated garage door opener won’t work unless you have a battery backup or generator. It’s possible that, when the power went out, you would feel that your ability to get the car out of the garage is an emergency – just pulled the cord and lift the garage door by hand. But, that’s not exactly what they meant when they named this mechanism the ‘emergency’ release cord.

By emergency, the suggestion is that something or someone, valuable might be stuck under the door, such as your pet or, worse yet, one of your children. If your child is caught under the garage door you may not have time to bring a ladder over, find a cutter and cut the zip tie off your emergency release cable.

The concern is that a thief can grab the emergency release cord with a coat hanger and release the trolley from the cable. Then they’re in the garage.

So, if a zip tie is a bad idea, what can you do to ensure that your garage door is secure (doubly important if you have a garage attached to the house where they can close the garage door again and work on the door to the house unobserved)?

Below is a list of ideas to secure your garage door suggested by the International Door Association: