3 Ways A Lightning Strike Can Damage Your Garage Door Opener

Posted on: 7 April 2018

Lightning strikes are relatively rare, but they can still happen under the right circumstances. During a severe storm, your home stands a 1-in-200 chance of being struck by lightning. The large frontal area of your metal garage door makes it especially vulnerable to an unexpected lightning strike.

Cosmetic damage isn't the only thing to worry about in the aftermath of a garage door lightning strike. Lightning can also affect your garage door opener in a number of unexpected ways. The following highlights three things that could happen after lightning hits your garage door opener.

Erratic Movement

Being exposed to 30,000 amperes of current can make any household electrical device operate strangely, including your garage door opener. After a lightning strike, your opener may start opening and closing on its own. It's not unusual for such "ghost" operation to continue until you finally cut power to the garage door opener.

If your garage door opener starts running on its own after a lightning strike, reset it according to the manufacturer's instructions to see if it returns to normal. If it doesn't, cut power to the garage door opener via the circuit breaker, and have your garage door specialist examine the problem.

Dead or Scrambled Controls

A lightning strike can also render your garage door opener's controls nonresponsive or make them behave in unexpected ways. For instance, a lightning strike can knock out your opener's wireless receiver, leaving the interior controls as the only way to open or close your garage door. Excess current can also fry wired controls while leaving the wireless module intact.

If you can't get your garage door opener to open via remote, make sure your remote has fresh batteries just in case. Don't forget to check the wired controls just in case they're damaged by the lightning strike. If all else fails, a garage door specialist, like those represented at hungritedoor.com, may need to rewire the interior controls, reprogram the remote, or simply replace the entire opener.

Complete Lack of Power

There's also the possibility of your garage door opener completely losing power after a direct lightning strike. The tremendous surge of electricity can completely burn out circuitry and destroy wiring, turning your garage door opener into a useless husk.

Before you give up on your garage door opener, however, check the circuit breaker and make sure it hasn't been tripped. A tripped circuit breaker in the aftermath of a lightning strike can cause your garage door opener to be completely nonresponsive.

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