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Q:How do I open an electric garage door in a power cut?
The emergency manual override for any electric garage door is covered for every garage door we sell, but there are many ways it can be tackled... Every single garage door we supply or install has a manual emergency override system to ensure the door can be opened in a power cut or motor failure. There are different systems recommended for different doors and they are generally as follows~:
1. Release mechanism fitted to the garage door handle - This applies to Up and over, Side Hinged and Sectional type doors - A cable is attached internally from the door handle to the towing arm carriage assembly of the automatic operator and when the handle is unlocked from outside you can turn the handle and release the motor drive from the door panel to enable the door to be opened manually. This system is fairly reliable as long as it is tested once or twice a year to make sure the cable has not stretched a fraction so the release does not quite work when required.
2. Release mechanism fitted via a key barrel in the door panel - Again this is for garage doors with a solid panel stucture - When there is no handle on the door you can have a small 20mm diameter round hole drilled into the door panel and a key barrel is fitted to give a cable attachment to the towing carriage of the motor unit and in an emergency you unlock the cylinder to take out the barrel and pull the release mechanism so the door can go onto manual operation until the power returns.
3. External low level winding handle access point - This applies to insulated roller garage doors when there is no other door into the garage you can take the internal manual override system and feed it to the outside through the brick wall of the garage. There is a steel plate fitted over this access point and this is lockable but when unlocked you can feed in a winding handle and wind the door up and down until the power returns. This is just like turning the winding handle on a lock in a canal for example. It is full proof in operation and essential if you do not have any other access to the garage.
4. High Level External winding handle access point - This is for roller garage doors where the entire door is fitted externally and the winding mechanism for the manual override is accessable from outside. There is a lockable steel plate covering the access point so in the event of a power failure you take a key and unlock the plate cover to gain access to the socket internally where the winding mechanism is fed into and then you can wind up the curtain easily although bear in mind this is at a higher level than option 3.
5. Battery Back Up System -�This applies to all garage doors - Nearly all the garage door electric motors can have a battery back up device fitted which takes a very small trickle charge from the mains power and when there is a power failure the battery system will kick into action giving usually 3 - 6 full operations. Enough to get you through a couple of days at least. These systems have become fairly cost effective now with new technology so are well worth looking into if you want to be covered and you live in an area where there are a fair few power cuts.
SUMMARY:
You have garage doors which are only electrically operated and then you have manual garage doors which have an electric motor drive system added and therefore to operate in a powe cut you only have to generally disconnect from the electric system and go back to the original manual operation. This is most up and over, side hinged and sectional garage doors as well as any round the corner garage door system too.
Most roller shutter garage doors are electrically operated and are made like that from the outset. They should have a simple emergency manual winding system which is accessed from wherever the motor drive is situated and this is also normally inside the garage. It is an access point to turn the barrel motor manually with a winding handle which is either attached using a hook and eye system or is an insert into a hexagonal hole. if you dont have an access to the inside of your garage then you should always have an external access method to get to your manual override system.
