Electric roller garage doors are designed to be exceptionally hard-wearing and durable features, which are extremely resistant to all the bumps in the road that come with day-to-day usage.

But, in some instances, you may find that your electric roller garage door is not opening.

In the majority of cases, this is just a small issue, which requires a simple ‘turn it off and on again’. In others, you may need to enlist the assistance of a roller door repair specialist.

Either way, if your electric roller garage door is not opening as it should, you’ll still need to get in to it! Thankfully, you can do so quickly and safely by manually opening the door.

Below, the team at Safe & Secure have shared our simple instructional guide to manually opening an electric roller door.

Is it safe to open an electric roller garage door manually?

Yes, it is perfectly safe to open an electric roller garage door manually.

Manufacturers design their doors to allow for manual operation. So, as long as you follow the recommended opening procedures, you can manually open your electric roller garage door without any risk.

Why would you need to open an electric roller garage door manually?

There are a number of different reasons why you may have to resort to manually opening your electric roller garage door. These include everything from power issues, to faults within the door themselves.

You may have to manually open your door if:

• The remote control isn’t working
• Your property has experienced a power cut
• The motor has malfunctioned
• The battery backup has failed
• The door has detected an obstruction
• In an emergency, and the garage door is your fastest or safest exit

How to open an electric roller garage door manually

How to manually open an electric roller garage door from the outside:

• Locate your emergency release lock, and the emergency release key (the lock is positioned near the top of the door, and usually sits flush against the door).
• Insert the key into the emergency release, and twist it until the emergency release cord is released.
• Pull the emergency release cord.
• Using the same emergency release key, unlock the lock positioned above the door’s handle.
• Manually lift the door, by pulling up the handle at the bottom of the door (be sure to fully open the door, otherwise it could fall closed again).
• Go inside the garage, then pull the door closed behind you.
• Lock both of the door’s locks, using the emergency release key.

How to manually open an electric roller garage door from the inside

• Unplug the automatic door opener.
• Find the emergency release cord (this is positioned on the trolley track, and is coloured red).
• Pull the emergency release cord until it clicks (this tells you that the door has been set into ‘manual mode’).
• Manually lift the door, by pulling up the handle at the bottom of the door (be sure to fully open the door, otherwise it could fall closed again).
• Exit the garage, and close the door behind you.
• Lock the door’s manual lock, using the emergency release key.

Reconnecting your electric roller garage door

If you had to manually open your electric roller garage door due to a power failure, then you will need to reconnect the door once the power has been restored (regardless of whether you opened it from the outside or the inside).

You can do this by following these steps:

• Locate the emergency release cord.
• Push the base of the emergency release cord upwards, until it clicks (you can do this by standing on a ladder, or by using a broom handle). This will take the garage door out of ‘manual mode’.
• Plug the garage door opener back into its socket.
• Click the ‘open’ button on your remote, and check that the garage door has successfully rebooted.

If you have any further questions about how to use an electric roller garage door, or if you need to enlist the assistance of a repair and maintenance specialist, don’t hesitate to get in touch.