I locked myself out of my detached garage. The remote to open it no longer works.
It’s a really old garage and the opener is from 1999.
Trying to lift it obviously doesnt work. There’s an emergency release you can activate with a key, but the keyhole is crammed full of old hard metallic paint that I can’t get out.
Anything else I can do? Or do I have do smash the thing down?
Yeah, there’s a spring. Those motors don’t have the power to lift it without the spring, at least the one at my dad’s place didn’t have enough power when that spring went.
Quick google. Here’s an example of a small and relatively affordable motor you can buy:
https://hurricaneshutters.com/100nm-roll-shutter-motor
Max carrying capacity is 400lbs/200kg.
Some of the more powerful ones, you can basically hang on to the door as it’s opening.
Heavy duty industrial ones? Metro stations where I live automatically open. On more than one occassion a homeless person makes the mistake of tampering with the metal roll down shutters come opening time. They get caught, motor keeps going, drags them into the mechanism and partially crushes them.