How do I open a commercial roll up door manually?

How you open a roll up door by hand depends on what is driving it. A door with no motor lifts by its bottom bar. A door with a motor has one of three manual systems: a hand chain hoist, a floor level disconnect, or both. Find which one you have, cut the power if there is a motor, and then use the steps below. If the door feels much heavier than normal, stop: that usually means a spring or a curtain problem, not a power problem.

First, find out which kind of door you have

Look at the side of the door near the top of the opening, where the motor or the coil sits.

• No motor at all. Self storage units, small shops and many sheds have a push up roll up door. It has a handle or a step plate on the bottom bar and one or two slide locks on the sides. You open it by hand every day.
• A motor with a big loop of chain hanging down. That loop is a hand chain hoist. Pulling one side of the loop turns the drum and raises the door. Many hoist motors also have a small separate chain, the disconnect chain, that you pull first.
• A motor with one small chain or a pull handle, and no big loop. That is a floor level disconnect. It frees the door from the motor so you can push the door up by hand.
• A motor with a crank socket. Some older and smaller operators use a hand crank instead of a chain. The steps are the same as for a chain hoist: cut power, engage the manual drive, then crank.

If you are not sure, the label on the motor names the maker and model. The owner's manual for that model is the final word, because the steps differ from one operator to the next.

How to open a roll up door with a chain hoist

This is the most common setup on rolling steel doors at warehouses, shops and loading docks. Chamberlain's manual for its hoist operators gives the order below, and other makers use the same idea.

1. Turn off power to the motor. Use the disconnect switch near the motor or the breaker. A motor that comes back on while your hands are on the chain can pull the chain through them.
2. Pull the small disconnect chain. This engages the hoist. On most hoists an electrical interlock now blocks the push buttons, so the motor cannot run while you are on the chain.
3. Lock the disconnect chain in place. Slip its end into the keyhole of the chain keeper on the wall so it stays engaged.
4. Pull the hand chain. Pull down on one side of the big loop to raise the door and the other side to lower it. Use steady, hand over hand pulls. Do not let go of a door that is moving.
5. Stop at the top. The bottom bar should rest against the stops at the top of the guides and the door should stay open.

Janus International, a large rolling door maker, says a balanced rolling door should take no more than about 35 pounds of pull on a hand chain. If it takes much more than that, the door is out of balance.

How to open a roll up door with a floor level disconnect

1. Turn off power to the motor.
2. Pull the disconnect chain or handle. This frees the door from the motor. Lock the chain in the keyhole bracket on the wall so it stays disengaged.
3. Push the door up by the bottom bar or the handle. Lift with both hands and your legs, and walk it up evenly so it does not bind in one guide.
4. Keep it from coasting. A roll up door that is out of balance can drop or fly up. Control the speed the whole way, and never stand or walk under it while it moves.

Janus puts the limit for lifting a balanced door by hand at about 30 pounds of force. A door that needs two people to lift is not normal, even for a large one.

How to open a push up roll up door with no motor

These are the doors on most storage units and many small commercial bays.

1. Unlock it. Take off any padlock, then slide both side locks out of the guides. A door that will not lift is often still locked on one side.
2. Lift from the center. Grab the handle or step plate on the bottom bar, bend your knees and lift straight up. Lifting from one corner twists the curtain in the guides.
3. Guide it the whole way. Once it starts, the spring takes most of the weight. Keep your hand on it until the bottom bar reaches the top.
4. To close it, pull the strap or rope, or the bottom bar, down at the same steady pace. Do not let it free fall.

How to open a roll up door from the outside

Most commercial roll up doors with a motor cannot be released from the outside. The chain hoist and the disconnect are inside, by design, so nobody can open the building from the street. If the power is out and you are locked out, you need another way in, such as a walk through door, a key switch if your building has one, or a door technician. A push up door with no motor opens from outside once its locks are off.

Opening a roller door or roller shutter without power

Smaller roller doors and roller shutters, on storefronts, service counters and some homes, work on the same idea at a smaller scale. Most have a manual override for a power cut: a pull cord or lever on the motor that frees the curtain, a crank rod that hooks into the motor, or a key release. Turn the power off, use the override, and raise the shutter slowly with even pressure on both sides. Rolling security grilles and counter shutters often lock at the bottom bar, so unlock them first. If the override does nothing, or the shutter will only move a few inches, do not force it: the motor brake or the spring may be holding it.

How heavy should it feel?

A roll up door is held up by a torsion spring inside the drum above the opening. When the spring is set right, the door is easy near fully open and fully closed and a little harder in the middle. Janus's maintenance manual gives these checks:

• easy to close but hard to open means the spring has lost tension;
• hard to close but easy to open means it has too much tension;
• a door that will not stay open, or cannot be opened all the way, needs its counterbalance looked at.

Spring adjustment on a rolling door is a job for a trained technician. The spring is under extreme tension and can cause serious injury.

When you should not open it by hand

Stop and call for repair if any of these is true:

• A spring is broken. You may have heard a bang, or the door suddenly feels like dead weight. Forcing it up can drop the curtain or damage the drum.
• The curtain is out of the guides or the slats are buckled. Moving it can tear the curtain or bend the guides further.
• The bottom bar is bent from a forklift or a truck. The door will bind and can jam halfway.
• The motor was straining before it stopped. The door may be out of balance, and the motor stopping was the warning.
• It is a fire door that closed on an alarm. Fire doors are tested and reset to the maker's procedure under NFPA 80, so have it inspected and reset rather than forced open.

Leave a door that is stuck partly open where it is, keep people out from under it, and block it if it might drop.

Putting the door back on the motor

When the power is back, close the door by hand or by chain first. Then release the disconnect chain from the chain keeper. The interlock lets the controls work again, and the motor reconnects to the door. Run it once with the opening clear and watch it travel the whole way. If it stops early or reverses, the limits may need resetting.

How G Brothers helps

G Brothers services rolling steel, sectional, high-cycle and fire-rated doors on warehouses, storefronts and loading docks across the Denver metro, works on self-storage unit roll up doors regularly, and services every operator type and every brand. We dispatch 24/7 for emergencies, can provide a certificate of insurance, usually within 24 hours, and average about an hour and a half to arrive. See roll up and rolling steel door repair, commercial garage door spring repair, commercial garage door operators and storage unit door repair, read the most common roll up door problems, or ask for a free estimate. A commercial maintenance plan catches spring and balance problems before a door stops.

Sources

• Chamberlain, Commercial Door Operator Models MJ, MH and HMJ: Installation and Owner's Manual (manual operation)
• Janus International, Rolling Sheet Door Operation and Maintenance Manual
• Janus International, Model 3400 Rolling Door Installation Instructions (manual operation warnings)
• NFPA, NFPA 80: Standard for Fire Doors and Other Opening Protectives