07/17/2026
⚠️ PSA to new homeowners: Do not engage the manual slide lock while the automatic opener is hooked up!! ⚠️ ⛔️
Basically slide locks are almost an accident waiting to happen, unless the door is 100% manual. If you have an automatic opener and also a slide lock, go ahead and put a stop bolt in that thing or remove it. (If we do install them on a new door with a motor, we either put a stop bolt or we don’t punch out the receiving hole).
What happens is that if the slide lock is engaged while the motor is also engaged, and someone presses a button to operate the motor, the door will start to travel, but the slide lock is stuck in the track, so all kinds of bad things can happen. Then people are also unaware that you should never pull the release cord unless the door is fully down - so the door will be all wonky already, and they don’t know why, so they’ll pull the cord thinking that’s a magic cord when really it’s a danger cord, and bam, more problems. 💥
Many people don’t understand that when using an automatic opener, it fully locks the door. Even if the power goes out, the door stays locked (until the time you pull the cord to use it manually) So it’s not a great idea to use the lock when going on vacation “oh just for extra peace of mind” because what happens is that you’ll forget by the time you get back, press that button, and then you get a damaged door and an emergency call to welcome you back home. 😞
So rule one - don’t use the slide lock. Disable it, especially if there are multiple people in the house, and especially if there might be kids that will go up and play with it and lock it unknowingly.
Rule two - only pull the red cord in two cases. One, the door is down, the power is out, and you need to open the door manually. Two - you suspect there are motor issues, the door is down, and you pull the cord to see if door works fine manually. If it does, you know it’s likely a motor issue. If the door doesn’t easily want to raise manually, you know it’s likely a door issue.
