Awning not opening?

By a long way, the most common reason a motorised awning stops working is the small battery inside the handset. The handset battery typically needs replacing every three years. If your awning is around three years old and has suddenly stopped, this is almost certainly the cause.

Test 1: Does the handset still send a signal?

When you press any button on the handset, look at the small light (LED) on the front of the remote. It should flash for about a second.

Test 2: Is it the correct battery?

This is the single most common mistake. Your handset takes a CR2430 lithium coin cell. The numbers tell you the size: 24 is the diameter in millimetres, 30 means 3.0mm thick. Several similar batteries look almost identical but are slightly different sizes.

Buy a fresh CR2430 from any supermarket, chemist or hardware shop. Fit it with the + side facing up so you can read the writing. Test the LED again.

Your awning motor runs on mains electricity. It is connected to a waterproof socket fitted up at the awning, fed from a switch inside your house. If the motor has lost power, the handset signal still sends but nothing happens.

Check these three things in order:

1. 1

   Your fuse box (consumer unit)

   Open the panel and look at the row of switches. If any switch is sitting in the "off" position when the rest are "on", switch it back on. Look out for one labelled "awning", "garden", "external", "outside socket" or similar. A tripped switch is the most common cause of an awning that has suddenly gone dead.

2. 2

   The isolator switch inside the house

   Somewhere indoors there will be a small white wall switch with a tiny orange neon light. It is often in a utility room, garage, hallway or behind furniture near where the awning is fitted. If the neon is off, flip the switch on. If you cannot find one, do not worry, move on to the next step.

3. 3

   The external socket at the awning

   This is the waterproof socket fitted at high level near the cassette. It is unlikely anyone has switched it off up there, but if you can reach it safely, check that it is in the "on" position.

There is a small white box fitted to the front bar of your awning. This is a wireless wind safety sensor. It is battery-powered and the battery lasts roughly two to three years.

If the sensor battery is dying or dead, your awning will behave in a very specific way:

• ✓It opens normally when you press the button
• ✓Then it retracts itself, usually within 15 to 60 minutes, even on a calm day
• ✓This is a built-in safety feature. When the sensor cannot detect wind, the awning is automatically retracted to protect it from damage

The sensor uses the same CR2430 battery as the handset.

If you have worked through all three sections and the awning still will not move, please get in touch. The more information you can give us, the quicker we can put it right and the more likely we are to bring the correct part on the first visit.

Please tell us:

1. What colour LED you see on the handset when you press a button: green, red, or no light
2. Whether you found any tripped switches or lost power in Section 2
3. Whether the awning is completely silent, or whether it opens then closes itself again
4. The approximate age of the awning