The importance of garage door safety sensors
If you stand too close to a garage door’s designated route when it’s closing, the door will stop before hitting you. If a child’s ball rolls directly under the door and said child goes after it, the door will halt before hitting and injuring the child. Anything left on the floor near the garage door’s track will be spared being squished as well. How does the door know when to stop?
Your garage door has eyes. Modern garage doors (meaning those made since 1993) are required to include safety sensors for the protection of consumers. These door sensors are photoelectric eyes that act as sentries looking out for any intruders in the way of the door. The sensors perform as a team of two, passing a light beam from one to the other. When the beam is broken, a signal is sent to the door opener’s motor to stop immediately, thus preventing damage to items or injury to people or pets. This is a critical safety feature as roughly three people every year die and many thousands are injured due to malfunctioning garage doors and related actions around doors.
Carrying the weight
Garage doors are by far the largest moving object in a home, with a great deal of weight behind them. The sensors are situated roughly six inches above the floor and are designed with technology to sense anything that might potentially disrupt the function of the door. Considering the amount of use a garage door sees, odds are good that it will at some point encounter an obstacle. A typical working family’s garage door runs through more than 1,000 open and close cycles every year, not including weekends.
Keep the equipment clean
It might seem like unnecessary advice, but it is important to keep garage door sensors clean and in good operating condition. To start, be sure the sensor eyes are free of dust and dirt. Dirty lenses will foul the reliability of the light beam and leave you with a questionable door function.
Check alignment and power
If your garage door sensors are not properly aligned, the beam will not connect, thus triggering the door to stop closing. Check the screws on the sensor brackets and if further adjusting is needed, gently bend the brackets to line up with each other.
Also be sure to check the batteries in the remote and check the receiving antenna for potential adjustment.
For more information on garage door safety sensors, contact the team at DB Garage Doors at (503) 553-9933 or dbgaragedoors.com.
