Bottom Line: Garage Door Openers – Safety Instructions

The presence of a garage door opener has grown so common that I rarely see one without one. However, because it is a mechanical system, if it is fitted incorrectly and mixed with a 400-pound garage door (give or take a few pounds), it will cause serious injury! It has the potential to kill you! “If it functions, don’t touch it” (or repair it) is a well-known statement, but perhaps “if it was correctly installed” could be added to it as well. Steel Line provides the best garage door openers. 

Most of us despise manuals, but please stick with me to the conclusion of this post. It may be useful to you, particularly if your garage door opener was placed by someone else, it is ancient, or you aren’t confident whether what you did with it is truly secure. 

An electric eye

two photoelectric sensors mounted on opposite sides of the garage door track, never more than six inches from the garage ground (4″-6″ is the suggested location). This setup prevents a young kid from crawling under the sensor’s invisible beam. The door must stop and reverse if the light beam is interrupted during the shutting procedure. If something is blocking the sensor light beam path or two very different sensors are out of position, you can still shut the door by pressing the wall button. Instead of pushing the door to close, rectify the issue. I’ve seen so several garages utilized as storage where you can’t see the lower portion of the garage door from where the push button is situated, so you may not realize what’s obstructing the light beam. You frequently see two sensors glued together and secured above the garage door opener… or mounted quite high on both sides of the garage ceiling doors opening, think it or not. Recall that security sensors must be set within 6″ of the garage ground level to prevent little children from crawling below the light beam; installing them on the roof invites disaster. 

A door edge sensor

It’s a strip fitted along the base edge of the door that’s usually utilized in elevator doors, but also in some home garage door openers. When it senses any blockage, it should come to a halt and reverse the door. 

Up – Down travel

Overdoing it, especially when paired with an inadequately calibrated Up – Downforce can harm the garage door opener and the door mechanism. 

• Down travel:- Must be positioned such that the lower weather strip is gently squeezed when the door is shut (not crushed completely).
• Up travel:- The garage door opener arm bracket must never strike the opener or a protection bracket/screw while the door is completely open; at best, it must halt just before it, without really striking it.

Conclusion:- When taking any exams, stay away from the door path and don’t stick your fingers inside the door parts. If the door is out of alignment and not working properly, have it adjusted by a professional; this is a very dangerous approach to try if you don’t know what you’re doing!