Garage Door Safety Reverse Not Working

How to tell if garage door sensor is bad.

Garage door safety reverse not working.

Injuries from garage doors account for about 20 000 er visits every year and 60 children have been killed since 1982 from garage doors that did not auto reverse when met with contact. Garage door openers have an adjustment screw that controls the closing force the pressure with which a door is allowed to descend before the motor switches off when the door reverses before it even hits the floor this is often because the close force. In approximately half of my inspections the automatic garage door opener does not auto reverse when met with resistance. It s not always clear if a garage door sensor is bad but there are a few common signs that indicate you have a malfunction.

If it s not sensitive enough the door won t reverse creating a potential hazard. Garage door reverses before hitting the floor. Because most pre 1982 garage door openers do not comply with current safety standards the consumer product safety commission cpsc recommends replacement with an opener that has an auto. This is real safety hazard.

Sensors are a critical safety feature but can prevent an automatic garage door from working properly. Clean and adjust the photoelectric eye which also reverses the garage door. To access the controls use a stepladder to reach the main part of the opener s motor. Therefore some pre 1982 garage door openers may have been manufactured with other safety features which may stop the door but not cause it to reverse.

If you ve tested your garage door opener s auto reverse and found it requires too much force for the door to reverse or it doesn t reverse at all you can adjust the settings on the garage door opener controls. Let s start with the most obvious sign your garage door doesn t close properly.