When one of my children was playing with our garage doors a few years ago, we heard a piercing scream that we will never forget. She had gotten her fingers pinched in the side of the door, and we knew that we had to help her--and fast. Because of our quick actions and first aid, we were able to take care of the problem. After we returned home, I started thinking about ways to keep our kids safe around garage doors. This blog contains loads of helpful information about maintaining your garage doors, looking after your curious children, and preventing serious injury.
If your garage door occasionally stalls, this could be an indication that the sensor is malfunctioning. Troubles that only happen when using the remote control mean there is a potential problem with how the sensor and door communicate. In that situation, you may need a technician to come out to your home and repair it for you.
Signs Of Trouble
The best way to tell if the sensor is the part that is failing is by making note of when the garage door stalls. Is it stopping at the exact same point every time the garage door opens? If so, a dirty sensor could be the problem.
The sensors are mounted right above ground level and work via infrared beams. If anything crosses the path of the sensor, the door will retract and remain in an open position to prevent damaging whatever is in the door's path. Sometimes this is due to dirt that is on the sensors, preventing the sensors from successfully transmitting that infrared beam.
There is also a possibility that the sensor was bumped and is no longer properly aligned. That will simply require realigning the sensors once again, which could take some trial and error to fix on your own. All you need to do is loosen the screws that hold the sensors in place, and get the two sensors in sync with each other. It helps to use a string to simulate the path of the infrared beam, tying it tautly between the two sensors. The sensor may require a restart once it is realigned.
How To Reset Your Sensors
Before replacing sensors, do your due diligence by cleaning and aligning the sensors to avoid an unnecessary and costly repair. It's possible to reset the sensors yourself if you follow these simple instructions.
Once you complete these three steps, the sensors should work properly and allow your garage door to open and close once again. If the garage door is still having trouble, this could be due to faulty sensors that need replacement.
A properly working garage door sensor is designed to help protect the door and keep you safe. If you have any difficulty troubleshooting a problem, contact a professional garage door service such as Garbers Of Richmond Inc.
Share12 March 2015
