Understanding Your Garage Door Sensor
While garage doors have had an incredibly evolutionary history since they came into existence, garage door sensors are a unique and often overlooked aspect that is an integral part of our households and businesses. This incredibly essential safety feature is a part of every present-day garage door. It's functionalities serve as an ingenious example of our growing level of both technology and safety awareness. Since they’re a hard-working part of our homes, let’s take a look into how they work!
How Do Garage Door Sensors Work?
As safety becomes more centralized, garage doors have required sensors since the early 90s. Sensors consists of both a sender and a receiver – one on each side of your garage door. You may recognize these by the green light that resonates from the sender as well as another light that resonates from the receiver. The colors of these lights can vary depending on the brand of your garage door opener.
The sender and receiver are placed near the bottom of the garage door just slightly above the floor and aligned directly in front of one another. If the sender and receiver are not able to “see” one another for even a moment, your garage door automatically will retract and go back up to avoid potential hazards.
What If Your Garage Door Sensor Is Not Working Properly?
Garage door sensors are a vital part of your safety. When it comes to garage door maintenance, your sensors require proper care to ensure that they’re doing their job properly.
If your sensors are engaged and working properly, any interruption between the sender and receiver “seeing” each other should cause your garage door to immediately retract. To achieve this, the alignment between the two sensors needs to be fairly exact.
Dust, dirt and cobwebs can prevent your sensors from working. You want to be sure that obstructions aren't interfering with the sender and receiver's ability to see each other. Cleaning each sensor gently on a regular basis will help ensure that things will continue to run smoothly. Take this cleaning time to double check that each sensor is positioned exactly across from the other as well. As always, if you have any question in regard to the optimization of your sensors, Metro Garage Door is always here to help.
One visible way to tell if your garage door sensors are working is by double checking the lights on both the sender and receiver. If either of the lights are blinking or aren’t lit up, it’s time to reach out to Metro Garage Door and have your opener serviced.
When is It Time to Replace Your Garage Door Sensors?
Garage door sensors typically last a few years with proper care and maintenance. Make sure that they stay clean and are securely in place in your garage door to optimize their longevity.
If you start seeing recurring issues regarding your garage door, such as the garage door closing when an obstruction interrupts the line of sight of the two sensors, please contact Metro Garage Door immediately. We’re here to help and answer any additional questions you may have regarding your garage door sensors.
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