Home Improvement Help:
Garage Door Safety Tips

The garage door is the largest door in the home yet many people tend to use it as the main exit and entrance to their homes. With the convenience of automatic door openers, not to mention the remotes we carry in our cars, it’s easier to use than the front door. What would the kids do without the numeric keypads, into which they punch their codes, to get in the house? We bring our cars and bikes in and out, and don’t forget lawn mowers, garden tools and whatever. The point is, this door is well used, but how safe is it?

Automatic garage door openers have been around a lot longer than safety devices for them, or for that matter safety regulations for them. Garage doors with openers that either did not have safety devices, or had defective safety devices, have been blamed for causing serious injury and even death. Children and pets have been the primary victims. The car you have seen with a crease on the hood, is a good indication of these older heavy doors without properly working safety devices.

For example, an older double garage door can weigh over four hundred pounds, while a new door of the same size can weigh less than half that. If you have an older door and a safety that does not work, what you have here is an accident waiting to happen! This is a good reason why all new automatic openers must have a pressure sensitive auto-reversing device and a photoelectric-reversing device.

You can check your garage door opener safety devices by following these tips:

• Look for photoelectric eyes near the floor on both sides of the door.
• If you have photoelectric eyes- test them by blocking the beam between the eyes as the door is closing, and the door should automatically reverse.
• If you do not have a photoelectric-reversing-device, you need to check your pressure- sensitive device.
• To do this, try to stop the door with your hand (be careful not to be under the door). Before the pressure gets too hard on you, the door should reverse
• If the door does not reverse, call a service person to adjust this.
• If you have none of these safety devices, then it is time to replace that old opener.

Another safety check is your springs. Check to see what type of springs you have. If you have a spring that runs along the top of the garage door on a bar, then you have a torsion spring. This type is usually safe if it breaks, because the spring will stay on the bar.

If you have two springs that run overhead parallel with the track, then you have extension springs. You need to check these springs for cables running through them. These cables will contain the spring if it breaks. Without these cables a broken spring can be very dangerous. If you do not have a safety cable call a service person.

Also, annually check that all nuts and bolts on the rails and rollers are tight. This will help limit wear on your motor.

Remember the first step to keep your family safe begins with keeping your house safe.