The garage door is usually the largest and the heaviest moving object in your house. It exerts intense forces and therefore it is important that it should be able to stop and reverse its course if it comes in contact with any object in its way. If your garage door auto reverse mechanism is not operating smoothly, it can lead to injuries and even fatal accidents.
The Consumer Products Safety Commission in U.S. (CPSC) recommends that the garage door opener reversing mechanism should be inspected every month. If it fails the test, disconnect the door opener until repairs have been performed by an expert garage door repair services company.
Modern garage door openers have two safety reverse features. One, there is an automatic reversing mechanism that reverses the door if it comes across an obstacle on its way down. Second, since 1993, it has been mandatory by the U.S. federal law to reinforce the auto reverse system with the installation of photoelectric eyes. These optical sensors should be mounted at a height no more than six inches above the ground level.
So, how can we check the functionality of the reverse mechanism? Before we can do that it is important to make sure there are no unexpected creaking sounds emanating from the garage door. Check for any signs of damage to the tracks as well. And most importantly, just inspect if the reverse mechanism is working optimally and do not attempt to repair or adjust it yourself.
Also, there are two dials on the garage door opener that determine where the garage door stops while lowering and how much force or pressure is required by the motor to trigger the door to go on a reversal mode. If the dials are not adjusted properly, it will make the garage door come down too fast, too far low than required and with a faster speed. Call garage door repair experts to adjust these dials precisely.
Garage Door Auto Reverse Functionality
Check for safety reverse mechanism
Place a log of wood when the door is in up position and try to close the door. The door should halt and automatically reverse its direction the moment it comes in contact with the piece of log. In case, the door comes crashing down, this means the test has failed. It is a potentially risky situation and should be dealt as soon as possible. All skilled and expert technicians to repair the mechanism.
Test photoelectric eyes or sensors
These eyes are located at the base of each side of the garage door facing each other. The purpose of these sensors is to emit and detect beams of light. If this beam of light is disrupted by an object, this action should ideally make the door go reverse. To check if these optical sensors are functioning smoothly, wave a long object such as a wooden stick or a broom in front of these photoelectric eyes as the door is on its way down. It should break the beam of light from the eyes and cause the garage door to return back in an open state. If it doesn’t happen, it shows that the photoelectric eyes are not in alignment of each other. You can close the door and gently push the sensors in a way that it makes them face each other.
To deal with an inoperable reverse mechanism requires skills of an expert. It is dangerous to attempt the repair yourself as it is a heavy object with many complex, interrelated parts better understood by a skilled garage door repair services company. Simply check if the auto-reverse mechanism of your garage door is working as it should be and leave the adjusting and repair to a professional garage door repair company like Garage Door Repair Corpus Christi.