Most of the time your garage door performs its duties without any problems or need from intervention from you at all, but sometimes as with many gadgets, a little care and attention is required to get the door sensors working as they should do. Here is a quick guide on what to look out for when trying to fix your faulty sensor and when it is time to call a professional.
General maintenance
We all like our gadgets to work perfectly but sometimes there is a relatively small issue that is preventing them from working as they should do, and garage door sensors are no different in that respect. You know the feeling, you push the button on your garage door remote and nothing happens or perhaps the door starts to close and then opens back up again.
Sometimes this type of fault can be easily rectified by taking a look at the lenses on your sensors and seeing if there is any dirt or obstruction in place that is preventing a good signal contact. A simple wipe clean might just solve the problem and is certainly your starting point when trying to identify a potential fault.
Common Problems
One of the most common reasons for the garage door raising but not closing is that the safety beam sensor may be faulty, requires cleaning, and is misaligned or perhaps even unplugged. An opener that will work when you use the remote control but does not when you use the wall switch is a sign that there may be a short in the wiring or a loose connection at the switch. An obvious fault when a remote control is not working is that the batteries may be dead but it is amazing how many times we will look for a deeper fault before trying the obvious, so check the batteries! If the batteries are ok it could the antennae wire is not properly exposed or you may have a faulty or dead transmitter.
A good way to test the strength of the battery is to position yourself at least 25 feet away from the door and see if the remote works, if you get no response but it springs into life when you get closer then change the batteries and you may have fixed your fault. A door that reverses while closing or only partially closes is a sign that the open limit or sensitivity level is set wrong.
Call for help
You should periodically test the balance of your doors along with a manual inspection of the sensors and electrical components that are used to operate the mechanics used in opening and closing the doors. Once you have eliminated all the obvious signs of a fault such as dirt or debris that is preventing a good contact for your sensor and also checked that power is getting to your remote by testing the batteries, you should consider calling a professional technician for help if you still can’t fix the problem.
When it comes to electrical faults in particular, unless you are highly competent and have some qualifications that would enable you to identify a fault of this nature, you will reduce the risk of damaging yourself and the equipment and actually seek help to fix the problem from a suitably skilled technician.
