Garage Door Safety Checklist

​1 in 15 garages may lack the latest garage door safety features or may not be operating properly according to LiftMaster®. Is yours one of them? Use our garage door safety checklist to find out. We recommend performing a thorough visual examination of your door monthly in addition to testing the door’s balance and auto-reversal system. If anything seems amiss, visit Phoenician Garage Door and Repair online, or contact us at (602) 304-1313 for same-day or 24-hour emergency service.

Safer Garage Doors
As technology has improved, so too has the quality of garage doors and garage door openers, as well as their respective parts. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission requires that all garage door openers manufactured after January 1, 1993 in the United States have what’s called an external entrapment protection system. This system includes photo eyes, automatic reversal, and a constant contact control button. If your opener was manufactured before this date, you’ll want to have it replaced.


Safety Checklist:
Visually Examine It
Your garage door is quite possibly the hardest working part on your home – opening and closing an average of four times per day. Over time, parts can wear out and break, creating potential safety problems. Inspecting your door on a routine basis, however, often allows you to spot minor problems before they turn into major ones. To inspect your door, run it up and down, noting the movement and the presence of any unusual noises. Also, check the tracks, rollers, springs, and cables to be sure they are securely fastened and working properly.

Check the Photo Eyes
One of the most important tasks you can do is to check to ensure the photo eyes (black devices) are properly installed. They should be mounted on both sides of the door, no higher than six inches off the floor. These devices prevent the door from closing if they see an object obstructing the door without having actual contact with the object. To test, block them with an object over six inches tall, and activate the garage door opener to close. The door should not be operational.

Test the Balance of Your Door
You can easily check if your door is properly balanced. With the door fully closed, disconnect the garage door opener by pulling down on the release mechanism (red cord), so that you can maneuver the door by hand. If the door is balanced properly, you should be able to manually lift the door without much effort, and it should remain open. If it closes, even a little bit, the balance needs adjusting. Because the springs store so much power, you should have their tension corrected by a professional.

Test the Safety Reversal System
A common method of testing this system involves placing a roll of paper towels or a 2×4 piece of wood in the center of the garage floor. If upon contact with the object, the door fails to immediately reverse direction – opening to its highest position, the opener should be disconnected until repairs have been completed by a professional garage door repair company. Additionally, owners of garage door openers are urged to teach their children about garage door safety, and keep transmitter remotes out of the reach of children.