Your garage door’s safety eyes help to protect you and your family from your own garage door. Most people do not know what safety eyes are or how they help to make their garage door function properly. If you are encountering a problem where your garage door will not open then your safety eye might be the culprit.
Safety eyes are also called photo eyes by most people. The function of the safety eyes is to ensure that the garage door can have a clear path to have the necessary clearance to get lifted up and down without incident. For example, if an animal runs under the garage door while it is going down, then the safety eyes will stop the door from going all the way down until the obstacle is out of the way.
The safety eyes can become impaired or obstructed. For example, your garage might have spiders that make cobwebs around the safety eyes which can make it hard for them to clearly work. Another issue that can make the garage door not work is the presence of dirt or leaves on the safety eyes. You should carefully examine the safety eyes to see if one or both of them needs to be cleaned. This can be done by making sure that the garage door opener is off and then taking a rag or paper towel with window cleaner and gently cleaning the safety eyes. It is crucial to be very gentle with this because if you break the safety eyes then this can cause you to have to spend further money on repairs.
Your safety eyes can also become misaligned. This is not a cause for serious worry because it is very common and we can come out and fix it for you. The reason why this happens is that the safety eyes can get knocked around when the garage door opens and closes. We will first look at the safety eyes and see exactly how they operate when in use. If we can see that a safety eye is misaligned, then we will make the necessary adjustments to correct it.
If you have a garage that is very cluttered, then your door’s safety eyes could suffer some problems as a direct result. We suggest that you remove any items that are near the safety eyes because you might be unknowingly causing problems for yourself. You should try to clean out your garage every three to six months to ensure that it is organized so that all of the working parts can operate properly. Items such as shovels, brooms, rakes, boxes and power tools can often interfere with the safety eyes so it is best to avoid packing things so closely to the door’s entrance.
Animals can often mess with the safety eyes on garage doors. It is important to always keep the garage door shut when it is not being used. This helps to prevent raccoons, mice, rats and other rodents from being able to eat through the wiring. Safety eyes often fail one at a time. We can check each of these and show you how to do it as well so that you can monitor their performance. It is crucial to also make sure to be careful when guests park near your garage door. Some people hit the door accidentally which can harm the safety eyes and do damage to the structure. Installing motion sensor lights on the top of the garage can help so that people can clearly see where the garage door is so that they avoid hitting it.
The bottom of the track is where your safety eyes are located. On one side there is what is known as a sender which will send a signal to the receiver. It is important for there to be a clear path so that they can communicate. You can check to see if your safety eye’s receiver works by looking at the light. If it does not work or if it blinks and does not stay one color then the receiver is experiencing technical difficulties that will need to be dealt with quickly. The safety eye that is known as the sender will remain on at all times and if it is off then it often has to be replaced.
Safety eyes often have issues with disconnected wiring. If your garage door gets bumped into on a frequent basis, then the wires can become disconnected. We can inspect the wiring very carefully and correct the position of the safety eyes if they have been bumped off track. You should try to avoid placing any objects such as basketball hoops near the garage door because the ball can bounce against the bottom of the door, thus damaging the safety eyes.
When trying to address a misaligned safety eye, we will first look for a collar or wing nut on the safety eye that allows adjustments to be made. Then, we will move the safety eye and look for the solid light to turn back on so that we know that it is where it needs to be. Some safety eyes have brackets that move. If your safety eye has a bracket then we will move the safety eye so that is on the bracket and bend the bracket so that it is back where it belongs. Once this step is completed, we will then tighten everything and try the garage door once again to make sure that the job has been successfully completed.
You should be careful if you pressure wash your garage door because the water can leak into the safety eye and short out the wires. You should cover the safety eye with a plastic bag before using the pressure washer. You should also try to clean them each month with a dry cloth. This helps to ensure that any dirt or particles are not building up over time. We can help you with your safety eye problem if you cannot take care of it yourself.
