Garage Door Installation and Repair Blog

We have all experienced this annoyance at some point. You come home and park the car and hit the button on the wall to close the door and nothing happens. The lights flash on the opener but nothing happens. So you try the remote in the car…..nothing happens. This is a very common scenario that plays out all over the United States every day. The culprit is a small portion of your garage door system that serves a very big purpose. It is your infrared safety reverse sensors at the bottom of the track. Safety sensors are a federally required piece of safety equipment since 1996. And your door opener will not function properly without them being properly installed, aligned and in good working order. Almost all openers encountered today have safety sensors installed. They basically all serve the same purpose no matter what brand of equipment you have in place. And at some point they will come out of alignment and cause the door to malfunction. We see this almost daily and it is a very simple issue to resolve. All sensors have a sending eye and a receiving eye with an indicator light on them. The sending eye’s indicator is always on and the receiving eye is only on when the sensors are properly aligned. First thing to check is that you have a light on one sensor. If no lights are on and you are sure that there is no power interruption then chances are you have a sensor that has failed completely and will need to be replaced by a qualified garage door technician. If one light is on then most likely the sensors are misaligned. Check that the light is illuminated and make sure it is pointing at the opposite sensor. Then go to the sensor where no light is on. Loosen the wing nut on the back of the sensor bracket. Gently adjust the sensor until the light on it turns on and stay solid with no flickering. Your safety sensors are now properly aligned. Press the button on the wall to test if alignment is correct. If it is the door will travel to the fully closed position and you have successfully aligned your sensors. Great job