My Garage Door keeps reversing and will not close

MY GARAGE DOOR KEEPS REVERSING AND WILL NOT CLOSE

Probably the most common phone call we get in the service department is “My garage door keeps reversing and I can’t get it to close” or “My remotes won’t close the door and I have to hold the wall button until the door is all the way down for it to stay closed.” Usually this is a sure sign that there is an issue with the garage door’s photo eye system.

In 1993 a law was passed in the U.S. requiring garage door operators to be equipped with a secondary reversing system, which most operators have in the form of photo eyes. Photo eyes (or safety sensors) are mounted to the track on either side of the garage door about 6 inches up from the ground. The photo eyes send an infrared beam across the bottom of your garage door opening, if that beam is broken, the door will reverse. This is a safety feature that has been added to garage door openers to help prevent the door from closing on a car, pet, or even a child.

If you are finding that your door is reversing for no apparent reason, here are a couple things that you can check to see if the issue has to do with the photo eyes.

  1. Make sure the photo eyes are clear of anything that may interfere with the safety beam. Sometimes, there could be a box or a garbage can sitting too close to the eyes. Other times, it may be a leaf hanging from the bottom of your garage door.
  2. Look at the photo eyes themselves, if there are cobwebs or if there is dust on the lenses, the eyes will sense this and cause the door reverse. You can clean them off by using your finger or a dry rag.
  3. If one of the eyes has been knocked out of alignment, this will also cause the door to reverse. Each photo eye has a light on it. The light on one eye will be green and the light on the other will be either red or yellow. If the photo eyes are properly aligned, these lights will shine steadily at all times. If one light is blinking or off, try to move the sensor a little or even jiggle the wire to make so the light comes on solid.

 

After following these tips, if you are still having problems getting the door to close and you need to leave your house, you can override the sensors by holding down the wall button until the door is all the way down or you can put your door on manual by disconnecting it from the operator. Then, call your local D & D GARAGE DOORS professional and schedule an appointment for them to come and check out the situation and see if there may be other issues involved.

Sources sited: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garage_door_opener

This blog was written by Trish Helmuth from our Sarasota Design Center. Plagiarism disclaimer to follow. *This blog is owned by D & D Garage Doors. We grant you a nonexclusive, nontransferable, limited right to access, use and display the blog and the materials provided hereon, provided that you fully source, D & D Garage Doors within the content of your blog complete with link back to D & D Garage Doors website at www.DandDGarageDoors.com/blogFailure to do so will cause D & D to file a notice of Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) infringement with search engines such as Google and others to have the offending site removed from their search results.

 

8 Comments

  • Virginia Davis says:

    Thank you for your information. You just saved me from a service call.

  • Alyssa says:

    You guys are life savers! Thanks for the info.

  • TAYLOR says:

    Thanks for the free advice, it’s appreciated. Will call D&D for sure if I have any problems.

  • Bill Chindamo Sr. says:

    Some real good information

  • Stuart says:

    i can’t tell you how many times my kids have bumped those things & cost me a service call thanks for the advise on how to check for these problems & how to fix my self you just saved me a lot !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Donna says:

    Thank you for the information. I appreciate all of the great tools that you as a company give us. I am a proud and happy customer. Thank you for taking the time to keep us informed of things like this so that we can save a little bit of money here and there. I am a customer for life!

  • Roberto says:

    Thank you!! I reAligned my garage door sensors and the problem was fixed.

  • HK says:

    Great information. Thank you for your advise. You saved me from a service call.