Fall leaves are lovely… on the trees. Once they cover the ground, however, they could turn into a problem. Be sure to keep leaves out of your garage and away from your garage door opener’s safety sensors. If a pile of leaves blocks the garage door sensors, your garage door opener will not close properly.
Here’s Why:
If anything finds itself in the path of a closing garage door, you’ll want the door to sense something in its path and automatically stop closing. Your garage door’s safety sensors are critically important for all homeowners, but especially those with pets or children. Garage doors are very heavy and accidents involving them occur all too frequently.
Safety sensors are located on either side of the garage door, and they face each other. You’ll find yours either on the garage door tracks or on wall brackets beyond the track. These sensors work by transmitting an infrared laser back and forth between them. When anything breaks this laser connection by stepping between it, the door will stop closing and instead rise back to where it was. Sometimes fallen leaves, debris, or spider webs might block them, interrupting the laser connection and preventing the door from closing.
To clean and check your sensors, remove all debris and wipe the lens of each sensor. If the LED lights on the sensors are blinking, either something is blocking the beam or the sensors aren’t aligned with each other. If the LED lights are glowing steadily your garage door opener should be working properly. Enjoy the fall season!
If this still didn’t do the trick, you could try to re-align your sensors yourself, or you could get our help with any garage door problems. We even do same-day repair! Request a service visit or call us: South Metro : (952) 960-9411 | East Metro : (651) 967-7373 | North Metro : (763) 219-4326 | West Metro : (612) 276-3891.