Most have sensors at the bottom edge that shuts down the motor when the beam is broken. If, for instance, the door is opening and a physical obstruction physically stops the door, will the motor shut down. Thx.
I installed a (new) garage door opener in my barn about three years ago. It shuts off the motor when the door is going down and the light beam is interrupted. If the door is going up, however, it continues to go up if the light beam is interrupted. Which I expect is by-design, and is preferable for me.
Now, I’m not sure what would happen if I were to put an extra load onto the motor as the door was going up. I suspect it would sense this, and stop the motor.
Is there a question forthcoming?
This is the question (it’s missing a ?, but clearly framed as a question):
Yeah, imagine if something got stuck underneath the door and then you couldn’t raise it up because it was blocking the sensor.
I just tested my garage door opener. Resistance going up did not cause the motor to stuff or reverse.
Modern garage doors openers should also stop when they hit pressure going down.
A sensor to stop the door from closing if there is an obstruction is required by federal law.
It’s supposed to. I suspect you can adjust it if you want to.
I remember as kids we would hold on to the bottom of the door and it would lift us with it. If there was more than one person or as we got older/bigger) it would reverse and go back down (or maybe stop).
There should be an knobs on it to adjust the upward and downward pressure. If you really wanted to fix it, you could change the upward one. Just make sure it doesn’t end up reversing under it’s own weight.
Every one I’ve ever had, has had a sensor that reverses the closing door if it physically hits something.
Cite: A bad habit of trying to close the garage door while the tailgate of my truck is still open every two years or so.
The tailgate is too high to trip the light beam sensor, but when the door hits the tailgate, it goes back up.
OP wants to know if it’ll reverse if it hits something on the way up.
Yes it will. Actually it does not sense a hit, but rather the torque on the motor. There are user adjustable limits on the back side of the motor housing. Mine have tripped if the cable is not correctly adjusted and makes the door rise crooked.
One limit knob for up and another for down. Marked with arrows to increase or decrease the sensitivity.
I had one of the springs snap on my door. (They stretch with gravity assist as the door closes to make it easier to lift open.) As a result, the door would not open. I pulled the release and opened it manually, but it was very heavy. I don’t know if there was a triggering sensor - more likely the motor was not strong enough to lift the door without the spring assist.
In this wonderful winter wondrland, I have had the problem every few weeks that:
the sunshine melts the ice buildup or snow sticking to the door.
Water runs under the door’s bottom rubber.
A small puddle forms inside the door and freezes.
As a result, there’s a lip of ice stuck to the bottom of the door extending into the garage a few inches.
This goes up with the door.
When the door comes back down, it gets to the beam and goes back up.
Breaking off that ice chunk so it does not break the beam, the door will now close.
Obviously, the same ice lip interrupting the beam on the way up has no effect on the door opener.
this is logical - the door sensors are meant to stop closing the door if anything is in the way when it’s closing, a simple safety measure - obstruction breaking the beam or getting hit by the door on the way down is at risk.
I can’t imagine a situation where the door going up creates a risk, unless you put your hand or had somewhere that the opening door’s horizontal travel hits it. For me, that would require a stepladder. it’s certainly not anywhere as common a foreseeable risk as driver in a convertible, or a meandering toddler getting squashed by a descending door.
It could be, at least in part, so if the door does hit something or otherwise jams on the way up, it reverses before it breaks something (the door, whatever it’s hitting, the motor)…
The rubber part on the bottom is very easy to replace. Whether it’s a flat-ish strip of rubber or a semi-tubular/U-shaped piece, it just slides into a track. You can pull it out and slide a new one in. And they’re interchangable if you want to switch from the flat one to the U shaped one.
Also, make sure the door is adjusted to go all the way down. Sometimes either because they were initially set up wrong or just wear and tear on the weatherstripping, they’ll stop just a hair higher than they should, leaving a gap for water to enter.
I also had a problem with water getting under the door. It’s not creating any major problems other than there being water in my garage every time it rains (or ice, in winter). In addition to replacing that weather stripping, I also added a threshold, like this. Worked fine for a few years until the glue let go and I never got around to fixing it. The unexpected issue I have with it is that people at my house have no reason to expect there to be a trip hazard there. Usually it’s not an issue unless they’re carrying something big/heavy/bulky and can’t see it.
Those aren’t technically sensitivity, although it works is a similar way in this instance. Those adjustments are for up and down force in kilograms. If the garage door stops while going up or down, you need to add more force using those dials. You’re supposed to set the opener to the minimal amount of force required to run smoothly, so if it needs 2 kg, it should be set close to that.
If set properly, and something gets stuck in the door while going up, it should stop fairly easily because there’s just not much force left over to power through an obstruction. However, if the door needed a low force and someone set it a lot higher, it wouldn’t stop as easily and, depending on the obstruction, may not stop at all.
Nah. It’s because with only one spring, there’s an asymetrical force which causes it to jam. One side is getting pulled a lot harder than the other, so the door tilts and the wheels get stuck in the tracks. This is the same reason you don’t replace only a single spring. Springs stretch out through use, so they don’t produce as much force as when new. You want the two springs to have gone through the same amount of work.
It’s one reason. The other reason is that if one spring broke, then it’s probably because it was old, and the other spring is probably old too so you might as well replace it all in one go. If you and your spouse go to work separately every weekday (2 up-down cycles per weekday), and you do errands on the weekend, that’s pretty much two cycles every day, 730 cycles per year. Twenty years? 14,600 cycles. Surprising how that adds up.
The last time I snapped a spring, the guy asked if I wanted him to do both at the same time, which I did. He casually mentioned, IIRC, that the expected life is something like 10,000 cycles and when one snaps, the other will probably go within the next year or so.
But not just that, if replacing one spring is $500 and replacing the other spring when it breaks is $500, but replacing them both at the same time is $600 total, I’ll just replace both.
It’s like replacing your water pump at the same time as your timing belt or your skylight while redoing your roof. When so much of the cost is tied up in labor, it generally makes sense to take care of it when the majority of the labor is already being done as part of another project.
Just never try to replace the springs yourself. I get involved in a whole lot of DIY projects around the house, some of which should probably be done by professionals, but that’s one thing I’m not gonna mess with.
Even the professionals occasionally severely injure or kill themselves installing them, a homeowner not knowing what they are doing is looking for a world of hurt.
Very true, I’m sure there are several YouTube videos to prove it.
I recently had a rake fall against my garage door as it was opening, and the handle put just enough pressure against the door to stop the motor from raising it further. The light also started blinking to let me know there was an issue.