Garage Door Auto Reverse Pressure

In approximately half of my inspections the automatic garage door opener does not auto reverse when met with resistance.

Garage door auto reverse pressure.

Injuries from garage doors account for about 20 000 er visits every year and 60 children have been killed since 1982 from garage doors that did not auto reverse when met with contact. If the door continues to close the opener is not safe and should be released from the overhead door until repairs can be made. The garage door must reverse on contact with a 11 2 inch object or a 2 by 4 board laid flat on the floor. If you ve tested your garage door opener s auto reverse and found it requires too much force for the door to reverse or it doesn t reverse at all you can adjust the settings on the garage door opener controls.

You can also call it the contact reversal test pressure test and performance test. The weight and pressure involved in closing a garage door can cause serious injury to someone in the path of the door especially children. Test it by placing a 2 by 4 flat on the garage floor and under the path of the door. The auto reverse test.

Home inspectors aim to protect their inspection clients and their clients families from potential perils by testing this safety feature. If the garage door reverse by itself without grasping the bottom of the garage door then increase the down close force by turning the adjustment screw clockwise. I the opener motor and ii infrared sensors. Adjust the garage door opener mechanism.

If the door does not automatically reverse when it hits the 2 by 4 the opener must be adjusted. The auto reverse test evaluates the pressure activated auto reverse function of a garage door. Once the down close force adjustment is set you will set the up open force limit. There are two common safety features with a functional auto reverse system.

Failure to adjust the opener properly may cause severe injury or death. This is real safety hazard. On the garage door motor there will be two knobs or dials to adjust the opener and the reverse sensor. After adjusting either the force or the limit of travel retest the door opener.