garage door openers manufactured before 1992 will most likely only have one form of safety reverse mechanism. After 1992 garage door manufacturers starting adding safety sensors or infrared sensors as an option for your garage door. Shortly after that there was a federal building code that said all brand-new manufacturing garage door openers in the United States had to have the added safety of the infrared safety sensors that you now have on all modern garage door openers. Before the infrared safety sensor was invented the only way that a garage door would reverse direction is by a pressure mechanism that would reverse the garage door motor if it felt pressure before it was all the way down.
pressure system
The pressure system was not always that reliable because when garage door openers got older this system could wear out because most of the time it was based on a clutch system like on your automobile and when the clutch wore out it made it harder for the garage door opener to detect a object in the way of the garage door when it is closing. All of these new safety laws also apply to access gates. They have now also done away with the clutch system for detecting pressure when the garage door is closing now it uses an RPM sensor that detects changes in the RPM of the motor and will reverse or shut down the motor if it detects the fluctuation in rpm’s. The best way to check and see if your safety reverse is working on your opener is to put a block of wood or most commonly a 2 x 4 piece of wood on the threshold of your garage floor where the door meets the concrete and close the door and when it hits the floor and it goes back up then you know it is functioning properly. Also garage door manufacturers Okay now if your garage door does not have any infrared sensors on the left and right hand side of the bottom of the garage door tracks then it is most likely manufactured before 1994. And you cannot add infrared safety sensors to a garage door opener that was not manufactured to equip them. Now if your garage door opener is not that old and was manufactured After 1994 And you cannot visibly see any sensors at the bottom left and right hand side of your garage door.
pair of sensors
You might have a pair of sensors that are taped together or a fixed in a away to where they constantly see one another and are most likely on top of the garage door opener. This happens when a homeowner decides to install a garage door by himself and does not want to put the senses where they belong so they will do this in order to make the garage door function properly. The first thing a home inspector will do when he comes to the garage is to put a 2 x 4 underneath the door and see if it reverse when it comes down and the other would be to kick his leg through the sensor beams when the door is coming down and Fateman versus then always good but if there are no sensors at the bottom left and right hand side of the garage door between 10 to 8 inches in height then You could fail inspection especially if you’re trying to sell your home. Also garage door opener manufacturers will not give you any advice on repair or technical support nor will they sell you any replacement parts for an opener that is that old to where it doesn’t have any safety sensors because it is against the law. They would be liable in the court of law if it came to that. So if you do not have any safety sensors on your garage door opener then you should probably replace it with a modern model garage door that has safety sensors. This will ensure the safety of your family and Ensure that you pass any inspections.