Two tests, once a month, five minutes total. If both pass, the door’s safety system is working. If either fails, stop using the door until it is repaired.
Test 1: the photo-eye reversal
- Open the door with the opener.
- Place a box about a foot tall on the floor in the middle of the opening.
- Press the button to close.
A pass: the door stops and reverses without touching the box. A fail: it keeps going, or it only stops once it makes contact.
Test 2: the force reversal
With the door open, hold a piece of wood or a thick book flat on the floor under the middle of the door and close it. The door should go down, meet the object and return. Standard practice is that a door should reverse on an object roughly two inches high, not only on a solid block.
The monthly visual check
- Both sensor LEDs steady, not blinking.
- No frayed cable visible at the drums.
- No gap in the spring coils.
- Door hangs level: look at the gap under each corner.
- No loose hinges; try each one with a finger, door closed.
Failures that mean stop now
A door that does not reverse. A door that will not stay up when you disconnect the opener and lift it halfway. A visible gap in a torsion spring. A cable hanging loose. Any of these is a stop-use condition, not a schedule-it-next-month condition.
Why monthly, in this climate
The sensors are the part that degrades fastest here: salt film on the lenses, water in the housing after a storm, insects. A monthly ten-second look at the LEDs catches most failures before the door behaves oddly.
Same-day service across South Florida and a 100% workmanship guarantee. Free estimate: (305) 885-8088.
If a test fails, we will tell you whether it is an adjustment or a part: garage door repair.