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Hi, I’m Derek with Precision Door. This video will show you how to adjust and how to avoid some common problems with your safety eyes. What was that? These are my safety eyes. You want me to put my glasses on the garage door? Ohhh. The garage door safety eyes. That would make more sense.
All new garage doors on the market today are equipped with something called the ‘safety eye’ circuit. This is to protect vehicles and pedestrians from getting hit with moving doors. The safety eyes are located on the bottom of the track. On one side you have the sender, that sends an invisible signal to the other side, known as the receiver. To tell the difference between the two, step in the line of sight. Whichever one shuts off or blinks, that’s the receiver. The light shuts off or blinks because the signal cannot be read. The sender light never changes.
If the signal gets interrupted while the door already in motion, it will immediately go back up to avoid making contact with the blocking obstacle. If you ever need to replace your safety eyes, be sure to know which ones you’re replacing. You don’t want to end up with two senders or two receivers.
Because safety eyes are located in such a position where they can easily be bumped into, misaligned, or knocked off track, manufacturers have made it very easy for homeowners to adjust them. On Marantec products, there is a lock collar around the eye itself. The collar can be adjusted using your fingers. If you notice that your safety eyes are misaligned, simply move the eye until the light comes back on and then tighten the locked collar.
On Liftmaster products, where is a wing-nut thumb screw in the eye itself. The thumbscrew can be adjusted using your fingers and hang screwer to adjust the eyes in, out, up and down. If you notice that your safety eyes are misaligned, simply move the eye until the light comes back on and then tighten the wing nut.
On Genie products, the safety eyes easily slide into place on the actual bracket. The eyes have a tendency to get knocked off often, but getting them back on track is very simple. If you find that the eyes are misaligned, try to get them back into sync by bending the bracket back into the correct position.
A misaligned safety eye is a very common problem, but one you should be able to handle on your own.
Another problem with safety eyes is dirt and cobwebs. It’s very difficult to see clearly or in this case, send a signal clearly, when you have dirt kicked into your eyes. In order to restore vision, be sure to clean the lens with a soft, dry cloth. As far as cobwebs go, that’s a whole different story. This happens from spiders of course, and it’s just as bad as getting dirt in the eye, but it’s easy to clean off. Be sure to keep a lookout on your safety eyes during the autumn months, as leaves that are blowing around tend to get caught in the cobwebs or around the device.
Here are a few other common scenarios to look out for that can cause failure to your safety eyes:
-Heavy Doors that do not work properly could shake the track and misalign the eyes.
-Water pressure from power washes may have gotten into the garage and wet the safety eyes causing it to short.
-Broken wires that have either shorted or have breaks in it cut due preventing the device from being powered.
-Wires can also be broken by animals who eat through them, such as dogs, squirrels and raccoons, just to name a few.
Let’s not forget about the largest and most dangerous animal of them all, the human. Especially humans who have way too much storage in their garage. Humans who like to pile things up like shovels, rakes, and hoses… All into that little convenient corner, which ends up pulling out a wire or knocking out the safety eye.
Before you pick up the phone, make sure to go over the list of things that may have caused your safety eyes to malfunction. It’s more than likely something that you can fix in a matter of seconds.