Garage Door Awareness: Safety First

You need to be aware of the possible hazards of garage doors and automatic opener systems, and the need for periodic inspection and maintenance to keep them safe. Give your garage door a safety check to insure it’s in proper working order by using these ten garage door safety and security tips.

1. Make sure garage door opener control button is out of the reach of small children.

2. Do not let children play with garage door remote controls.

3. Consult the owner’s manual and learn how to use the garage door’s emergency release feature.

4. Visually inspect the garage door each month. Look at springs, cables, rollers and pulleys for signs of wear. Do not attempt to remove, adjust or repair these parts or anything attached to them. A trained door repairman must make adjustments to these parts, which are under high tension.

5. Test the garage door openers reversing mechanism monthly by placing a 2 x 4 board or a roll of paper towels in the door’s path. If the door does not reverse after contacting the object, call a qualified garage door professional for repair. If the opener has not been replaced since 1993, seriously consider a new one with auto-reverse as a standard feature.

6. Never place fingers between door sections and explain the dangers to children. If you have small children, consider a door with panels that can’t pinch.

7. Do not leave the garage door partially open. When activated again, it may travel downward and come in contact with an object in its path. This also impacts your home’s security as well.

8. While on vacation, unplug the garage door opener unit or use a wall vacation lock console security switch, which renders remotes unusable and is an optional accessory to most openers.

9. If the opener does not have rolling-code technology, which changes the access codes each time the opener is used to prevent code grabbing, be sure to change the manufacturer’s standard access codes on the opener and remote control, or consider investing in a newer model with more safety and security features that are now standard.

10. A new trend in home invasion is gaining access to the home by stealing the opener or car. Never leave the remote control in the car or with a parking attendant. Consider using a key chain remote and always lock the entry to the inside of your home – especially if your opener is programmed to your vehicle. It is a small inconvenience for safety and security.

Although you should provide monthly safety checks and maintenance to your garage door system, an annual visit from a trained door systems technician can keep your door operating safely and smoothly for a long time.

More on Garage Door Security

It’s amazing how many people install sophisticated home security systems without giving much thought to garage doors and their security. Even if you have a detached garage, it’s important to consider this part of your home. So what can you do to make sure your garage security is ironclad? Pay special attention to the doors!

 

If you have a garage door opener unit that is from earlier than the 1990s, consider upgrading it to a modern unit.

Older garage door openers relied on a unique I.D. number, programmed into each remote and the receiver sold with it. If the remote sends the right I.D. to the receiver, the receiver opens the garage door. Introduced in the early 1990’s, rolling code technology ensured that a garage door opener never transmits the same sequence twice. As implemented in the Liftmaster^®line of garage door openers, the remote and the receiver keep internal counters that begin in synch, and are incremented by a constant value each time the door is opened. When the user presses the button on the remote, the remote transmits the current value of the counter, along with the static I.D. number. The receiver will only open the garage door if both numbers are correct.

 

LiftMaster^®offers a wide variety of residential garage door openers and accessories, including a keyless entry system designed to recognize your unique fingerprint, making it ideal for families with children, or senior citizens.

Another tip?

 

Consider placing a padlock through the garage door track just above one of the rollers. This will keep out those techy burglars who can tinker with automatic door opener devices to trick residential units into opening.