Sensors are very important parts of the garage door system because they assure the homeowners that the fixture will not close on anyone. The sensors make use of infrared lights to detect the presence of any item or person directly underneath the path of the residential garage doors.
If the sensors find or detect the presence of a person, it will reverse back to an open orientation. If the sensors are not aligned, they will not be able to work properly which also means that the safety of the door is not jeopardized.
If you want to check the alignment of the garage doors, here’s how:
- First, you need to make sure that the sensors are clean and free of dust. The infrared light that these sensors project are not really visible to the naked eye. So you can only ensure that the beam will be able project out of the sensors by making sure that there are no obstructions on the external covering of the lens.
- Check the electrical wiring of the garage door sensors. Even if the sensors are aligned, they would not work properly if the wires are malfunctioning because of cuts and cracks.
- Grab a torpedo level. This is an alignment device that many engineers and contractors use to see if a structure is level with the ground and if two points are at level with each other. Place the torpedo level on top of the sensors. If the liquids inside the capsules of the level do not align, it means that the sensors are not aligned as well.
- Measure the distance from one of the sensors to the floor. Do this again on the other sensor and the two values must be equal to each other.
- Close the garage door and measure the distance between one of the sensors to the back of the door. Do this step one more time to the other sensor and the distances of the sensors to the exterior doors must be equal.
- If there are inequalities with the values from the methods stated above, your sensors are not aligned. A quick fix for this is to use a pair of pliers and twisting or bending the sensor mounting to align the two brackets together.
