Garage Door Safety Blog – Absolute Garage Builders
Posted on April 26th, 2022
Having a Car Garage in Chicago adds convenience to your family’s home life. By keeping your vehicle in a climate-controlled environment, you protect it from the elements and secure it from vandalism or theft. But, there are potential dangers with your garage door that you should be aware of to ensure the safety of your family.
Here are 7 helpful tips to help educate you and your family on practicing safety around your garage door.
1. Test Safety Sensors Often
The safety sensors are part of your automatic garage door opener system that prevents injuries by recognizing people or animals that walk underneath the door as it’s closing, automatically reversing the action.
By frequently checking the sensors and ensuring they work properly, you can help prevent injuries and save money on costly repairs.
To test the sensors, open the garage door. Place a soft object in the middle of your garage door section where it closes, and close your garage. When the garage door touches the object, it should automatically stop and go back up.
Other sensors send a signal across your garage and recognize if anything is in the way, not allowing the garage door to close even before it touches the object in the way. If your sensors aren’t working properly, call a technician right away.
2. Don’t Let Kids Play With Garage Door Opener
Make sure you teach your children to properly use the garage door opener. Here are a few simple lessons to teach your kids to help keep them safe:
- The garage door is not a toy
- Watch your fingers around the garage door
- Always close the garage door when you’re coming inside
- Make sure nobody is standing under the garage when you close it
- Don’t tell anyone the password
Children are injured every year while playing near garage doors. Remind your children what is safe and what isn’t. Make sure they don’t play with the opener, the button inside the garage is out of reach, and any remote controls are not accessible.
3. Don’t Share Passwords
We mentioned it above to tell your children not to share passwords, but this goes for adults and their friends, coworkers, etc. The more people that know the entry password to your garage, the less secure your home will be. Protect your home by keeping the password to yourself.
If you have immediate family members in the area, it can make sense to share passwords in the case of an emergency. But, after they need to use the passcode, it may be smart to change it to a new code.
4. Regular Maintenance
During the fall season, you should regularly check your garage door system to ensure it will work properly during the winter months. Checking the weatherstripping at the bottom of your garage door, lubricating moving parts of the system, and cleaning the door with soap and water will all help keep your garage door working.
Make sure you check the springs for cracks or rust, the sensors, and the auto-reverse feature, as well as if the door is balanced and closes straight.
5. Read The Manual
At the very least, make sure you keep the manual in case you need to look up maintenance tips, warranty information, and how to properly use different available functions.
The manual will be a great resource to continue reminding your children about garage door safety. It can also help save money by explaining simple DIY repairs.
6. Don’t Leave The Door Partially Open
You may drive around your neighborhood and see homeowners leaving their garage doors open a few feet from the floor. This can help keeps homes cool in the summer months and also make it easier for loose pets to return home.
Doing this also opens your home to outside threats. Wild animals can get inside your garage and cause damage to your garage or items you store inside. Not to mention that burglars will see a slightly-open garage door as an opportunity to enter your home and steal valuables.
Avoid potential risks by keeping your garage door closed any time you are not outside.
7. Become Familiar With The Emergency Release Feature
If your home ever loses power or the garage door stops working and you need to open the door manually, you need to understand how to use the emergency release.
Most garage doors are installed with a red emergency handle or have a red rope attached to the door trolley. Pull the handle or rope toward the motor (and away from the door). Make sure that the door is completely closed before doing this as it could cause the door to come crashing down.
