Adjust Garage Door Safety Reverse

Garage door openers are designed to reverse direction when a descending garage door meets an obstruction.

Adjust garage door safety reverse.

If your door does not reverse readily after contacting an obstruction the opener s sensitivity adjustment may be set improperly. When your garage door opener isn t working properly there are several components you can adjust to address the issue. Step 1 adjust the limit. This can create a dangerous situation.

Adjust the garage door opener mechanism. The safety reverse test is based on how much effort the motor that moves the door needs to apply to open or close it. Whenever adjustments are made make sure to test the protector system as well as the safety reversal system. Therefore some pre 1982 garage door openers may have been manufactured with other safety features which may stop the door but not cause it to reverse.

To open the door completely adjust garage door opener by turning the limit counterclockwise. To access the controls use a stepladder to reach the main part of the opener s motor. Place a roll of paper towels in the path of the door and press the button to have the door close. If it fails it is because the garage door opener does not consider that the obstacle requires too much force to close.

On the garage door motor there will be two knobs or dials to adjust the opener and the reverse sensor. If you ve tested your garage door opener s auto reverse and found it requires too much force for the door to reverse or it doesn t reverse at all you can adjust the settings on the garage door opener controls. One quick test is to place a 2 4 on the floor of the garage in the door s path. If the cardboard tube in the middle of the full roll of paper towels bends then too much force is being used to reverse the door.

Turn the adjustment screw on the limit clockwise if the door doesn t fully close.