5 Important Garage Door Safety Tips
A garage is an important part of any home, but don’t forget that a garage door is a heavy moving object and certain safety precautions must be taken — particularly for homeowners with small children. Here are five garage door safety tips to keep you and your family safe.
1. Test the auto-reverse mechanism monthly.
The garage door auto-reverse mechanism, a requirement for all garage door openers made after 1991, is one of the most important garage door safety features. If a garage door encounters an object while closing, the auto-reverse mechanism causes it to change direction as soon as it makes contact. As you can imagine, this has saved many lives over the past few decades.
To test the auto-reverse mechanism, place a roll of paper towels in the path of your open garage door. When you press the button to close the door, it should reverse immediately upon touching the paper towels.
2. Keep your garage door opener away from children.
Garage door safety is especially important for kids. Teach your children from a young age that the garage is not a toy. We recommend mounting your wall control out of reach of young children and hiding any remotes.
3. Watch your fingers.
Garage door joints and tracks are dangerous places for fingers. In fact, getting fingers caught between section joints is the most common type of garage door injury. Always keep an eye on your children around garage doors to make sure they never place their fingers between panels.
4. Never race a moving garage door.
Even with garage door safety mechanisms like auto-reverse in place, you should never try to run under your garage door while it’s closing. It should go without saying that this is a dangerous idea, yet people are still injured attempting to do it
5. Hire professionals for maintenance and repairs.
Believe it or not, many people also injure themselves trying to repair their garage door. Even if you succeed without injuring yourself, there’s a good chance that you won’t reliably fix the problem. If you have any problems with your garage door, you should always hire a professional. Contact Champion Overhead Door for all your garage door maintenance and repairs.