The eye of the tiger is nothing compared to the eye of the garage door opener.  What?

I'm talking about the laser sensor eye for the garage door opener.  Look at the picture below, it's the black box a few inches off the ground.

The laser sensor eye puts an invisible laser from one end of the garage to the other.  This way if a small child or pet is under the garage door when it's closing, the laser will trip and the garage door will go back up.  The problem is that these laser sensor eyes should not be more than 6-inches above the floor, otherwise it may not trip when a small child or pet is under the garage door.  That's a major safety issue, luckily it's just an adjustment to fix it.

I have read that the force of a garage door is enough to seriously hurt someone.  On one home inspection I called this out and a friend of the buyer was present.  She was happy I pointed this out because a neighbor's child of hers was actually killed by a garage door.

I hope this gives you a little more information about a home inspection and its value.  Be safe out there.

 

6 Comments on The Eye of the Tiger... (A Home Inspection Blog)

JAN
21
2008
372,408 Points 23 Featured Posts Outside Blog

Joe, good post, almost everytime I find the sensors too high it is because there is concrete in the way. Someone would actually have to break out the roto-hammer to get the things installed properly---can't go that far:)

1:11pm • #1
JAN
25
2008
259,431 Points 30 Featured Posts Outside Blog
Joseph- I read or heard about a child being killed by the garage door......good info.
12:59am • #3

I've seen brand new sensors in brand new houses installed too

Garage Door Opener Optical Sensor installed to high.  By Erby the Central Kentucky Home Inspector

high because of the concrete.

I note though that garage door opener companies are now making brackets to make this easier to deal with.

It fastens to the wood, comes out an inch or two and then drops straight down.  This allows fastening to wood but lets the opener get to the right height.  Of course I've seen those brackets used by garage door installers who STILL didn't get it down low enough.

ANOTHER quick thought for you Joseph.  Consider filling out that "Image Description" when you put pictures in your posts.  Google can't see the picture, but they do use the "Alt Text" or on AR the "Image Description" to see what it's about.  Can beef up your SE rankings with those picture keywords.  Hover your mouse over this picture and you'll see what I mean.

See that little yellow box that pops up with the text in it.  That's google juice for you.  Doesn't do any good in comments because AR has comments tagged as no follow, but it does good in the oriiginal posts.

 

 

-

7:08am • #4
4 Featured Posts

Kathy, thanks for stopping by.

Erby, great info and pic of a ridiculously high sensor, maybe they were doing the limbo?  Great info about labeling pictures, thanks for sharing.

3:06pm • #5
AUG
20
2008
421,788 Points 81 Featured Posts Localism Sponsor Outside Blog Hit Router

I'd like to re-blog this on my outside website, www.FocusOnCrofton.  If that's okay with you, please go into your dashboard and check the box to authorize it... and maybe shoot a note my way to let me know when you do that.

10:15am • #6

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Joseph Lang - Southern California Home Inspector

Rancho Cucamonga, CA

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