Having a carport door opener has come to be so standard, that I rarely see a carport door without it. However, because it is a mechanical device, and if improperly installed, combined with a 400 pounds carport door (give or take some), it will hurt you badly! It might even kill you! There is a well known phrase - "if it works, don't touch it" (or fix it) - but maybe there should be also someone else one added to it "if it was properly installed"...
Most of us hate instructions but please stay with me till the end of this article - it might be useful for you, especially if your carport door opener has been installed by somebody else, it is old, or you aren't sure if what you did with it is de facto safe.
Door Bottom
There are many different types of carport door openers and this is not a enumerate of them.
This is about protection futures that Many citizen (homeowners / installers) neglect to setup properly.
The buyer goods protection Commission (Cpsc) requires that all carport door openers man-made or imported after January 1, 1993, for sale in the United States are qualified with an external entrapment protection system. It also recommends, that any carport door openers without a such protection time to come should replaced. External entrapment protection ideas refers to either:
An galvanic eye - two photoelectric sensors installed on both sides of the carport door track - they should never be installed higher than six inches from the carport floor (4"-6" is the recommended location). Such factory ensures that a small child cannot crawl under the sensor's indiscernible beam. When the light beam is broken while the door end process, the door should stop and reverse. If there's anything on the sensor light beam path or both sensors are out of alignment, you'll still be able to close the door by keeping the wall button - correct the problem instead of forcing the door to close. I've seen so many garages used as storage where it is impossible to see the lower section of the carport door from the area the push button has been installed, so you might not know what's blocking the light beam. Believe it or not but I often see two sensors taped together and secured above the carport door opener ... Or installed very high on both sides of the carport overhead doors opening. Remember - protection sensors must be installed within 6" from the carport floor level to preclude small children from crawling underneath the light beam - having them on the ceiling is just asking for a crisis to happen.
A door edge sensor - generally used on elevator doors, but also in some residential carport door openers - it's a strip installed along the lowest edge of the door. When it detects pressure applied by any obstruction, it should stop and reverse the door.
The carport door opener reverse on obstruction time to come must be set properly. In case this is the only protection time to come (no door edge sensor or photoelectric eye) - it becomes critical. It is also principal in situations where an galvanic eye has been improperly mounted (too high or in a different location - like on the pictures above). There should be a couple of adjustment screws on the body of the carport door opener assembly, commonly marked "down force" & "up force" or "open force" & "close force" (just like on the picture). Make sure, that you're adjusting the permissible set of screws, because many models of carport door openers will also have "up / down travel" adjustments - read the label. All the time ensue manufacturers instructions when doing adjustment, if the paperwork is gone, look it up online for that particular model. The normal rule is to place a 2"x4" block of wood underneath the door and try to close it. The carport door opener down / up force must be adjusted in such way, that when the door lowest edge touches the obstruction, it will immediately reverse. Some recommend using paper towels rolls instead of a wooden block, because it has a density similar to the human body, and especially small children. If you can get the carport door opener sensitivity adjustment that close, it would be perfect!
Up - Down travel is also very leading because overdoing it, often combined with an improperly adjusted Up - Down force, might damage the carport door opener and the door itself.
Down travel should be adjusted so when the door it is in a terminated position - the lowest weather strip is slightly compressed (not crushed completely).
Up travel - when the door is fully open, the carport door opener arm bracket should never hit the opener itself or a protective bracket / screw - at the most, it should stop right before it, without de facto hitting it.
The carport door opener is not a crane - it's a gismo that replaces your own hand in occasion / end process. What this means is that before the opener arm is physically linked to the door, you should make sure that the door spring tension has been properly adjusted and the door is equally balanced. If you want to test the door already qualified with an opener, disconnect the opener arm only when the door is fully terminated - be careful, because some door spring tension may be too high and it could pull the door up as soon as the opener has been disconnected.
When springs are properly adjusted, you should be able to de facto raise / lower and stop the carport door at any height, and it should remain at this level without any aid - stay clear of the door path and don't place your fingers between the door sections when performing any tests. If the door is out of balance - doesn't act like described above - call the expert to adjust it - this is a very dangerous procedure if you don't know what you're doing!
Three more things:
Garage door opener should be plugged directly into the electrical outlet, not an postponement cord, not a light fixture socket, preferably not a Gfci protected outlet.
Any time you setup the carport door opener, make sure that the upper door panel or door section (with particular panel doors) has been reinforced - this applies to particular and duplicate carport doors. Reinforcement bar doesn't commonly come with the door, it is an additional piece of metal you have to pay for. For a particular door, without the galvanic opener, it isn't de facto necessary. For a duplicate door, I'd highly recommended one bar along the top, at least one more along the lowest edge, for heavy doors the third one might be necessary, and installed with or without the opener. Wide doors without the reinforcing bar start sagging after a while, and will most likely crack in the town of the top panel, right above the carport door opener arm attachment area.
carport door opener push button - recommended factory is at about 60" to preclude small children from playing with it, and in a location where you can see the overhead door when closing.
Now the essence:
On terminated doors, determined disconnect the opener arm (some older models might not have a disconnect option) and test if properly balanced - if not call a expert to adjust it If operating properly without the opener, reconnect the arm and test it with a block of wood or great with a towel roll - adjust if it doesn't reverse (if you open and close the carport door opener too many times while adjusting sensitivity it will overheat and stop responding until its motor cools down). If your opener is malfunctioning or has improperly installed protection futures - correct it, it's dangerous! If your opener has no currently required protection futures - please replace it, it's dangerous!
stable Door Opener - safety hand-operated lowest Line
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