Garage Door Safety and Security Tips
A well-kept garage adds significant convenience and functionality to your home. If you aren’t careful though, your garage door can create serious safety and security hazards. Today we will share six tips to help keep you, your family, and your belongings safe.
1) Test Your Sensors
It is very important to make sure your garage door sensors are functional. Dysfunctional garage door sensors can lead to injury or death for your family, friends, and pets. To test your sensors, simply place a piece of scrap wood or a paper towel roll in the path of the door. Next, press your garage door button and see what happens. If the door begins to operate at all, it is time to call an expert to fix the issue.
2) Child Safety
If you have children, follow these recommendations to keep them safe:
– Don’t allow them to play with your garage door remote (or your garage door in general). This can lead to injury or death if the door malfunctions. – Make sure that wall-mounted control buttons are out of reach. Ensure that step stools your children can use to reach the control buttons are inaccessible.
– Explain the dangers of garage doors to your children. Fingers can get pinched in between the panels, the door can land on a foot (or worse), and springs can break and cause serious injury.
– Teach them not to give out the garage door passcode for security purposes.
3) Emergency Release Feature
Learn how to use the emergency release feature of your garage door. This will be useful if you ever need to have the door detached from the garage door opener in an emergency. Note: the door must be in the down position for you to safely disengage your door from the opener unit. Refer to your owner manual for more instructions.
4) Vacation Preparation
Before you leave for vacation, be sure to unplug the garage door opener. This will make all remotes and pin pads useless.
5) Sharing Your Passcode
Newer garage door openers allow you to set user-specific and one-time passcodes for your guests. This allows you to avoid giving out your master passcode, keeping you and your belongings safe if a code ever gets compromised.
6) Leaving Your Garage Door(s) Partially Open
It is never a wise idea to leave your garage door open, no matter how hot it may be outside. Burglars see open garage doors as an opportunity to steal your belongings. Wild animals can make their way into your garage and wreak havoc. Lastly, when the garage door is activated again, its sensors might not be functioning, potentially leading to injury or damages.
We hope that you find these safety and security tips helpful. If you ever need additional help with your garage door, visit our Dealer Locator to find a reputable dealer and garage door expert near you.