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The Irony Of It All
Brad Hollerbach

My Deep Hate For Garage Door Safety

Posted Tuesday, May 25, 2010, at 12:00 AM

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  • MacGyver could figure out how to turn it off. You probably just need duct tape.

    -- Posted by Professor_Bubba on Tue, May 25, 2010, at 7:08 AM
  • We have this problem periodically with ours when the sensors get bumped out of precise alignment. You might double check the alignment of them. The vibration of the door opening and closing gradually rattles the screws loose on ours. It's so dang irritating!!!!! Especially when you are trying to leave for work, running late, and then the door won't shut!

    -- Posted by farmwife2 on Tue, May 25, 2010, at 8:35 AM
  • Had the same problem, Brad. In my case I had an inordinate fear the door would come down like a guillotine all by itself while backing out of the garage. I drive a convertible and the blade coming down would do more damage than just crunching metal.

    I've since moved, no garage, no garage door, no problem. Save one...I have to keep the top up and a hose handly. The damned birds have specially chosen my car for poop bomb target practice!

    -- Posted by voyager on Tue, May 25, 2010, at 10:15 AM
  • Brad, your situation sounds very aggravating. Ours was installed by a local company. It has safety features but they are not sensitive. Perhaps you should call for a free consultation.

    -- Posted by Turnip on Tue, May 25, 2010, at 12:59 PM
  • check the red green light...if it slightly out of alignmnt one should be blinking.......

    our bigest proplem is the cat slipinng in as the door goes down and we don't notice. Once he crosses the beam at the last moment the door goes back up.

    whitout it once he got trapped...but now weee go home and the door we thought was door is up....or kitty has been in all day

    -- Posted by darkstar on Tue, May 25, 2010, at 9:05 PM
  • Brad, you are a funny guy a lot of the time, but it is tiresome and frightening when you continue to wish others dead or injured or squashed by a garage door. It is a very inappropriate method of expressing your opinion, especially in a public venue. Obviously your publishers don't care, but I find it scary and offensive and perhaps an indication of some psychological problem you might have. I think you might be alarmed and offended if I kept writing letters stating "I wish Brad were dead". Think about it guy...

    -- Posted by ParkerDaws on Wed, May 26, 2010, at 5:43 AM
  • Parker, you make it sound like I'm wishing someone were dead in every other blog.

    That's actually not the case.

    I've written about 250 blogs (approximately 200,000 words), and after a quick search of those blatherings am pretty sure I expressed that sentiment in just two -- this one and one from March 3, 2010, which you also commented on.

    But even so, I'll try to keep any deathwishes out of future blogs.

    Thanks for reading.

    -- Posted by Brad_Hollerbach on Wed, May 26, 2010, at 8:24 AM
  • Tiresome? and even worse....Frightening?...scary?...offensive? Give me a break the guy just wants his garage door to close and he's mad that it doesn't, that's all dont over analyze it. Look Brad, i do garage doors and openers for a living and its easy to center your I-beams they could just be on the edge of lining up and depending on weather conditions the alignment changes, or if the I-beams are mounted on the tracks that guide the door down and the tracks are to tight when the door goes down it spreads the tracks and takes the I-beams out of alignment for just that brief moment then when you look at the beams they are lit and lined up because they sprung back after the door went up point the beams more toward the street to compensate. Worse case get new beams, they should run about 35 bucks. Your frustration is felt by millions. Bucket

    -- Posted by Bucket on Fri, May 28, 2010, at 1:22 PM
  • Oh and i almost forgot you can over ride the I-Beams by holding the wallbutton down until the door is all the way down.

    -- Posted by Bucket on Fri, May 28, 2010, at 1:42 PM
  • Thanks for the info, Bucket. I will check to see if the beams are mounted on the track. That makes a lot of sense.

    Will the hold down the button trick work with the remote? This is a detached garage. The most frustrating part of this problem is how intermittent it is. We can have no problems for weeks, then it just starts acting up like it did the other night.

    Thanks again for the information and for reading.

    -- Posted by Brad_Hollerbach on Fri, May 28, 2010, at 2:12 PM
  • Thats usually related to the weather affecting the wood frame of the garage opening when its that intermittant,because either the tracks or the I-beam brackets are mounted to the frame and can move a little in either direction depending on moisture but no you cant over ride the system with the remote...only constant pressure on the wallbutton will do it. Now i personnally took my I-beams and taped them face to face and mounted them on top of the motor because i dont have small children either (but you didnt hear that from me)and thats not recommended if you know what i mean.Also keeping in mind that garage door openers have 3 built in safety features....1=a pressure adjustment, usually 2 dials that control the power that the machines pushes and pulls with,2=a timer...if it doesnt complete the down cycle in something like 27 seconds for whatever reason it will reverse on its own,and 3= the I-beams, so you still have 2 safety features left after placing the I-beams together, just make sure you set your pressure adjustments properly (not maxed out) and you will have to move the I-beams back where they belong (which is 4-6 inches off the garage floor)if you ever sell the house.Any questions feel free to let me know,garage doors and openers are my thing and i love talking about them. Bucket

    -- Posted by Bucket on Wed, Jun 9, 2010, at 11:01 AM