KEEP YOUR GARAGE SAFE AND SECURE

A garage door is the largest moving object in a home or business, and is typically used every day, giving homeowners good reason to keep it in proper working order. With homeowners often in or near garages, or leaving the house empty while at work or on a vacation, it is important to be familiar with garage door safety and security.

Safety Tips:

Always keep the garage door opening clear of people, pets and objects when operating a door.

Mount garage door opener control buttons out of the reach of small children (at least five feet from the floor) and where you have a clear view of the door.

Do not let children play with garage door remote controls; explain that the remote controls are not toys and discuss garage door safety with them.

Know how to use your garage door’s emergency release feature. Your owner’s manual provides instructions.

Visually inspect your garage door each month. Look at the garage door’s springs, cables, rollers and pulleys for signs of wear. If any of these components appear damaged, contact a qualified garage door professional for inspection or repair.

Do not attempt to remove, adjust or repair cables and springs, or anything to which these parts are attached or fastened. A qualified garage door professional using proper tools and instruction must make repairs or adjustments. These parts are under high tension and can cause serious injury or death if not handled properly.

Test your garage door opener’s reversing mechanism monthly by placing a 2 x 4 board or a roll of paper towels in the door’s path. If the door does not reverse after contacting the object, refer to your owner’s manual and call a qualified garage door professional for service.

Use the release mechanism on the garage door opener to manually open the door using its interior or exterior lift handles. The door should lift smoothly with little resistance and should stay open around three or four feet above the floor. If it is difficult to perform this task, your door may be out of balance, causing premature wear on hardware. Call a qualified garage door professional for adjustment.

Do not operate a door that jams or one that has a broken spring. More recent garage door openers feature photoelectric eye beam safety sensors, which are mounted a few inches off of the floor and send an invisible beam across the door’s path. If the invisible beam is broken, the garage door will automatically reverse into its fully open position even without contact. The Safe-T-Beam® photoelectric eye system is a standard feature on the entire line of Genie® garage door openers.

Security Tips:

While on vacation or away from home for extended periods of time, unplug the garage door opener unit or use a wall vacation lock console security switch, which is an optional accessory to most openers.

If your opener does not have a rolling-code technology system, be sure to change the manufacturer’s standard access codes on the operator and remote control. By using the standard factory settings, your garage is vulnerable to break-ins by anyone with the same brand of remote control.

Consider purchasing a garage door opener with rolling code technology, which changes the access codes each time the transmitter is used to prevent code grabbing. Genie’s Intellicode® has been incorporated as a standard features into their full line of openers since 1995.

Wireless keypads, which activate the garage door opener with a personal identification number (PIN), are available for most garage door openers. This allows family members to open the door without the use of a key or remote. Never disclose the PIN or leave it written down. Any mounting location for a keypad or wall button must be in direct line of sight with the door.

Never leave the remote control in the car or with a parking attendant. It should be treated like a house key. Always lock the door from the garage, to the inside of your home. It is a small inconvenience for safety and security.