Garage Door Safety for Children and Pets
Every automatic garage door should have photo eye sensors mounted no more than six inches above the floor, a correctly set down force so the door reverses on contact, and a wall control mounted at least five feet up and out of a child's reach. Test the sensors and the reversal twice a year.
The three protections
Photo eye sensors. An infrared beam across the opening, six inches or less above the floor. Break it while the door is closing and the door reverses.
Force reversal. The opener monitors how hard it is working. If it meets more resistance than its setting allows, it reverses.
Physical placement. The wall control high enough that a child cannot reach it, and positioned where the door is visible.
All three exist because garage doors have killed children. Federal rules made an entrapment protection system mandatory on residential openers made after January 1993.
The five minute test
Sensor test. With the door open, press close and wave an object through the beam near the floor. The door should reverse immediately. Do this with an object, not a limb.
Reversal test. Lay a length of timber flat on the floor in the opening and close the door onto it. The door should touch, stop and reverse. If it keeps pushing, the down force is set too high.
Do both twice a year, alongside the balance test.
The mistakes that disable all of this
Sensors mounted too high. The most common one. Somebody mounts them at knee height because it is easier, and a child lying down or a pet asleep in the opening is below the beam entirely.
Force turned up to stop nuisance reversals. A door that reverses for no obvious reason is annoying, and the tempting fix is turning up the force. That setting is the only thing stopping the door crushing what is under it. Find out why it is reversing instead.
Sensors bypassed. Most openers allow closing by holding the wall button continuously. That is intended for one-off use when a sensor has failed, not as a standing arrangement.
A wall button within reach. A three year old who can reach the button can operate a two hundred pound door.
A manual release cord hanging low. Children pull them. On a door with a broken spring, pulling the release with the door up lets it fall.
What to teach
That the garage door is not a toy, that nobody stands or plays under it, and that only adults press the button.
For older children with remotes: the door is watched until it is fully closed, and nobody runs under a closing door.
When to replace rather than adjust
An opener manufactured before 1993 has no photo eye sensors. There is no adjustment that fixes that.
Replace it. A new opener is $281 to $630 installed. On a house with children or pets, that is not a repair decision.
Related questions
How high should the wall button be?
At least five feet from the floor, and positioned where the door is visible from it. Both requirements matter: high enough that a small child cannot reach it, and placed so whoever presses it can see what the door is doing.
Are the sensors enough on their own?
No. They protect the beam line, about six inches off the floor. The force reversal protects against anything the beam misses. Both need to work.
What about the manual release cord?
It should hang no lower than six feet from the floor. Children pull them, and a released door with a broken spring drops.