How to · 5 minutes
How to align garage door sensors
Loosen the wing nut behind each sensor, aim them at each other until both lights are steady, and tighten without moving them. A door that starts down and reverses, with the opener light flashing ten times, is almost always this and almost always five minutes.
What you need
- A rag
- Sometimes a screwdriver
5 steps
Doing it
- Wipe both lenses with a dry cloth.A cobweb across the lens does exactly what a bicycle in the beam does.
- Look at both lights. The sender is steady whenever it has power. The receiver is steady only when it can see the sender.
- Loosen the wing nut on the blinking one and move it slowly until the light is steady.
- Hold it still and tighten. Check the light again.Tightening pulls the bracket a few degrees. Half of these fail because it was tightened without looking.
- If it only misbehaves in the afternoon, shade the receiver.Low sun straight into the receiving lens washes out the beam. Every brand does it.
More how-to
Also asked
When it does not go to plan
Which light means it is right?
Steady on both. One sensor sends and one receives, and the receiver's light blinks when it cannot see the sender. Blinking is the fault; steady is aligned. Clean both lenses before you start moving anything, because a cobweb reads exactly like a misalignment.
They are aligned and it still blinks.
Check the height matches — both should sit about six inches off the floor and the same height as each other. Then check the wire at the terminals on the motor unit, and look for a staple through the cable where somebody tidied it. Sunlight straight into the receiver will also do it at certain times of day.
Can I bypass them?
Holding the wall button closes the door with the sensors overridden, and that is designed in so a fault does not trap your car. Wiring them out permanently is a different thing and you should not: they are what stops a closing door on a child or a pet.