Garage door safety is a topic most homeowners gloss over when purchasing, repairing or installing a new system. That’s because so many products today come with built-in safety features.
But there’s still quite a bit of precaution to use around these convenient home entryways. While the number of fatalities related to their operation is quite low, it’s still an unnecessary statistic. And it doesn’t begin to speak to the garage door-related injuries that might occur.
Garage Door Safety
In the following article, we’ll be discussing the top garage door safety tips for ensuring your home, property, and health is protected. Let’s begin!
Safety Sensors First
Safety sensors are standard features on most new garage door openers. And they’re especially worth it if you have children living in your home.
They’re also beneficial when protecting your automobile as they will not allow the door to close if anything is blocking the sensor path. This ensures your car’s body is protected at all times. It also gives you the convenience and peace of mind of closing the door before exiting the vehicle.
Protect Your Passwords
Many enjoy purchasing password-protected garage doors. These ensure you can get in and out of your garage regardless of access to a garage door opener.
Be careful with these, though. They usually follow the limited security oversight of a numeric keypad.
Numeric keypads are bothersome for a couple of reasons. These are:
- We tend to be lazy changing passwords of any kind
- We also tend to go with the most obvious numerical combinations, thus making a password incredibly easy to figure out (i.e., 1234, your four-digit birthday including month and day, etc.).
Many often share their passwords with friends and family members. Since most invasive crimes are committed by someone you know, you may want to reconsider.
Teach Children To Respect The Door
For children, door safety is about more than simply avoiding having the garage door close on them. There’s also the action of the door as it ascends and descends.
The segments of the door create a possibility for serious injury should a child get their fingers too close to the crevices. Parents, watch your small children closely as they toddle towards a door-in-motion!
Keep Remotes In A Safe Place
Remote controls are incredibly convenient for garage door openers. But if you lose or misplace one, it can be distressing.
For starters, you don’t know who’ll end up with it. They certainly provide easy access to your home for residential burglars.
Secondly, losing your remote creates a major annoyance. This is especially true when you don’t have some outside point-of-access (such as a keypad).
Test The Safety Features
Most doors are to come with a garage door auto reverse feature. This enables the owner to stop downward momentum if something or someone too small for the sensor ventures underneath it.
The auto-reverse mechanism should be tested regularly. Doing so can pinpoint any obvious signs of malfunction as they occur.
Read The Owner’s Manual
Like a car, each garage door does different things. To understand the full capabilities (and the full vulnerabilities), it’s important to read up on yours.
The downside of this is that many people fail to keep physical copies because they just assume the door will work at all times. Fortunately, many manufacturers will allow you to access specific makes and models on their website should you lose or misplace yours.
Check Garage Door Parts For Wear And Tear
Looking at the entire garage door, it’s easy to get wrapped up in the sum of the parts. But the functionality is controlled by a system of brackets, cables, and pulleys.
If just one thing goes wrong, it can impede the entire system. And the more issues a garage door experiences, the more likely it is to become a safety hazard for anyone near it.
Mind The Age Of Your Garage Door
As doors age, they’re more vulnerable to part malfunctions. Older doors are likely to not be equipped with the latest safety features or standards. For a complete list of the signs your door is wearing out, check out these 10 tips from one of our previous blog posts.
Never Leave A Garage Door Partially Open
One safety issue that isn’t necessarily indicative of a faulty door but still worth mentioning is the partially or fully open door. Criminals will often case neighborhoods looking for an easy mark. It doesn’t get much easier than a wide-open garage door.
Plan For Vacations
Your garage door likely has a long-term safety feature for those moments when you’re going to be gone longer than a typical workday. A manual latch keeps the door locked regardless of who has garage door opener or password access.
You also should consider a backup mechanism like motion lights, not just for vacation time but every day. Criminals get spooked into moving to an easier target when they see one cut on, and it gives the impression you’re home even when you’re hundreds of miles away.
Keep The Entry Door Locked Just In Case
If someone does breach access to your garage, don’t make it easy for them. Keep the entryway door into your home locked at all times to guard against the unexpected visitor.
Obscure Visibility In Your Garage
Garages can sometimes become museums for high-priced fitness equipment (i.e., bicycles, Bowflexes, etc). If you are keeping anything of significant value in your garage, make sure there’s no visibility from the street. High-value objects attract all types of wrongdoers.
Lock Your Cars Anyway
Lastly, even after taking every precaution you can against a garage intruder, assume they’ll get in. And treat everything — including your automobiles — as if they’re vulnerable.
It’s especially important to do this if you keep your garage door opener inside your car. Crooks aren’t above breaking in once to quickly gain access to the door opener, then coming back later when you’re not around to clean house.
Proper Garage Door Safety Keeps The Rest Of The Home Safe
If you commit to garage door safety, you commit to full-home safety. And if you’re ready to move ahead with a purchase and installation, then contact us today for a free estimate.