Photosensors keep an eye out to open your garage door

Their eyes are locked but it’s not exactly romantic. On either side of your garage door, just above the ground, you’ll find them mounted on the backside of the tracks that guide your garage door on its journeys up and down. These are photosensors and their eyes are locked on one another for a very good reason.

Photosensors represent a safety feature provided with your garage door and garage door opener. Not only are they gazing into each-others eyes, they are ready to respond if anyone interrupts their gaze.

Running between the photosensors is an infra-red beam, similar to the infra-red beam you probably saw in one-or-more episodes of Mission Impossible. With the infra-red beams in the movies, as well as employed for actual security systems, if the gaze of the beam is broken, an alarm begins to ring, steel doors slam shut so the perpetrators can’t get away.

The infra-red beam between the photosensors at the bottom of your garage door generally don’t operate the same kind of equipment. Nothing nearly as exciting will happen if the beam between the garage door photosensors is broken. Instead of an alarm, the door simply stops.

When the infra-red beam between garage door photosensors is interrupted, the power to the motor of your garage door opener is cutoff. The motor stops running the garage door stops moving.

The purpose of the photosensors and their infra-red beam is to ensure that the door doesn’t come down on your car or other toys or equipment in the way of the door. It’s also to ensure that the garage door doesn’t come down on you or a loved one.

Even if it isn’t a loved one who is saved by your photosensors and their infra-red beam, the safety is a great feature with your garage door and garage door opener to protect friends who come to visit, too. The federal government agrees. The feds actually mandate garage door companies to install safety features, such as photo sensors, when your garage door and/or garage door opener is installed.

It’s not as exciting a security system as the one built around the Crown Jewels of England, but it is effective for keeping your garage door operating properly.

Lubrication is a friend to your Lake Zurich garage door and garage door opener

Rust has a rich texture that is warm and appealing in many decorative applications. It’s rustic. It’s unique. It’s suggestive of age and endurance. Rust, however, is the enemy of most garage doors, unless you have a heavy, rusted-iron garage that serves a decorative purpose as well as providing a way to close your Lake Zurich garage door.

Rust, in most of its forms, is an inhibitor of the smooth operation of equipment, and that includes your garage door.

Have you looked at the tracks on either side of your Lake Zurich garage door lately? Originally, if the technician who installed your garage door knew what they were doing, those tracks were well lubricated. This ensured that the rollers attached to your garage door panels had a path they could easily roll in while going up and down.

You also want lubricated rollers. These are constructed of pins, that fit into tubes on the inside of the garage door panels, and roller bearings that ride in the track. From the bearings to the pins, lubrication is essential.

Other parts of the garage door that beg for lubrication are the hinges. These are not asked to rotate the way the rollers do but they can still add a creak to your door’s operation and make the garage door opener work harder. Even if your muscles are called upon as the ‘garage door opener,’ lubricated hinges will make the job easier.

Whether your garage door opener operates with a chain drive or a screw drive, lubrication is an absolute necessity. The same holds true of garage door pulleys. Even the torsion spring can do with a good lubrication, from time to time.

Lubrication inhibits the rust that would inhibit the smooth operation of the garage door. It quiets – seriously quiets – the operation of your garage door. And, while lubrication reduces the strain on your Lake Zurich garage door opener, it also extends the life of your garage door, garage door parts, and your garage door opener.