Garage Door Sensor Repair in Goodyear, AZ
If your door starts down, then reverses, or the opener light keeps flashing, the safety sensors near the floor are the usual cause. Several checks below take a few minutes and no tools.
A Door That Reverses Is Doing Its Job
When a door starts down and then climbs back up on its own, it feels like a malfunction. It’s actually the safety system working. Two small boxes sit at the bottom of the tracks on each side of the door. One sends an invisible infrared beam, the other receives it. If anything breaks that beam while the door is closing, the opener stops and sends the door back up. Those eyes keep a closing door off a kid, a dog or a bumper.
So when the door reverses for no reason you can see, the opener thinks something’s in the way. Usually it’s one of these:
- Something in the beam: a broom, a recycling bin, a box, a spider web over the lens
- Dirt or dust on the lens
- One eye knocked out of line by a bike, a cart or a foot
- Sunlight hitting the receiving eye
- A loose, chewed or corroded wire
Sensors sit low on purpose. The standard is that the beam runs no higher than 6 inches above the floor, low enough to catch a small child lying down. That height is also why they get bumped so often.
Questions about your house? Call (623) 546-8868.
When The Sun Is The Problem
Some doors work fine all day, then refuse to close for a stretch at about the same time every morning or afternoon.
Chamberlain’s support team says sunlight shining into the receiving sensor, the one with the green LED, can block the infrared light. The opener reads it as a blocked beam, the lights flash, and the door won’t close. When the sun sits low and lines up with the opening, it shines straight down the garage and into the eye.
The fixes:
- Shade the receiving eye with a small hood or a short piece of tube
- Swap the sensors so the receiving eye is on the side away from the sun
- Wait it out, if the window is short and you don’t need the door then
Garage Door Services in Goodyear
Springs, openers, sensors, cables and new doors. One phone number for all of it, answered 24/7 for emergencies.
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We cover all of Goodyear. Each neighborhood page covers how the garages there were built and what tends to wear out first.
Self-Check Before You Call
These are safe for any homeowner. Don’t touch springs, cables or brackets, and unplug the opener before you handle the sensor wires.
- Look at the lights. Each sensor has an LED. On most Chamberlain and LiftMaster units, the sending eye glows amber and the receiving eye glows green. Solid lights on both mean the beam is lined up. A blinking or dark green light means the eyes can’t see each other.
- Clear the path. Move anything near the bottom of the tracks, even if it doesn’t look like it’s in the way.
- Wipe both lenses with a soft, dry cloth. Dust settles on them between cleanings.
- Line them up. Loosen the wing nut, aim the eyes at each other until the green light goes solid, then snug it back.
- Count the flashes on the opener. On Chamberlain and LiftMaster, 10 flashes means a sensor fault. Two flashes usually means the wall control’s lock is on, not a sensor issue.
- Check the wires along the wall and track for staples through the wire, chewed spots or loose connections.
If the green light still won’t go solid after all that, or the eyes are cracked, it’s time to call.
What We Check And Fix
We start where you left off. We test the beam, check the voltage at each eye, and follow the wire back to the opener, since a staple driven through the wire years ago can fail long after the fact. Bad eyes get replaced with sensors made to work with your opener. Brackets bent by a car or a cart get straightened or replaced, and we set the eyes back at the right height.
Then we run the safety tests. The door also has to reverse within 2 seconds of hitting something, under UL 325 and the federal rule (16 CFR 1211), so we test that along with the beam.
Newer Openers Won’t Let You Force It Closed
On older openers, holding the wall button down would often push the door closed past bad sensors. Chamberlain and LiftMaster units made after Feb 3, 2022 don’t allow that anymore. With the eyes out, the door won’t close by button. If you’ve just replaced an opener and noticed the change, that’s the reason.
On the other end of the age range, openers made before 1993 never had the reversing systems that are required now. If yours has no sensors at all, it’s time to look at a new opener. If the sensors are fine and the opener itself is acting up, see our opener repair work.
A contractor’s tip before you pick up the phone: if the door only refuses to close at certain times of day, write down the time. It tells us whether we’re chasing the sun or a bad wire before we arrive. Call (623) 546-8868 about a blinking light, or see the rest of our garage door service in Goodyear.
Questions We Hear a Lot
Why Does My Garage Door Only Fail to Close at a Certain Time of Day?
Usually the sun. Chamberlain explains that sunlight shining into the receiving sensor, the one with the green LED, can block the infrared beam. The door won't close and the opener lights flash. If it happens around the same hour each day, the sun is lining up with the eye. Shading the receiving sensor or swapping the two sensors' sides usually fixes it.
What Does It Mean When My Opener Light Flashes 10 Times?
On Chamberlain and LiftMaster openers, 10 flashes points to the safety sensors: the beam is blocked, the eyes are out of line, or the wiring is bad. Two flashes is something else, usually the wall control's lock feature turned on. Count the flashes, then check the sensor lights before you call.
Can I Hold The Wall Button to Close The Door With Bad Sensors?
On older openers, holding the wall button down would often force the door closed past bad sensors. Chamberlain and LiftMaster units made after Feb 3, 2022 no longer allow that. If yours won't close at all with the sensors out, that's the newer safety design, not a second problem. The fix is getting the sensors working again.
Can I Just Unplug The Sensors?
No. A modern opener won't close the door at all without working sensors, and you shouldn't want it to. The photo eyes are what stop the door from closing on a child, a pet or a car bumper. Openers made since the early 1990s have had to include a reversing safety system, and on most doors the photo eyes are that system.