Nine times out of ten it is the photo-eye sensors, and the tell is a blinking opener light. A five-minute fix most homeowners can do themselves.
Work down the list. The tells are what separate one cause from another.
Any of these could save you a service call, and none of them will hurt you or the door.
We diagnose on site, tell you what failed and why, and give you a written price before touching anything. If it turns out to be something you could have fixed in five minutes, we will say so.
Our trucks carry springs, cables, rollers, hinges and common opener parts, so most repairs finish in a single visit rather than needing a return trip.
Two likely causes. If the opener light blinks, the photo-eye safety sensors are misaligned or blocked. If the sensors are fine and the door touches down before reversing, the close-limit is set slightly too low, so the opener thinks it has hit an obstruction. The limit is adjustable but easy to overshoot, so it is worth having set properly.
Near the floor on both sides of the opening, usually four to six inches up the track, pointing at each other. Each has a small LED. Both should be solid when the door is working.
No. They are the only thing that reverses the door if something is underneath it, and they are required by federal law on every opener sold since 1993. If they keep tripping, the cause needs fixing.
Moisture on the sensor lenses, or a sensor bracket that has shifted. Water and the low winter sun angle both scatter the beam. Wipe the lenses and check both LEDs are solid.
Sensor realignment is often a quick fix and we will tell you if it is something you can do yourself. If it turns out to be rollers, our published guide puts a full set at $349; opener repair is quoted after diagnosis. The estimate is free.
A door that stops short of the floor is usually the close-limit setting telling the opener the floor is higher than it really is, or a bent track or seized roller adding resistance partway down. A door that touches down and then pops back open is the opposite problem: the limit set too deep, so the opener reads the floor as an obstruction. Either way it is an adjustment rather than a part, and one of the cheaper calls we run.
No, and this is the most misread thing on a garage door. The two eyes are not the same part. One sends the infrared beam and one receives it, and they use different colored LEDs on purpose so you can tell them apart. On a LiftMaster or Chamberlain the sending eye is amber and the receiving eye is green. On a Genie the sender is red and the receiver is green. Either way you should see one of each, and both should be burning steady. The one to watch is the green one: if it flickers or goes out, the beam is broken or the eyes are out of line.
The one with the green LED. On a LiftMaster the other eye, the sender, shows amber. It makes no electrical difference which side of the opening each one goes on, and that is useful, because the receiver is the one sunlight interferes with. Direct sun into the receiving lens washes out the beam and the door refuses to close, which is why a door that only misbehaves in the late afternoon is so common here. LiftMaster's own fix is to swap the two eyes over so the receiver faces away from the sun. Same wiring, same brackets, five minutes.
There is a diagram of the layout further up this page. One eye sits about six inches off the floor on each side of the opening, wired back to the motor unit. The sender projects an invisible infrared beam straight across the doorway and the receiver watches for it. The opener will only run the door down while that beam is unbroken, and if anything crosses it mid close the door stops and reverses. They have been required by federal law on every opener sold in the United States since 1993. The detail that confuses people is that the sensors only affect closing. A door with a sensor fault still opens perfectly, which is exactly why the fault does not look like a sensor fault.
Not across brands. LiftMaster and Chamberlain eyes are interchangeable with each other, because the same company builds both, and they generally work back through several generations of those openers. A Genie needs Genie Safe-T-Beam sensors. The pulse pattern the sender uses is what the receiver and the motor unit are listening for, so mixing brands fails even when the wiring fits. Replace them as a matched pair rather than one at a time, and take the model number off the motor unit label before buying anything.
Our own work across Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe County.
The doors, finishes and hardware we fit across South Florida.
What a proper installation and service visit actually involves, step by step.
Same-day service across Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe County, seven days a week. Free estimates, upfront pricing.
