Whether it goes noticed or unnoticed in the daily hustle of life, small things mean a whole lot. The garage door sensors are one of the small things that need our daily attention for their perfect performance. It acquires little attention, yet it is essential for financial, safety, and many other purposes. Garage door safety sensors contribute a lot to every purpose. But if the sensors are not working, this might lead to a crucial condition.

To not let you go through the crucial situation, this article with five main reasons will help you to instantly find out why your garage door sensor is not working.

Table of Contents

1. Trouble In Closing The Garage Door

It is the first step to getting your goal. If the sensor is not working properly, the door will open without any difficulty, but the door wouldn’t close properly or only go halfway if you try to close the door. The door can get itself open again after closing it, and this is another problem.

These Garage Door Issues are most likely due to the obstruction in the pathway of the door. Therefore, this makes the door stay open to avoid any injury or damage to the object in its path. You can get over this issue by carefully checking the objects between the floor and door.

2. Disrupted Power Supply

The power supply not being supplied inadequately might be one of the reasons why your garage door is not working properly. Sensor lights are a quick way to check if the power supply is disrupted or not. In case the green light goes on, it indicates that the supply of power is all right.

After making sure that the cable is plugged in, test the door. On the condition that the problem is the power supply, the door will shut when the power is restored.

The possibility of a blown fuse that makes the sensors stop working cannot be neglected here. If the fuse is blown, call a technician to replace the fuse and also inspect the wires.

Disrupted Power Supply

3. Damaged Sensor Wires

If the green light of the sensor doesn’t turn on, it may be due to the damaged wires of the sensor. The sensors work if the wires are intact and connected to the door opener of the garage. If the sensor starts blinking orange, it indicates that the wires are damaged as a warning sign. The wires might get damaged because cables are tangled, burned, twisted or broken.

Carefully untangle the wires if they are tangled. If wires come out to be disconnected, connect the wires correctly and accordingly to their corresponding wires and terminals, i.e., white wires with white terminal and black and grey wires with the gray terminal. If wires are broken or in the wrong place, call an expert who can fix the wires.

4. Cleaning Issues

To make the sensors work and send signals ideally, they need cleaning. With the passage of time, dust and dirt accumulate over the sensors, or there might be spider webs or humidity, or even the pollution from car exhaust might affect the functionality of the sensors. All these are a great hindrance in sending the signals.

You can quickly establish the signal, as it was before, by wiping and carefully cleaning the sensor gently with a soft cloth. It would add comfort if you clean the floor and wall close to the area where the sensor is placed.

Repeat the test to find out if the sensors are now working fine or not.

5. The Photo-Eye Lights Won’t Power Up

The photo eye sensors are nearly 6 inches (15cm) placed above the ground on the door’s track. One of the sensors has a green light, while the other one has a red light. Greenlight points, i.e., the signal has been sent from one photo eye to the other, and red light from the opposite side indicates the reception of the signal.

If either of the two lights fails to turn on, it assures that the sensor is not working due to the damage of photo-eye. Something inferring the signal transmission between two photo eyes results in lights blinking or not turning the lights on.

Another reason for the lights not working properly is due to the misalignment of photo eyes. Photo eyes should place on the same level to transmit the signals.

Bottom Line

Garage door sensors are essentials for the safety of your car and other valuables in the garage. Keep checking the sensors regularly and clean them as well. Check all the mentioned issues properly if your garage door sensor is not working properly. If you find out the problem and it turns out to be serious, call a technician or expert to avoid any trouble.