
Garage Door Remotes, Think Safety Over Convenience
The next best thing to having a garage in which to keep your car, is having a remote that automatically opens that garage as you approach. It's especially nice when the weather is bad because it keeps you and your family from having to disembark in inclement weather. However, like all simple conveniences garage door remotes can turn deadly when in the wrong hands.
If you have small children then you know that pushing buttons and watching things move is of great interest to the little person. Their curiosity will always lead them to investigate things like remotes to turn the channels or open doors. They don't know and can't comprehend the danger involved. This is especially true for garage door openers, which can literally crush a small child with enough force to snuff out a young life. When door openers became popular, more that 90 children died as a result of being struck by a closing garage door.
However, laws were enacted in 1993 requiring all garage door manufacturers to equip their product with electric sensors to prevent these tragic accidents. These sensors work to automatically reverse course as soon as it comes in contact with a solid body, be it a car, or a child or something else in the way of closure. Usually the sensor is located on the door jamb at about six inches above the ground. Anything in the path of the sensor will cause the door to stop and go back up. This may seem to have fixed the problem, but government investigations reveal that many times the sensor does not work properly.
The government studies showed that as many as 40% of all garage door sensors fail to stop, or reverse course when encountering an object in its path. Since the studies were done, manufacturers such as Liftmaster, Stanley and Genie, to name a few have greatly improved the product practically eliminating the flaws and virtually making garage door accidents a thing of the past. However, it is still recommended that you have your garage door, the garage door remote and other parts such as the pulley counter balance system and the cables are checked yearly to ensure they are operating correctly.
You can make these checks on your own, if you fancy yourself a handyman or handy woman. Or call a local fix-it guy to come out and lubricate the springs, moving hardware, brackets and rollers. Make sure you periodically change the batteries in your remote as well. And after you have done the checks and maintenance on the moving parts, check to see if the sensors are working properly as well. Last but no least, if you do have young children, keep the garage door remote out of reach of little fingers.
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