The photo eye of a garage door is a safety feature. The photo eye of an automatic-opening garage door is a safety feature. If the photo eye senses an obstruction, it stops the door from closing and potentially prevents damage or injury to a vehicle, person or pet in the path of the door. The photo eye consists of two sensors, one on either side of the garage door, about 6 inches above the ground. One of the sensors directs a beam toward the other; if an object interrupts the beam, the sensor breaks the circuit, preventing the door from closing. The sensors are delicate and can easily become misaligned. If your garage door is not working correctly, it may be an indication that the photo eye requires adjustment. Evaluate the problem you are having with the garage door. If the garage door goes up but does not close, or only partially closes then reopens, this is an indication that the photo eye needs adjustment. The door might also make a clicking sound, or the garage light might flash a few times.
Check to make sure nothing stored near the garage doorway is obstructing the sensors. They are very sensitive, and even quite small things in their path can initiate the circuit breaking action. Locate the photo eye sensors and see if each of them has a lit LED light. If the LED light is lit on one sensor, but unlit or only flickering on the other, one of them may have gotten bumped. Try adjusting the unlit sensor by manipulating it slightly with your hand. If the light comes back on, the door should work properly again. Check the sensors to see if they are dirty. Clean the units, carefully wiping the lenses free of dirt, dust or cobwebs with a damp cloth. Wipe them dry with a clean cloth. Once they are clean, try adjusting the sensors again so that each lens directly faces the lens opposite, to see if both LED lights come on. Make small adjustments to the pivot bracket supporting one of the sensors by loosening the screws and bolts that secure it. Slightly move the bracket in and out and up and down until the LED light comes on, then tighten the screws and bolts.
Check to see whether the sensors are mounted at the same height. If they are not, you or your garage door technician should remount them. Examine the wires leading to the photo eyes. If a wire has become twisted with something stored in the garage, carefully free it. If you detect wire damage, or if the door will not work even after you have tried adjusting the sensors, contact a garage door repair company. Things You Will Need Cleaning cloths Tip References Mount Garage Doors: TroubleshootingPrecision Overhead Garage Door Service: Safety and Security in Your GarageWayne Dalton: Photoelectric Safety Sensors Photo Credits Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty Images Suggest a CorrectionGarage Door Opener Won't go down My garage door opener will open fine. It won't even start down to close. It doesn't matter if I use the remote or the wall switch, it will go up, but not down. I checked the electric eyes, and they seem fine, and moving them around slightly doesn't help. Something in the door may be broken, since this happened after the door itself got in a bind and we had to replace it.
But the opener was never removed, and the track screw seems to be running fine. It's a Genie with a screw track. Posted on Household Repair With the door in the down position I would disconnect the trolley by pulling the red cord and run the opener up. The trolley will move toward the motor as if the door is going up. Then push the button again to see if it will move down. If it moves fine when the door is disconnected the door may be tweeked or binding. This can eliminate the door as being the problem. If it will not work in this situation then it is above my head. Thanks for the answers. The door is working fine. I keep it dsconnected from the motor trolly, and operate in manually now. It's a new door, so it's rolling fine. And the motor seems to work, because it will go one direction but not the other. But, I guess it's possible it just needs replacing. It's possible that they eyes are not working properly as they are designed to stop the door from going down if it detects something blocking them (I am assuming nothing is blocking them).
In which case the red eye on one of the remotes (One is green, the other red) should blink, indicating a problem. The eyes made need replacement, or the wiring to them may be damaged. It turned out it was a very minor adjustment on the motor. I don't know what he did, but 5 minutes later it was working! I am having the exact same problem. Do you have any idea what adjustment was made? No, but it was something at the motor. And it took literally 2 minutes. So I'd think if you look it must be something pretty obvious. He didn't fix anything or add any parts, just adjusted something. I think I have the same symptoms, but I think I have traced my problem to the relays on the motor's circuit board. I was able to trip one relay and reverse the direction of the motor. Now its stuck going only the other way and I can't figure out what to trip to get it to go back. I am thinking it just needs a new mother board since the relays are soldered to it. I had the exact same problem.
Door would go up but not down. I have two single garage doors on my garage and they both quit going down at the same time. One of the lightbulbs had burned out for the umpteenth time so I replaced both of them with LED bulbs and that's when they quit working. If I put an incandescent or CFL in, works fine. If the door is open and I waiit until the GDO timer turns the LED bulb off, door goes down. Something about the power supply in the LED bulb kills the remote circuit. I figured if I put in a solid state light, I'd never have to replace these bulbs again. I am a Ham radio operator. I purchased 4 of these LED replacement lights and now I can not hear a think on my radio equipment when the LED lamps are on. especially if you bought them direct from China on e-Bay like I did are very bad RFI devices. The Constant current power supply switches the power to the LED on and off and that make radio frequency Interference. For the time to lamps are turned on on your door opener I would just use a good Rough service filament type bulb.
The little Appliance 40 watt bulbs hold up to the motor vibration. The down force adjustment screw is probably what the service person adjusted. Often, as the door ages or as the lubricant on the trolley ages, it takes more down force to close the door. If that force exceeds the limit as set by the down force adjustment screw, the door will reverse and not go down. In these cases, all that needs to be done is for the down force to be increased a little by turning the screw in the direction of increasing force. This is usually marked for both the down force and the up force screws. If increasing the down force does not help, then see if the door is hanging up when operated manually (by pulling the release cord on the trolley and then opening and closing the door manually). If the door does not move smoothly up and down, then the door needs fixing, not the door opener. I had the same problem and adjusting the downward force on the motor did not help. the problem was with the sensors at the base of the track for the door to come down.
The sensors needed to be cleaned of cobwebs with a wet cloth and then I also discovered that the light was off on one side because the wire that connects it to the power source was loose. Where is the down force screw located on the machine? I tried all of this. It goes up but not down. Sensors and wires are fine. If I reverse the path of the screw drive then it closes but will not open This just saved me from buying a new opener. My remote would open fine but would not close with remote. It was the new LED lights I put in about two months ago. Thanks for the tip. The LED light bulb is your problem. Some LED bulbs contain electronic chips which oscillate at the same frequency range as the door opener. So when you open the door everything is okay. However, when you pull out of the garage and then go to close it is when the problem will occur. Once the light goes out the remote(s) will function properly. I switched to LED bulbs because the vibration of the door mechanism caused a regular bulb to go bad all too often due to the tungsten filament breaking.
Do a search on the Internet for LED bulb part numbers which are designed differently and do not contain oscillating devices. Check out the CREI web site as I believe they have a listing of bulbs that you can use. I, too, could open but not close my garage door electrically. (I had no problem opening or closing manually.) After checking here on this site, I checked the sensors near the floor and found I must have accidentally moved one way off from its position. I repositioned the sensor to line up with the one on the other side, and the door is working perfectly again. Thanks for the help. Thank you, I will definitely get my book and see where this screw is - hopefully this will work - Thanks so much for your comment. My won't go down when sunlight bright to the red eye. I cover up the sun light then it work before but now I cover the sun light, it still not go down. It only go down at night time or no sunlight. Any one can help me to find out why please? because light interferes with it.
it shows that in installation instructions. easy fix to move the sensor away from door opening a little so its in shade of wall..This is the solution Mine was doing the same, wouldn't even begin to go down even if I stopped it mid-travel. It was the limit switch for the down position, it got stuck on. Freed the switch, saved $200 and four cherished hours. Ours turned out to be a bad connection in the wall switches. Both the Up and Stop buttons were working; the Down button was not making proper contact. We plan to try a little electrical contact cleaner, but came up with a temporary connection that may or may not have included the touch of a screwdriver. We did a LOT of trouble shooting...I wish I would have checked the switch with a tester first and saved the better part of an hour.Door would go up, but wouldn't go down more than 6 inches. Fiddled with the switches - no help. After reading all the posts, thought okay, check the batteries in the sensors but seriously didn't think this was the problem.
Cleaned the cobwebs and dust off and voila, opener works just fine. You all are geniuses. Had the same problem. Was about to call the repairman and decided to search here first to see if it was something I could fix. Checked the track as suggested (after lowering the door manually), and it worked fine going down (without the door attached). So tried some of the other suggestions and it turns out it was the sunlight hitting one of the sensors. I stood in front of it to block the sun, and voila -- door lowered fine. I checked everything everyone mentioned; sunlight, sensors, down force adjustment, switches, batteries. I unlatched it from the screw drive and the door was still stuck open. I couldn't even close the door until I yanked down on it hard. It made a sound like glue breaking or dried paint unsticking (nothing was glued or painted recently) and the door opens and closes fine now. It ain't broke anymore so I ain't fixing it. I have the same problem as Redline. I broke loose twice but still jams at the top.