Lightning and Your Garage Door: A Sensor Replacement in Decatur
Atlanta summers bring frequent thunderstorms, and those storms do more than knock out the power for a few minutes. On a recent job in Decatur, we replaced a set of garage door safety sensors that had been damaged by a lightning strike. It is a problem more homeowners run into than you might expect, and here is what causes it and why it matters.
How Lightning Damages Garage Door Sensors
When lightning strikes near a home, it can send a powerful electrical surge through the home's wiring. That surge travels to anything connected to the electrical system, and it can overload and destroy sensitive electronic components in its path.
Your garage door opener and its safety sensors are electronic devices connected to your home's power. A nearby strike does not have to hit your house directly to cause damage. A surge through the lines can be enough to fry the sensor's circuitry, the opener's control board, or both. In many cases the homeowner does not even realize the sensors are the problem at first. They just notice the garage door is no longer working the way it should.
What the Safety Sensors Do
Garage door safety sensors are the two small units mounted a few inches off the ground on each side of the door. They send an invisible beam across the opening. If anything crosses that beam while the door is closing, the door is designed to stop and reverse.
This is not an optional feature. Auto-reverse safety sensors are a federally required safety component on garage door openers, and they exist to prevent the door from closing on a child, a pet, a vehicle, or anything else in its path. When a lightning surge damages the sensors, that protection can stop working, which means the door may fail to reverse the way it is supposed to. We see the same risk when sensors are wired incorrectly in the first place.
Signs a Storm May Have Damaged Your Sensors
If your garage door started behaving differently after a storm, the sensors or opener may have taken a surge. Common signs include a door that will not close all the way and reverses back open on its own, a door that will not close at all, sensor lights that are off or blinking when they should be steady, or an opener that has stopped responding entirely.
If you notice any of these after a thunderstorm, it is worth having the system checked. A door that will not reverse properly is a safety issue, not just an inconvenience. Not every post-storm problem is electrical either — a door can also come off its track or lose a spring.
How We Handled the Decatur Job
On this job, our technician diagnosed the damaged sensors, replaced them with new units, and tested the full safety system to confirm the door was stopping and reversing the way it should. Once the new sensors were installed and aligned, the door was back to operating safely.
We also recommend that homeowners consider a surge protector for their garage door opener, particularly in the Atlanta area where summer storms are frequent. It is a small step that can protect the electronics from the next surge.
Schedule Service with Top Dog Garage Doors
Top Dog Garage Doors provides garage door safety sensor repair, opener service, and full garage door service for homeowners throughout Atlanta including Decatur, Tucker, Stone Mountain, Kirkwood, Oakhurst, Brookhaven, Buckhead, Sandy Springs, Dunwoody, and Marietta. Our technicians are licensed, insured, and background-checked.
If your garage door stopped working correctly after a storm, contact us for an inspection. We will find out whether the sensors, the opener, or both took the surge, and get your door working safely again.
Top Dog Garage Doors | Atlanta, GA | 404-594-5444 | topdoggaragedoorsga.com