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Would you be pissed... garage door fail..

Z

zanemoseley

Senior member
I've got an interesting one for you here and was wondering what your thoughts are. We got home late last night (1 am) after going drive in for a double header. I thought I'd quickly unload the car. Thought I put everything away and hit the button on the wall to lower the door and it gets about 3/4 of the way down and all hell breaks loose, the top of the door starts crunching so I hit the button again as soon as I can. I had accidentally left a small plastic kids chair right where the door closes and the door was stuck trying to go down on top of the arms. Now it was obviously my fault for leaving the chair there but I was always under the impression that door openers were supposed to have some sort of safety so it couldn't hurt people but my opener was just cranking away at the door and damaged it badly. Do you think the door opener company should have any part in the repair since the safety mechanism didn't work properly? They might throw the installer under the bus saying it wasn't installed/adjusted properly. The house is a bit over 5 years old so they'll probably tell me to go get bent but it pisses me off spending money on shit that broke because something didn't work like it was supposed to.

I'm hoping I can just have the top "leaf" replaced as the lower 3 look pretty good. Worst case is a new door. Its a large one though, I think 18' or something, pretty much the largest they make.
 
Don't tell them it was a chair. Say it was a kid or something alive. It'll scare the crap out of them and they will fix it.


Please do not advocate fraud on these forums. Further, it would be foolish, because the damage to the door would be indicative of an Emergency Room visit for a child. -Admin DrPizza
 
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Yes, your opener should have a "reversing feature" that stops the downward motion when it senses something in the way...but it's on YOU, the homeowner to test that each month...

http://www.garagedoorcare.com/garage-door-operation/garage-door-maintenance.html

Monthly reversing mechanism test (if your door is equipped with an automatic opener system). Note: garage door openers manufactured after January 1, 1993, are required by federal law to be equipped with a reversing mechanism and a photo eye or edge sensor as added measures of safety to prevent entrapment. If your system does not have these features, replacement of your automatic operating system is recommended.

With the door fully open, lay a piece of wood such as a section of a 2 x 4 on the floor in the center of the garage door opening where the door would touch the floor. Push your garage door opener’s transmitter or wall button to close the door. When the door strikes the wood, the door should automatically reverse. If the door does not automatically reverse, the door should be serviced by a trained service technician.
Click to expand...
 
Also - almost all garage doors provide the ability to adjust the downforce for when it reverses. If yours was cranked up too high it won't reverse at the proper pressure.

This is on you or the installer, but you won't be able to exact anything as there is no proof that you didn't adjust it at some point yourself.
 
Actually, the light sensors and the reversing feature are separate safety mechanisms although both can have the same effect, that being reversing the door.

The light sensors if blocked, will not allow the door to close. If they are interrupted, they will reverse the door if it is in motion. The chair was probably not blocking the sensors because the legs were straddling the light beam and not breaking it.

The reversing feature comes into play if there is something that keeps the door from continuing its downward movement. Besides something in the opening in the path of the door this could be something that has fallen into the track that will not allow the door to close. It's to keep the opener from completing its cycle and really creating a problem which is what happened to you. When the torque required to close the door exceeds a certain limit, the opener reverses.

My wife managed a garage door company for over twenty years.

As long as it's not some oddball door from a manufacturer that is no longer in business, you will be able to buy just that top section. I would call the company that installed it and calmly let them know what occurred and if they are reputable, they may do the work with no charge for the labor. But ymmv. IMO, the door should have reversed but five years with no additional checks means it was not properly maintained as BoomerD said.
 
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Bottom line is the opener was out of their control for 5 years, anyone could have screwed with the reverse adjustment, and probably did.
 
Sucks, but as others have said if you didn't check it regularly you are hosed. Might be anyways if it was outside of warranty, so it might not have even mattered.

Also, you should check if the arm is bent now, too.
 
zanemoseley said:
The house is a bit over 5 years old so they'll probably tell me to go get bent but it pisses me off spending money on shit that broke because something didn't work like it was supposed to.
Click to expand...

And you know its their fault that its no longer working properly how? Unless they were the ones using and maintaining the door every single open and close for the last 5 years the fault - just maybe - could be from something\one other than them
 
deadlyapp said:
Also - almost all garage doors provide the ability to adjust the downforce for when it reverses. If yours was cranked up too high it won't reverse at the proper pressure.

This is on you or the installer, but you won't be able to exact anything as there is no proof that you didn't adjust it at some point yourself.
Click to expand...

Was going to post this. There is an adjustable pot to adjust down force.
 
The OP says it was a plastic chair. Odds are it was open under the arm rests and the photocell light shone right through it and the door circuit thought all was well. Or the photocell light beam went under the chair. Most of these units the light is set anywhere from about 10 inches from the floor, up to around 20 inches.
 
deadlyapp said:
Also - almost all garage doors provide the ability to adjust the downforce for when it reverses. If yours was cranked up too high it won't reverse at the proper pressure.

This is on you or the installer, but you won't be able to exact anything as there is no proof that you didn't adjust it at some point yourself.
Click to expand...

qft
 
boomerang said:
Post the name of the company you work for, your name and contact information and I'll make certain to never, ever do business with you. I promise.
Click to expand...

My bad, I need to clarify.

My GOD.

If I was in a service business, I hope I would never have ANY of you as customers.

Botching gift cards, bitching and moaning about how and why people spend their money, screwing up garage doors,... it's like generation X became prematurely geriatric on these forums.
 
ImpulsE69 said:
Not all doors do if it is older. Ours didnt until we bought a newer one that uses light sensors.
Click to expand...

I have never seen a door opener that didn't have a reverse function built in into the motor that would stop the door from closing if something prevented it from doing so. That said, I have seen may older openers without the trip sensors (or light sensors), but have always had a reversing function.
 
OP, just had a door replaced. The standard size is 16x7 and will run you as litle as $1,000 for a full install ... more if they replace your opener. Recommend that you avoid the big box retailers (like HD) as their quotes were 40% higher than others.
 
This weekend, I bumped my snowblower with my riding mower as I was pulling out of my garage. I was somewhat suprised that my garage door reversed after hitting the snowblower handle (you can push down on the handle to tilt the snowblower up). If guess I did a good enough job installing / adjusting that opener.
 
Couple of things:

1) There's a torque setting. If you didn't set it right I don't see how this is anyone else's fault.
2) You left a chair on the edge of the garage door. This means the force was applied sideways and it would have taken less force to destroy the door.


No way to look at this besides it is your fault. Learn to triple check the path next time and take it as a lesson learned.
 
zanemoseley said:
I've got an interesting one for you here and was wondering what your thoughts are. We got home late last night (1 am) after going drive in for a double header. I thought I'd quickly unload the car. Thought I put everything away and hit the button on the wall to lower the door and it gets about 3/4 of the way down and all hell breaks loose, the top of the door starts crunching so I hit the button again as soon as I can. I had accidentally left a small plastic kids chair right where the door closes and the door was stuck trying to go down on top of the arms. Now it was obviously my fault for leaving the chair there but I was always under the impression that door openers were supposed to have some sort of safety so it couldn't hurt people but my opener was just cranking away at the door and damaged it badly. Do you think the door opener company should have any part in the repair since the safety mechanism didn't work properly? They might throw the installer under the bus saying it wasn't installed/adjusted properly. The house is a bit over 5 years old so they'll probably tell me to go get bent but it pisses me off spending money on shit that broke because something didn't work like it was supposed to.

I'm hoping I can just have the top "leaf" replaced as the lower 3 look pretty good. Worst case is a new door. Its a large one though, I think 18' or something, pretty much the largest they make.
Click to expand...



hate to say it but you failed suck it up and take care of it...
 
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