Your garage door is the largest, and probably, the heaviest moving object in your home. So the safety features of the device that lifts and closes the door are all-important.
For the opener to work, certain safety devices must be installed. This is true regardless of the type, size or brand of opener you choose. These safety devices are built into the garage door system to prevent the door from closing when an obstruction is in the door’s path. Most openers auto-reverse the door when an infrared beam detects any obstruction in the door’s path. The Canadian government mandated the use of non-contact safety protections on all residential, motor-operated garage doors in 1993. Other safety features are:
Rolling-code technology selects a new, non-repeating access code from among billions of possibilities every time the remote control is operated.
A keypad outside the garage allows entry via a programmable code. If this feature doesn’t come standard with the unit you choose, it can be added as an option.
Many units have a simple doorbell-style button for opening and closing the door. Others have a more complex control panel with keypad programming and vacation lock to prevent the door from being opened while you’re away.
Most openers include a light, which should stay on for a few minutes after the unit is activated to allow time to get into the house.
Battery Backup feature that continues to operate the garage door opener even when the power is out, helping residents, homeowners and property managers through unforeseen, inconvenient outages. These units often supply power for up to two days, so even after 24 hours of standby time (i.e., full-day power outage), garage door opener will still perform up to 20 full “up and down” cycles.