Garage door safety is serious business!!! The replacement or adjustment of most garage door springs should only be attempted and completed by experienced professionals for your own safety
You may have seen an article on the internet regarding how one person changed his own torsion springs & lived to tell about and are considering changing them yourself. Before you make that decision on one person’s opinion you may wish to read an article explaining many professional dealers side of the issue.
The springs, cables, and bottom fixtures are under extreme loads and can and may cause severe and critical injuries without the proper tools, training, and knowledge to make this type of repair. In addition, the safe and proper operation of your garage door and garage door opener is very dependent on the garage door springs being properly calibrated and balanced for the size and weight of your particular garage door. It is our professional opinion and position that these types of repairs should never be attempted by anyone other than by trained and experienced garage door professional technicians!!! It’s certainly not something that I would recommend as a do it yourself project but it is your choice once you are aware of all the risk.
Since 1993 all residential garage door openers manufactured for distribution within the United States have been required to meet the UL-325 safety standard.
In addition it is also unlawful to service existing openers in some areas unless you bring the garage door opener into compliance with the UL-325 safety standard. Most manufacturers are using photo-cells (infrared safety beam) to comply with some of these provisions and the location of the photo-cell is a condition of the safety standard. The photo-cells are to be located from 3"-5" off of the garage floor to prevent serious injuries, or even death, to people and especially to children UL is not (affiliated with Doors And Openers.com and does not endorse the web site)and are not to be located above this height to protect vehicles or to protect other objects. Disconnection or the malfunction of the photo-cells will inhibit the closing of the garage door with any device except for maintaining constant pressure on the wall control button. For your friends and family's safety, we highly recommend that your garage door opener be installed and maintained by professionals that are thoroughly trained in the proper installation and servicing of these devices and are familiar with your local requirements.
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