How to Test the Door Travel While Installing an Electric Garage Door

By eHow Home & Garden Editor

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Once you’ve installed a new electric garage door, you need to make sure that it travels up and down at the right distance and stops at the right place. It isn’t hard to make the adjustments once you’ve determined how well the door is traveling.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Step1

Adjust the up force and down force of the garage door’s lift. Use either a screwdriver or simply turn the little knob that sticks out of the side or front, depending on the brand of the motor.

Step2

Determine and adjust the travel force for the distance the door should travel. Some of the older models use sensor lights set in the rails that determines how far the door should travel to open and close.

Step3

Test the garage door’s travel. Use the little remote that will go in your car in case you need to stop it quickly. Also you can walk around with that to get a good look at how well the door is traveling from all sides and different angles.

Step4

Press the remote to open the garage door. See that it moves through the rails smoothly. Especially take note of where it stops. You don’t want it to hit the mechanical stop to force the door to a stop, so make sure that it stops short of that. If not, go back and readjust the travel force knobs.

Step5

Look down at the door from an angle. Look for gaps under it. If you find any, you need to adjust the closure force. Check the individual unit manual, but typically, one revolution with the screwdriver equals about 2 inches of travel. Check it until you get the door flushed.