How to: Installing safety beams

Accidents happen in a flash, and if you could make a simple change to improve your household’s safety to protect yourself, your loved ones and your belongings, you would.

Installing safety beams to your automated garage door will improve your garage safety and is a fantastic project to do this weekend! Here at Chamberlain, we recommend all homeowners with a motorised garage door install safety beams.

Similar to those used in elevators, safety beams will prevent your garage door from closing if the beam is obstructed. If the beam is broken or obstructed, the garage door will begin auto-reversing within two seconds to prevent accidents or injury.

To help you improve the safety of your garage by installing safety beams, we’ve created a step-by-step guide and check out an instructional video here.

1.    Purchase Chamberlain’s Obstruction Detection Beams

Our Obstruction Detection Beams come with an instruction manual which can be referenced throughout your installation, a set of safety beams on pre-installed brackets, and the accompanying screws. To complete the installation, you’ll need a handheld power drill. We’d also recommend the use of alcohol wipes and cable ties for an extra neat installation of the beam sensor wires.

2.    Secure the Obstruction Detection Beams

Where possible, try to avoid positioning the sensors in direct sunlight, as this may interfere with the operation of the beams.

During this installation process, ensure your garage door is firmly closed. The safety beams need to be placed 100mm off the ground, on either side of the inside of the garage wall. Using a permanent marker, draw two small dots on the wall approximately 50mm apart to align with the holes in the brackets. The brackets are designed to be used for wall of floor fixing, with a variety of hole combinations to achieve the desired results.

Then, using your handheld power drill, create two holes to secure the brackets to the wall insert the plugs and screws and use a screwdriver to tighten them so there’s no bracket movement. Similarly, ensure the brackets do not obstruct the door movement.

Note: if you have a brick wall, you’ll need to use masonry drill bits for the installation, for wood, you should use a flat wood bit.

3.    Install the wire

Align the sensors to face each other and tighten if necessary. The wiring should exit from the bottom of the housing to maintain the correct IP rating and continued operation.

Run the both sets of wires back to the garage door opener control panel, ensuring they are not tangled or loosely hanging down, as this may impact their safety and functionality. Secure the cable mounts to the wall and garage railing and use cable ties for increased stability.

At the control panel, cut the wires to the correct length and strip each wire back around 15mm. For specific wire connections, refer to your kit’s instruction manual which outlines the corresponding terminal for each coloured wire.

4.    Test your Obstruction Detection Beams

Confirm that the LED lights on the beams are a solid red, which indicates that they are correctly aligned. If these LED lights are not on, or are flashing, you’ll need to do some re-alignment of your beams to match them up.

To test your safety beams, ensure there isn’t anything in between them causing obstruction. Close the door using your garage door remote, and as the door starts closing, obstruct it with a soccer ball or other inanimate object. The sensor lights should flash and the door should immediately reverse. If the garage door is not reversing upon obstruction, the sensors may be misaligned or obstructed.

If you’re still having trouble, get in contact with a Chamberlain professional who can help troubleshoot by calling 1800 665 438.