Garage Door Safety Sensors

[tjm129]

Slowly wrapping up my garage build, and thought I would share what I did with my safety sensors.

I always hated they way the sensors on the GD look, they always collect cob webs, and the wires coming out of the wall are always unsightly. I have a single car garage that I recently built, and I decided to recess the sensors in the wall. I ran EMT conduit and an extra deep box with a mud ring and mounted the sensor in there. They are the same height as the baseboard, and I mounted a decora style cover with a piece of clear plastic mounted behind to keep the dust out.

In the end I think it makes for a nice clean look.

TJ

 

[Rewind97]

Great idea, I like it!!

 

[58Yeoman]

Very nice. Now, you can come and do mine.

 

[38Chevy454]

Nice idea. Cleaner than just hanging out in the breeze where they get hit and collect debris. But only works if you have walls on both sides of the door.

 

[pepi]

Nice idea. Cleaner than just hanging out in the breeze where they get hit and collect debris. But only works if you have walls on both sides of the door.

And don't use corners for storage, gas cans and the likes.

greg

 

[MikeF2316]

It looks so nice, now that bare concrete looks out of place!

TJ

 

[gasserdan]

What an awesome idea. Super clean, I love it. Maybe I will put a solid plate and drill a hole for the sensor.

 

[kwschumm]

Looks great, excellent idea!

 

[azmodela]

I put mine in the attic, sitting about 1' away from each other. They'll never get bumped or have the sun interfere with them again. Plus, I have the area around my door tracks free to store more stuff I don't need!

 

[kTHREE]

I put mine in the attic, sitting about 1' away from each other. They'll never get bumped or have the sun interfere with them again. Plus, I have the area around my door tracks free to store more stuff I don't need!

Same here, the first time I have to mess with those stupid sensors was 1 time too many.

 

[Rorin67]

Nicely done. I just put them on a bracket facing each other on top of the garage door opener motor. Didn't have to mess with any wall wiring that way, and they're fully intact for the next owner who wants to put them in place.

 

[bwringer]

Looks nice, but you're also now committed to keeping that area clear... wouldn't work in my garage!

The larger point is that it sure would be nice if the garage door manufacturers gave a little more thought to how the sensors mount. The usual rickety brackets and crappy wires are too prone to damage and look cheap.

 

[6768rogues]

Mine are on the ceiling beside the opener, about 6 inches from each other.

 

[Rag Roc]

Mine are raised up to car height. That way if the car is hanging out, the door won't close.

 

[tjm129]

Ya I still need to figure out what to do with the concrete stem wall. In the end nothing is going to happen until next year. I have swiss tax on the floor and baseboard above so its jus the stem wall.

I did look at a few other options like mounting the sensor directly in a blank plate, but this is the best I came up with. I figure if I come across something else I can revise it fairly cheap.

I could not agree more that the options out there from garage door manufacturers are very poor and not well thought out at all. I even looked at some commercial options that were just sad as the residential options.

TJ

 

[PCMusicGuy]

Looks good. I've been thinking about doing the same with mine.

 

[APEowner]

That's a great idea. It's obviously not practical for everyone in every situation but that doesn't make it any less of a great idea. Nice Job!

 

[Zapp Branigan]

What are these garage door safety sensor things you folks speak of? My hunter green door openers from 1976 have no such feature...