Victory over the garage door

Ever since we moved into our townhouse here in Lafayette, we have had a problem with our garage door.  It started as a simple nuisance of not being able to close the garage door if the sun was shining in.  My theory was that the sun was hitting the lens from the garage door sensor, causing the beam to be interrupted.  If the sensors were in the shade, then no problem.  As Megan put it, its “just a vampire garage.”  I’m sure it didn’t help that, when the house was built, they installed the cheapest garage door possible.

I looked around online and people suggested that I use some pipe insulation to block the sun from hitting the sensor lens.  Well, a quick trip to Lowes later and I still could not close the garage door.  I got to the point where I just didn’t want to deal with the garage door, so I started parking on the street and let Megan park her car in the garage.  But then I had the problem of Megan not being able to close the garage door and I would have to close it behind her before I left the house.

This morning I was taking the flowers back out to the front walkway (we have to bring them into the garage at night because it gets too cold).  I tried closing the garage once I was done, and nothing.  All I saw was that blinking sensor light taunting me.  I was furious, most likely from the combination of not sleeping well, the code STILL not working properly, and the garage door.  So I gave in and ran to Lowes again to buy some replacement sensors.  It turns out that garage door sensors are incredibly easy to replace.  About 10 minutes later, VICTORY!!!  We finally have a garage door that will close, even when the sun in shining.

Next test, morning sun during the middle of summer.