Most Australians consider their homes safe havens from the outside world, however there are still a number of hazards around the home that pose potential danger to loved ones and every year, thousands of children are injured needlessly in preventable home accidents.

Garage door maintenance is essential to smooth and safe functioning. Have a look at our How to do quick and easy garage door maintenance for some great tips.

Research on garage doors and child safety shows incidents seem to have occurred when children found access to the remote controls.  When a garage door is closing, a child can become caught or entrapped under the closing door. These accidents mostly have occurred when the adult has left the area after initiating a closing garage door and therefore, not fully supervising the whole procedure.

PT Doors uses only Merlin garage door openers because they are committed to ensuring the safety of your most valuable assets – your children and pets – and Merlin’s range of automatic garage door openers offer the very latest in safety features.

Merlin automatic garage door openers boast an automatic safety reversing system so if the garage door is obstructed while closing, it will automatically stop. Furthermore if it is obstructed while opening, it will also automatically stop.

Merlin products also offer automatic force sensing, where with each automatic operation, the garage door opener intuitively monitors and adjusts the force needed to open your garage door, drastically reducing the likelihood of a family member being injured.

Recent research undertaken by Merlin indicated that many consumers held the belief that if a product is sold in Australia, it is compliant with Australian and New Zealand standards AS/NZS 60335-2-95*. This is not actually the case and a number of garage door openers available in Australia and New Zealand are believed to not be compliant with the appropriate standards (AS/NZS 60335-2-95). Merlin’s products however, do comply with Australian and New Zealand standards AS/NZS 60335-2-95 and all safety features have been extensively tested to ensure safety at home and therefore peace of mind for homeowners.

 

Garage Door and child safety simple tests

  • A simple way to test if your garage door is functioning effectively is to place a 40 mm in height block of wood under the door. The door should reverse immediately when it senses the object. If your garage door does not sense this and immediately implement a reversing mechanism, then you have a serious risk factor.
  • Another method is to stand in front of the door with your hands out in front of you. The closing garage door should stop and reverse. This gives you an understanding of the force behind a garage door. If the force feels excessive, contact PT Garage Doors immediately for an inspection and service.
  • Assess how long it takes your Auto Reverse to implement, and if in doubt, contact PT Doors Service Department.  It is part of your installation service that you are shown how to do a safety reversal test. Do you know how to do this?
  • If your auto reverse is not functioning, we strongly suggest you disconnect the opener and operate the doors manually until your garage door is serviced.  Don’t take chances with your children’s life.

Garage doors and children safety in play

Despite parent’s warnings about playing in and around the garage, children sometimes view them as ‘forbidden playgrounds’ worthy of exploration outside of parent’s knowledge.  Parents need to be vigilant and aware of children’s whereabouts at all times and the dangers involved in playing in garages. Teach children a healthy respect for garage doors, their automatic controls and playing in and around the garage.

Do not allow children to ‘play’ with the remote controls and do not leave the controls within children’s reach.

Summary

The Australian Garage Door Association has a Consumer Safety brochure that can be downloaded if you wish to read up more on garage door safety.
Merlin is part of the world’s largest manufacturer of automatic garage door openers, the Chamberlain Group, and holds its customers’ safety as the top priority. To ensure peace of mind for you and your family; Choose Safety, Choose Merlin.
PT Doors has over 13 years experience in the garage door industry and we pride ourselves on our customer service, quality and workmanship. For please contact PT Doors at [email protected] or 02 9785 3219.

* National independent study of home owners conducted by ‘Bread & Butter’ market researchers in June 2013.