Published on: July 3, 2019
The garage door safety sensors are designed to ensure maximum safety for your garage door opener operation. The Genie garage door safety sensor kit (Safe-T-Beams) uses an invisible infrared beam across the opening of the door, the system detects any object passing through the infrared beam of light and automatically reverses the closing garage door. The Genie Safe-T-Beam system is required by US Law as of 1993.
However, the Genie Safe-T-Beam kit is self-diagnostic. If there is an issue or obstruction there is a series of garage door opener light flashes or small lights on the safety sensors to let you know what the issue could be (see chart below). If you are experiencing a garage door that will not close and a blinking garage door opener light you may have an obstruction of the Safe-T-Beam infrared light. If there is no physical obstruction you may have light interference. If the sun or another bright source of light shines into the garage door safety sensor lens it can cause a false positive and reverse the garage door. This can be a nuisance but good news, there is an easy fix available.
The Genie Version 2, Safe-T-Beam system (Model GSTB-R) has a lens cover that protects from alternative light interference, as seen in the picture below. This updated version should eliminate any false positive safety sensor signals. This is a very easy upgrade to your existing Genie garage door opener that should only take a few minutes to install. You can reuse your existing wiring and mounting locations. You simply remove the wires from the current Safe-T-Beam sensors and unscrew them from the wall. Then reconnect the wires and remount to the wall. The garage door safety sensor beams should still be lined up. If not loosen the mounting to the wall slightly and realign them by hand until both the red and green lights are on both sensors (one each on the left and right sensors themselves).
If an operating problem continues and you cannot close your door you can disconnect your Safe-T-Beams from the operator and hold down the wall control button until the door closes (remote and wireless keypad will not work without Safe-T-Beams).
You have just successfully upgraded your Genie Safe-T-Beam system!
86 comments
Hi Brian, no you cannot.
Can I set the lights to go on when someone walks through the sensor beam?
I have enjoyed my Genie garage door opener for years and it has worked flawlessly. Now it refuses to close after traveling about 1 foot. One of the wires on one of the sensors had come loose, so I cleaned it up and reattached it. I have disconnected both wires and reattached them after cleaning and it still refuses to close. I can give it a little assist while standing closeby using the remote and it will close. HELP.
@Cesar – We would need to do a little troubleshooting to help resolve the issue with you. It will be best if you can call when you are at home and able to be in the garage. Please contact Genie customer service at 1-800-354-3643
My genie SilentMax 100 (revolutions series) was working fine for years then the red safe-T-Beam start to flash 3 times pause and flash 3 times again and continue, the green beam is flashing as well, no interference, I checked the wires from the T-beams to the power head and they are fine, the Height of the T-beams are perfect. then I got new genie safe-t-beams from Home depot, unplug the machine, installed the new t-beams, plug the machine again and the same problem continue, so no idea what else to check. the unit was working fine for years (7 to 8 years), any idea how to fix the issues ?