There are many electric garage door openers available to buy but have you ever though how they lock the door when it is closed?
The simple fact is most basic electric garage door operators are not actually that secure when fitted in their most basic specification. The security of the one piece up and over, sectional or side hinged door relies entirely on the electric motor holding the door panel closed with the metal towing arm on the operator boom holding the door down.
If the garage door has a gap at the top between the door panel and the sub frame (usually on timber sub frames) then it is not difficult on some models to push a coat hangar through and grab the manual override release and gain entry withough any damage or noise at all.
If the door is an old one piece up and over there may be a fair bit of play in the door mechanism and this means when the door panel is held only at the top then you could possibly grab the bottom of the door panel and get sufficient purchase to be able to force the door open and break the towing arm.
All this potential weakness can be avoided by some fairly simple and inexpensive additions.
Firstly one of the most secure electric operators in the UK at the moment is the Hormann Promatic and Supramatic series 3. This is a state of the art operator with 128 bit encryption for the radio transceivers so has a very secure operating transmission. BUT the single biggest overlooked fact about these operators are the patented steel hook devices built in as standard. These simple hook devices built in as standard add additional security to the mechanism which is already holding the door panel firmly closed and give peace of mind when the door is closed of the best possible resistance to forced entry.
The steel hook secures the door even when the mechanism has to be overridden in a power failure and this is a very important point as no other operator can generally re engage and lock once it has been manually overriden UNTIL the power comes back on and the mechanism can move to re engage.
Hormann also use a system very difficult to operate unless you are directly underneath the operator to override the mechanism making attempts with coat hangers very difficult. We say always fit a new up and over door with a steel frame as there is a steel lip at the top to cloak the gap at the top of the door making it almost impossible to force tools and the like and get at locking points or inside the garage.
The second and again very overlooked device to make garage doors with electric motors secure is the 'de latching mechanism'. This device is also simple but very effective on one piece up and over doors with retractable operating gear and slam latch locking, which is generally most garage doors sold in the UK. The manual retractable up and over door has as standard 2 locking points situated in the bottom left and right hand corner of the door panel and these locks slam and lock when the door is closed manually to then lock the handle for security. The 'de latch' mechanism is a device that uses the movement of the towing arm on the electric operator to pull on a spring loaded devic aroung the handle to then pull the latches open just before the motor pulls the garage door panel open and in revers the latches engage as they would normally when closing manually. This device effectively takes the locking points on the door from just one at the top to 3 in total and makes the garage door very secure indeed.
See our You Tube video of a de latch kit working >
For full advice on the best way to make your garage door electrically operated and be secure and safe as well please call us on (0800) 525442
