If your garage door will not close, reverses on its own, or the opener light is blinking, the safety sensors are the most common culprit. Federal law requires every modern garage door opener to have a pair of photo eye safety sensors mounted near the floor on each side of the door, and when anything interrupts the beam between them, the door will refuse to close. Most of the time, the fix is simple. Sometimes the sensor itself has failed and needs to be replaced.
Common Sensor Symptoms We Fix
The door starts to close then reverses back up with no obstruction visible. One sensor light is off, blinking, or a different color than the other. The door will only close if you hold the wall button continuously. The opener beeps or flashes when you try to close. The remote works to open but not to close.
All of these are classic sensor symptoms, and they are usually one of four issues: sensors knocked out of alignment, sensor lens dirty or sun glared, sensor wire damaged from rodent chew or age, or a sensor eye that has failed electrically.
Why This Is a Common Call on Older Vegas Tract Homes
Sensor drift is especially common on 1990s and early 2000s tract homes in Summerlin, Green Valley, and the older Spring Valley neighborhoods. Two decades of summer heat cycling loosens sensor brackets, dries out factory caulking, and slowly pulls the two sensors out of perfect alignment. We see this every week on homes that have never had a sensor issue before and suddenly cannot close the door. The fix is fast, usually same visit.
What We Do on a Sensor Call
When we arrive, we check the alignment first, clean the lenses, and test the beam. If the issue is realignment, we tighten the brackets and move on. If the sensors cannot be realigned because one has failed, we replace both sensors as a matched pair. On a typical LiftMaster, Chamberlain, Genie, or Marantec install, we carry the correct sensor set on the truck, so most calls are same visit.
If the wire itself is damaged, we repair or replace the run. If the issue is a failed opener logic board misreading a healthy sensor, we diagnose that and give you the repair versus replace call on the opener itself. See opener installation and repair for more on that scenario.
Pricing
Sensor realignment and cleaning is typically included in a standard service call. Full sensor replacement in Las Vegas typically costs somewhere in the $150 to $250 range depending on brand, model, and whether any wire repair is needed. We always quote the full price before any work starts and we do not change the quote during the job.
Brands We Service
LiftMaster, Chamberlain, Genie, and Marantec. We are authorized dealers for LiftMaster and Chamberlain, which gives us dealer pricing on genuine replacement sensors.