Retrofit Garage Door Opener with Safety Reverse

[Mike Lamb]

Can pre-1993 garage door openers be retrofitted with photoelectric safety reverse beams?

[Tom Raymond]

Most likely not. Even if it could, your looking at $40 in parts and a $125 service call. A high quality new opener is less than $300 installed, a really nice one with battery back up is less than $500.

[Steven Hockstein]

I bought a new garage door opener at a big box store for less than 200 dollars. Installed it myself in less than an hour. It was a lot easier because I could re-use much of the hardware from the old unit.

[Les]

I agree with Tom. I recently learned my lesson when one of our guys said a retrofit was recommended. I found out you can't retrofit them. My silver tongue and sly good looks got me out of that mess!!

[Erby]

Been there - done that!

Now it is:

"No optical sensors were installed on the garage door opener system to automatically open the door if the beam were interrupted. They weren't required until 1993. For safety, I recommend an upgrade to the garage door opener system by installing a new opener with the optical sensors, as it is my understanding that you can't just add optical sensors to an older opener."

[mjr6550]

There are few pre-1993 openers that are not just about worn out anyway.