Manual Locks on Electrically Operated Garage Doors

My kids keep forgetting to unlock the garage door before pushing the open button. Now the slide lock is broken again. How do I keep them from doing this?

First, overhead garage doors are the largest piece of moving equipment found in most homes. Some can weigh over 300 pounds. In 2007, the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System, reported over 13,000 garage door related injuries in the US. Unsupervised children should not be operating garage doors.

Once your garage door has an electric operator or “opener” you no longer need a slide lock. The electric operator will act as a locking system. Lastly, consider yourself lucky that the slide lock was the only thing left damaged. In many cases, leaving a garage door ‘locked’ while using an electric operator can result in a total loss of the electric operator and in some cases the garage door too.