Happy New Year! It’s the start of 2026, which means it’s time to refresh your annual goals. While you’re jotting down your resolutions for yourself and for your home (going for a walk outside every day, finally cleaning out that one closet) there’s one work-related goal you should definitely remember to include—adding daily safety checks of checks of your automatic to your routine.
Importance of Daily Checks
These quick inspections aren’t just a good idea…they’re part of recommended inspection standards by the American Association of Automatic Door Manufacturers to ensure your doors are operating smoothly and safely. We also have a few recommendations for you to follow, which are especially important in the wintertime, when the temperatures are cold, the winds are blowing, and salt and ice are everywhere, giving your automatic doors a bit of TLC each day can help you catch any small issues before they turn into larger problems.
How to Do a Daily Automatic Door Check
Your daily door checks don’t have to take long to be effective. In fact, there are six easy steps you can take to make sure your doors are working properly each day.
- Keep Your Tracks Clear – The first step you should take in your daily door check is to see if there’s any salt or debris gunking up your tracks. Dead leaves and twigs can blow into your tracks with the high winter winds, stopping your doors from opening and closing like they should. Plus, the salt that cities put down in prep for winter storms can easily make its way from the roads and sidewalks into your doors, causing your tracks to rust and deteriorate over time. So make sure to give your tracks a quick clean-out at the start of each day to keep them running smoothly.
- Clear Snow and Ice – Ice can be the worst enemy of automatic doors, since it expands when it freezes, which can warp your tracks and prevent your doors from easily opening and closing. Clear out any snow and slush from around your doors, as well as any that may have gotten into the tracks. As much as you can prevent ice from forming near your doors in the first place, the better. If you see any ice or condensation inside your doors’ control panels or near sensors, though, give us a call, since this could mean that a seal is broken and needs to be fixed asap.
- Check for Gaps – The seal of your doors helps keep your entryways warm and dry, but sometimes weatherstripping can wear out or shift out of alignment due to the dropping temperatures. In your daily checks, take a look for any gaps in the seals around your doors, since these can let the warm air from your building escape and can also let in unwanted rodents or pests looking to get in from the cold. Make sure to check the seals around your control panels and wiring, too.
- Double-Check Your Sensors – Your automatic doors’ sensors are what make the whole system work, so make sure during your daily checks to clear off anything that may have gotten in their way overnight (like snow, ice, or wayward holiday decorations). Also make sure to check, charge, or replace any batteries for your sensors and back-up sensors, since the cold weather depletes batteries quicker than normal.
- Make Sure Your Locks Are Working – It’s easy to forget about your locks, but taking five minutes at the beginning of the day to make sure they’re still working properly can save you from the potentially massive headache of going to lock up at night and realizing that something’s wrong.
- Call a Professional if Something Isn’t Right – The last step of your daily check is to check in with a professional if something isn’t functioning like it should. If you’ve noticed any gaps in your seals, condensation around your control panels, issues with your sensors or locks, or anything else that seems off during your checks, give us a call and we’ll do a thorough inspection. Remember, if left unchecked, seemingly small issues can quickly become major problems that can affect the safety and longevity of your automatic doors—and can end up being expensive to fix.
Join Our ProActive Maintenance Plan for Extra Support
Since proactive, attentive maintenance is the best line of defense for your automatic doors, consider signing up for our ProActive Maintenance Plan in 2026. Designed to give you peace of mind throughout the year (including the difficult winter season), you’ll get an in-depth inspection and tune-up where our team of certified techs will calibrate all your sensors, note any issues, and get everything fixed and back in prime working order. Then, we’ll come back when the weather has warmed up to do another inspection and fix anything that got roughed up by the cold and ice. Learn more about our ProActive Maintenance Plan here.
This New Year, with quick, daily checks, you can help your automatic doors be the best they can be! And don’t worry—you have us in your corner for any extra support you need. Just give us a call whenever you have any questions or if something doesn’t look right during your checks, and together, we’ll keep your automatic doors in tip-top shape all year long.