Anyone know anything about garage door openers? Mine's killing me

[boisking]

Mine has adjustable resistance sensors. I set it so that the door would reverse before crushing a flimsy cardboard box. If there is any additional friction in the opener from wear/tear, I will have to re-adjust or the door will likely act like yours. Check it out, but it sounds like you may have a different problem.

I have seen people set the safety light sensors on the ceiling a few inches from each other to avoid the sunlight problem, effectively avoiding the safety feature as well.

For reference, I have a Genie screw-drive.

[Rob®]

To slightly follow up on this:

New opener arrived last night. Played automobile shuffle so I could get the car out of the garage (not drivable again, mind you), laid all the parts out, assembled the rail system, wrapped the rail/motor/pulley with the chain, swapped the header mounts. Chain was looking about 4" too short. Scratched my head for an hour thinking what I could have possibly done wrong trying to set it up. Nothing. Old chain is different beefiness, and is a full chain - new one is a chain and cable combo - I can't just swap that over. So I went ahead and swapped the sensors and wall button.

Called Chamberlain this morning, and they said the measurement I got is a good 12" (foot) shorter than it should be. Awesome. I honestly don't think there's a foot worth of chain that I can adjust out, but I have a chain splitter somewhere so too long is better than too short at this point. I did not get an extension kit or anything. Pure off the shelf (but through the mail) one-box standard setup.

So now I have a car that has exposed ignition wires a hair away from the body and hood that I need to back in and out one more time, two partially assembled door opener rail systems attached to their motors laying on the garage floor (big deal since I have the smallest 2-car garage that you can call a 2-car, but have the car, a jetski on trailer, two spare Miata blocks, 2 jetski motors, 2 lawn mowers, and a ton of other crap in it - floor space is very limited right now), and still no electronically working garage door for the next 5-7 business days. So much for customer service.

[Rob®]

...and I finally have a working garage door opener. w00t

[OZMDD]

I had a cable come off the drum on my door this weekend, and the door slipped pretty badly out of alignment. Called Tommy at North Dallas Garage/North Dallas Doors and it he had a guy out the same afternoon. fixed, adjusted, leveled, lubed,etc. for $150. Still the best around.

[sammm]

Here's one for y'all...my garage door will intermittently not close all the way. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Thoughts?

[Jiggerachi]

Obvious questions out of the way, calibrate the safety sensors? My unit had the same problem, turned out the power for one of them was halfway in. In my research the sun can hit the optical sensors just the right way and set them off. Is it doing it at specific times of the day?


While we're asking opener questions. Mine is a newer chamberlian Wifi model, I just want to use the mirror remote(homelink) in the Murano, but for the life of me I can't get it to recognize the codes. I'm using the standard directions, hold the opener remote 1-4 inches away and press it and the mirror remote button until it picks up the code. Opener is Homelink compatible.

[sammm]

Thanks Jigger...the sensors both have solid lights, but I'll double check the wires. I'll make sure the sensor lenses are reasonably clean too.

It's happened at all times...day, night, morning, evening.

[OZMDD]

Might mean you need a tension adjustment or to adjust the "anti-crush" resistance setting. Also, make sure its not binding somewhere, which would also trigger the safety switch. Unhook it from the opener mechanism and raise/lower the door by hand to rule in/out problems with the door itself. After that, adjust the crush protector.

[sammm]

Thanks Mike. I did manually open and close it yesterday, and I keep the rollers and springs lubed on a regular basis. I'll check the tension and anti-crush adjustments.

[Webspoke]

While we're asking opener questions. Mine is a newer chamberlian Wifi model, I just want to use the mirror remote(homelink) in the Murano, but for the life of me I can't get it to recognize the codes. I'm using the standard directions, hold the opener remote 1-4 inches away and press it and the mirror remote button until it picks up the code. Opener is Homelink compatible.

For the newer openers, That is step 1, it trains the home link the range of rolling codes. step 2, within a minute or so, is push the 'learn' button on the opener motor unit, then press and hold the home link button of a couple o seconds until the door operates.

[Jiggerachi]

^Ahh, thanks. I'll try that step tonight.

[El_Tortuga]

I had an issue at my old house where it would behave strangely at certain times in the evening. I finally realized it was during the period 30-60 minutes before sunset. Turns out at those times, the sun was hitting the safety beam sensor in such a way to mess up the signal.

Same here, but only specific times of the year. Rigged up a sight tube / sunshade.