Another garage door opener problem

[trader4]

My Sears garage door opener, which is about 5 year old and used infrequently, appears to be kaput. Here's what going on.

1 - Door is in good balance and can move fairly easy with one hand through it's range when disconnected.

2 - When closing, most times the door will reverse at random points. Sometimes when first starting to close, sometimes when a foot from the bottom, etc.

3 - It doesn't appear to be related to the eye sensors. The sensor glows green as it should and if I break the beam with my foot, then the door won't even start to close.

4 - Tried setting the down and up force adjustments to maximum, with no effect.

Any ideas? I'm thinking something is shot in the internal force sensing circuit.

[badgolferman]

After replacing the gear linkage on my 17 year old Sears garage door I had the same problem adjusting it properly. The stop and go distances were erratic and it would reverse wherever it felt like doing so. After much tinkering with it I realized if I unplug it from the wall outlet and let it sit for a while it would return to normal and I would be able to adjust its travel and forces properly. Maybe you need to remove power for a while and start over.

[Joseph Meehan]

Try removing one sensor and hold it right next to the other. Does it work now? My guess is that it is dirty or misaligned and the vibration from the door moving is moving it just enough to trigger it. If the lenses are cleaned and carefully aligned, it may take care of the problem.

[trader4]

And that was the problem. The light sensor was just barely aligned, so it showed a green and OK light. But as it was closing, the door track must have vibrated just enough so that it lost the beam momentarily and reversed. I think it pobably went out of alignment from someone, like me, bumping into it. It's working perfectly now.

Thanks Joseph.

[Joseph Meehan]

..

Glad to hear you got it working. Your response helps all the rest of us.

[Steve Barker]

I messed with one of mine for about an hour one day until I noticed some dumass had left the pull rope on the door, and it was crossing in front of the "eye" when it got 8" off the floor. You never saw a knife in use so fast.

that's why I mount those dumass eye things on the ceiling above the opener. Very rarely does anything interfere with it up there.

[Rich]

Yeah, you won't need those "dumass eye things" until your neighbor's kid or someone else gets pinned under your door. But of course you have a mechanical reverse that is infallible until the day you need it to work. But hey, that's what homeowner's insurance is for, right...?!

Rich

[Steve Barker]

My nearest neighbor is almost 1 mile away, and they are 85 years old. If their kids get under my door, they deserve what they get. And the reverse does activate with just one finger holding the door from moving.

[Goedjn]

How the hell does any concious human get pinned under a garage door, anyway? It's not like the damn things sneak up and jump you.

[Stormin Mormon]

They had a horror movie about garage doors, one time. It was called Night In Grady's Garage Extreme Rumbling Exit Door. They found out the title was too long for the signs, so they made an acronym. And then the NAACP objected. And, all about garage doors. Go figure.

[trader4]

I could see it happening very easily with young kids playing. Like trying to mimic what you see on TV, where some Indian Jones character dives and rolls under a closing door. Or even a toddler wandering into the way while the parent isn't looking. Now how big of a problem it really is and whether doors without a light beam safety system cause serious injury to a significant number of people is another question. But it doesn't seem like an unreasonable or costly safety item to me.

[Rich]

Just Google: garage door deaths

If one life is spared due to properly installed eyes or properly adjusted doors then it's worth the trouble.

Rich

[mm]

I"m sure they cost barely anything. And installation is normally only once.

And I knjow they can be dangerous. Haven't you seen that commercial where the guy finds a wall switch they never use, his wife doesn't know what it's for, and every time he turns it on and off, the garage door 3 doors away whacks the neighbors car.

[trader4]

Also, the electric eye sensor adds another feature. On my Sears unit, with the door open, when you break the beam by walking by, it turns on the light in the opener so you can see where you're going at night.

[clifto]

It's a takeoff on a Steven Wright joke.

"I have a switch in my apartment that doesn't do anything. Every once in a while I turn it on and off. On and off. On and off. One day I got a call from a woman in France who said, 'Cut it out!'"