Sears garage door opener

I put up a new Sears garage door opener. I works fine except that both remote control unit have very little range. They must be within approximately 15 feet of the door. My brother-in-law has the same style house in the same neighborhood and has the identical opener. His remotes work from about 200 feet. I swapped remotes with him (reprogrammed my unit to work his door and vice versa) with no improvement. Sears customer service won't address the issue except to say that I need to purchase an antenna extender kit. The clerk at the Sears store said that I don't need an extender kit and, besides, they don't even carry them. He said that the electric eye units are mis-aligned. That didn't make sense but I realigned the units. Again, no improvement. Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Reply to
J. Handley
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Reply to
Tony Hwang

You got metal sheeting in your gararge door? Foil or something? Tends to deflect RF.

Also the receiver might need a longer antenna.

Reply to
Stormin Mormonn

Something is wrong with the receiving antenna. There should be about a six inch wire hanging down, but this wire also needs to be connected to the circuit board in some way. Trace the route of this wire and determine if there is a break in its conductivity to the circuitry.

Reply to
tnom

The clerk is a $^%&*(. He just did not want to bother ordering one. If he had one is stock, he would have been glad to tell you it would work. The safety sensors have NOTHING to do with it.

Frankly I have never heard of an extender kit for an antenna. Antennas need to be a particular length to work best. Longer is not always better and may reduce range.

I would suggest several things.

A malfunction such as suggested where the antenna is not properly connected The antenna may not be hanging straight. Something in your garage may be blocking the signal (some forms of insulation or other construction materials?) Type of garage door (metal vs. wood) Local interference (electrical equipment or lights, powerlines etc.)

Good Luck

Reply to
Joseph Meehan

i have an old sears gar. door opener and just one remote... i needed more and you cant get them as they changed the frequencys and dont make them anymore... the solution was to get the kit from sears for about $80 that came with a receiver and two remotesd, thought this would be great, but after installing it the range on the remotes were terrible, had to be right up to the garage door with the remote for it to work.. thought it was the batteries low, put in new batteries, no change....tried all kinds of stuff, like leaving the garage door open and seeing it the remote will work to close it??? nothing worked, brought the kit back to sears and got my money back.... i later bought a new car and had a alarm put in with the remote.. went to shopping strip with a large TV antenna(the have all kinds of antenna/s for radio stations ect. on this antenna... the remote for the car would not work in the parking lot... had to get rigth under the drivers side wheel well to get the alarm to work... i then figured it was the transmissions from the antenna(s) that was blocking the transmission of the remote....(kinda like over riding its path).... the alarm works great in all other areas but this one due to the transmissions... later remember that in a big city parking garage with remote doors the doors would not work when one car was too close to the area.. had to wait for them to drive off for the doors on the remotes to work correctly.. it was a TV station, i talked to the engineers(electronic) and asked them whey??? they told me that it was either the spark plug wires emitting a current and blocking the other remote or the alternator turning and not being grounded out to stop an electrical transmission and this was blocking the remote... i think they were right on this .. when you use your remote is your car running??? how about an a/c unit in the back yard being on and putting out a transmission?? or a neighbors??? or your locations by a tv or other antenna???? on my old remote and receiver i kept getting the small antenna falling off the top of the receiver so i just drilled a hole into the base of the receiver and soldered a 18 in. long wire to the spot where the antenna went and coiled the wire and let it hang outside and this increased the range of the old remote(but i still just have one remote)..

Reply to
jim

The antenna is about 9" long and appears to be exactly the same as the one on my brother-in-laws which works well.

Reply to
J. Handley

The door is wood, unlined, and there isn't any insulation on a direct path between the unit and my entrance road.

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Reply to
J. Handley

You have a problem with the receiver. Return it to Sears.

Reply to
tnom

Sounds like an interference problem w/ some other device that is blocking your receiver. There are numerous items that will cause this like ham radios, police scanners, cable tv that is not grounded properly, cell phone towers, large tv dish antennas, or another garage door opener in the same garage or right next door.

Turn off every circuit breaker in the house except for the one to the door opener. Make sure there is nothing else plugged in that is on the same circuit. If the problem disappears the interference is inside the house. Turn the breakers back on one at a time to determine what circuit causes the interference.

If the problem doesn't disappear w/ the breakers off the interference is outside the house. Chamberlain does make a logic board & transmitters that are on a 433 freq instead of the normal 390 freq. If the interference is outside the house, usually this other freq will solve the problem.

It was a few years ago, but we had one customer whose transmitters wouldn't work whenever his BMW was parked in the garage or driveway even when the car was turned off. I think it was the car burglar alarm that was interfering w/ the opener. When he moved the car down the street the opener worked fine. As so as the car was at the house, the transmitters would quit working completely. They would not even work from inside the garage.

Doordoc

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P.S. Extending the receiver antenna may make the problem worse & I have never seen where it will improve the range of a garage door opener.

Reply to
Doordoc

Follow up message. Thanks to all who tried to help. I tried all of the suggestions and nothing helped. This convinced me that the trouble is in the receiver and I this time Sears agreed with me. I have an appointment for a technician to check it out in my garage under warranty.

Reply to
J. Handley

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