We have two 8 foot garage doors on our garage. They both have Sears openers. Recently the one does not respond to the remote from a distance ore even up close if the door is closed. If it is open it responds. Meanwhile the auxiliary button opens the other door like usual up to almost 500 feet so I think this rules out a battery problem with the remote. I have relearned the remote multiple times but it has not corrected the problem. Could there be a problem with the receiving unit on the opener or is it just easier to get a new one. They both are about 4 years old.
If the hard wired switch works you can add on an after market transmitter for about $50. I would use this as an excuse to upgrade to a screw drive Genie. It opens twice as fast as a regular opener and is almost silent.
1st make sure that the antenna wire hangs straight down toward the floor & hasn't got shoved up behind the motor head.
If the antenna is ok the problem may very well be w/ the opener that works fine (hard to believe but can be true). To find out unplug the opener that works fine & then test the other one. If it now works the opener that works has a defective receiver (built-in to the main logic board) that is no longer shielded properly. Mfgs shield them so they are supposed to only work 50-75 ft to cut down on interference, but when the shielding goes out they will send out a signal that is strong enough to block out the other one. Yours would not be blocking the other one completely & that is why the remote works when the door is open.
If it still doesn't work w/ the other one unplugged then the receiver in the non-working unit is defective but the odds are that the other one is causing the interference.
You can hook up an external receiver to your unit instead of replacing the main logic board but you may have to cut a resistor on the logic board to turn off the built-in receiver or you may have a bigger interference problem w/ having three receivers very close together.
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