Garage Door Opener: it's jacked up.

NKD

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Hi y'all. Gonna throw this at The Hive and see where it goes.

Have a Genie garage door opener on a roll up door. GDO started acting up:
-Would not open sometimes. Intermittent.
-Then, light seemed to go wacky. It stuck ON. Couldn't turn it off with button and it wouldn't time off, but door worked.
-Now, light works great from switch on pad, but door does not work at all.

Any thoughts, advice, jokes? Is the little robot brain fried? Any fixing it or ideas on replacement cost/difficulty?

Thanks ladies and fellas.

-D
 
The gremlin inside of it that pulls the levers is hungry. Feed him and it’ll be better
 
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Check any exposed wires, especially floor level. Mice will chew on them. And check youtube for symptoms. Seriously. Lots of folks post up vids when they figure this stuff out. If its plugged in to the ceiling like mine, make sure it has not worked loose and is plugged in well.
 
Thanks! Keep it coming.

First thing I thought to do was unplug and replug. It looks like a new ladder is in my future. Ceiling is like 12'!
 
Thanks! Keep it coming.

First thing I thought to do was unplug and replug. It looks like a new ladder is in my future. Ceiling is like 12'!
Circuit breaker is probably easily reached without a ladder.
 
Based on the weather this is probably not your situation, but mine acts up at a couple certain times of year when the angle of the mid morning sun hits the sensors at the perfect angle. It won’t close unless I block the sun. Clean the sensors and make sure the path is clear.
 
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Sounds like I'm late to the show. Hope you got everything back to working right.
If it starts acting up again, I'll do what I can to help you troubleshoot it. As was mentioned,
Sometimes just killing the power momentarily will get it to reset. And making sure the safety sensors see each other.

CZFool68. You can swap the sensor position. One of them is the sender unit and the other is the receiver. Sounds like your receiver sensor is being washed out by the sunlight and can't see the sender beam. Sort of like someone shining a flashlight in your eyes. If you swap the sensor positions, this can solve that problem. With LiftMaster/Chamberlain/Sears openers the sensors are polarized. One of the wires has a black stripe on it. If you cut the wire to swap sensor positions, just make sure when you wire them back up, the black stripes get connected back together.
 
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Sounds like I'm late to the show. Hope you got everything back to working right.
If it starts acting up again, I'll do what I can to help you troubleshoot it. As was mentioned,
Sometimes just killing the power momentarily will get it to reset. And making sure the safety sensors see each other.

CZFool68. You can swap the sensor position. One of them is the sender unit and the other is the receiver. Sounds like your receiver sensor is being washed out by the sunlight and can't see the sender beam. Sort of like someone shining a flashlight in your eyes. If you swap the sensor positions, this can solve that problem. With LiftMaster/Chamberlain/Sears openers the sensors are polarized. One of the wires has a black stripe on it. If you cut the wire to swap sensor positions, just make sure when you wire them back up, the black stripes get connected back together.
Noted for future expert advise.
 
Tape those damn things together & mount them up on the opener where they will never be a problem again.
That's one way to fix it. But depending on the opener you could be losing some functionality. Beyond the safety aspect of it (reversing in the event of a child or pet runs under the closing door), some openers will turn the light on for you when you cross through the safety sensor beam. For instance, if you've been out working in the yard and it's getting dark, when you walk into the garage the openers light(s) come on so you're not walking into a dark garage. Yeah, I know. No big deal. But it's there if you like that kind of stuff.

If anyone does choose to relocate the sensors so they are up, out of the way. The opener still has the reverse on contact feature. Newer openers adjust the reverse force automagically. Older openers have adjustments that are usually cranked up way too high. I never like to set those any more than half way. If it needs more than that, the door needs to be serviced and the spring tension checked so that the door balances properly.
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