Calling all garage door geniuses
July 27, 2020 11:41 AM Subscribe
Hello. I have a crusty ramshackle garage with an only marginally less crusty garage door opener. I am having problems with it.
I have a "Genie Pro Max" from presumably the Clinton era, looks like this one. The wall button is a single button. You push it once and it opens, to close you push and hold it until it reaches the bottom. I just moved here and there was no remote, so I bought the "Geniemaster 3-Button Remote" and followed the instructions for programming it on the "Intellicode" system. It paired, hooray. Almost.
1. The wall button now has to be pushed the whole time the door is opening and the whole time the door is closing (not a big deal but it's different now and I don't trust it).
2. The remote button opens the door exactly 6 inches at a time. You can imagine how fun this is. Press, delay, cachunk. Press, delay, cachunk.
3. The remote button does not close the door at all, even a little bit, even once it has reached the fully open state.
Things I have done:
-Looked at the back of the opener apparatus real hard. I even squinted at it.
-Served formal notice of eviction to the spiders living on the sensors (one is showing solid green, one is showing solid amber, youtube videos about garage door openers suggest this is good)
-Re-programmed the remote a few times just in case (no change)
Things I have not done:
-Unplugged and replugged the opener apparatus to reset it, I'm concerned this will make me reprogram the limits and I don't want to mess with that if I can avoid it. Also the plug is in an awkward spot it's difficult for me to reach. But also-also a garage fuse blew and I just replaced it, so the whole garage was completely without power until this morning, which seems like it should be the same thing.
Any ideas here? I would really like to be able to make the garage door open and close from my car, that would be really nice. Help me be Lily Tomlin in Nine to Five, fixing my own garage door opener like the capable independent sarcastic lady I am.
Eventually I'll demo and rebuild the whole garage because the thing is not worth improving, so I would really like to keep the current investment at or near the $30 I already shelled out for the universal opener.
I have a "Genie Pro Max" from presumably the Clinton era, looks like this one. The wall button is a single button. You push it once and it opens, to close you push and hold it until it reaches the bottom. I just moved here and there was no remote, so I bought the "Geniemaster 3-Button Remote" and followed the instructions for programming it on the "Intellicode" system. It paired, hooray. Almost.
1. The wall button now has to be pushed the whole time the door is opening and the whole time the door is closing (not a big deal but it's different now and I don't trust it).
2. The remote button opens the door exactly 6 inches at a time. You can imagine how fun this is. Press, delay, cachunk. Press, delay, cachunk.
3. The remote button does not close the door at all, even a little bit, even once it has reached the fully open state.
Things I have done:
-Looked at the back of the opener apparatus real hard. I even squinted at it.
-Served formal notice of eviction to the spiders living on the sensors (one is showing solid green, one is showing solid amber, youtube videos about garage door openers suggest this is good)
-Re-programmed the remote a few times just in case (no change)
Things I have not done:
-Unplugged and replugged the opener apparatus to reset it, I'm concerned this will make me reprogram the limits and I don't want to mess with that if I can avoid it. Also the plug is in an awkward spot it's difficult for me to reach. But also-also a garage fuse blew and I just replaced it, so the whole garage was completely without power until this morning, which seems like it should be the same thing.
Any ideas here? I would really like to be able to make the garage door open and close from my car, that would be really nice. Help me be Lily Tomlin in Nine to Five, fixing my own garage door opener like the capable independent sarcastic lady I am.
Eventually I'll demo and rebuild the whole garage because the thing is not worth improving, so I would really like to keep the current investment at or near the $30 I already shelled out for the universal opener.
But also-also a garage fuse blew and I just replaced it, so the whole garage was completely without power until this morning
This would do it but often garage doors are on their own circuit. Hit the breaker again and see if the sensor lights go off. I've unplugged my garage door opener many times and it never once wiped out the limits. Usually they're just a couple of potentiometers on the door opener unit.
Also make sure the safety sensors are very secure. I had an awful time with my door for a while even though the sensors looked good. Turns out the vibration of the door moving would cause them to go out of alignment.
Buy a can of garage door lubricant at Home Depot and spray the track, wheels, and chain.
Make sure the manual opener handle rope isn't wrapped around anything.
Watch the whole system as it opens or closes. Is the header secure on the wall? Is the attachment point on the door secure? Is the unit itself secure on its hangars? Does the chain look like it's moving without issue? Does the chain sprocket have all its teeth?
If you just moved to the house and the door opener and/or door is in rough shape, this is a good time to call the garage door people to give it a good preventive maintenance and inspection. This will cost you more than $30.00 though.
posted by bondcliff at 11:51 AM on July 27, 2020 [1 favorite]
This would do it but often garage doors are on their own circuit. Hit the breaker again and see if the sensor lights go off. I've unplugged my garage door opener many times and it never once wiped out the limits. Usually they're just a couple of potentiometers on the door opener unit.
Also make sure the safety sensors are very secure. I had an awful time with my door for a while even though the sensors looked good. Turns out the vibration of the door moving would cause them to go out of alignment.
Buy a can of garage door lubricant at Home Depot and spray the track, wheels, and chain.
Make sure the manual opener handle rope isn't wrapped around anything.
Watch the whole system as it opens or closes. Is the header secure on the wall? Is the attachment point on the door secure? Is the unit itself secure on its hangars? Does the chain look like it's moving without issue? Does the chain sprocket have all its teeth?
If you just moved to the house and the door opener and/or door is in rough shape, this is a good time to call the garage door people to give it a good preventive maintenance and inspection. This will cost you more than $30.00 though.
posted by bondcliff at 11:51 AM on July 27, 2020 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: OK, I just sprayed the tracks with WD-40 (not the same as garage lubricant but what I had) and unsurprisingly this didn't change the signal issue on the remote or the fact that the wall opener is behaving differently after programming a remote than it did before programming the remote.
Switching the fuse box (it's a fuse box, with screw in fuses) completely powers down all power in the garage and it was just off this morning.
Order of events is:
garage wall switch was working weeks ago
going in and out around my fence was inconvenient so I popped the garage off its opener chain to open/close manually
had (presumably) a storm during which a fuse blew and all power to the garage was off for weeks (during which I continued to open and close the door manually)
I replaced the fuses at 7am this morning
garage wall switch worked again
remote was programmed at noon
garage wall switch changed behavior after this
the remote button opens 6" at a time slowly slowly until it is all the way open and then does not close the door at all
I think the door opener hardware is more sturdy than some of the garage walls, things don't appear to be shimmying out of alignment.
posted by phunniemee at 12:08 PM on July 27, 2020
Switching the fuse box (it's a fuse box, with screw in fuses) completely powers down all power in the garage and it was just off this morning.
Order of events is:
garage wall switch was working weeks ago
going in and out around my fence was inconvenient so I popped the garage off its opener chain to open/close manually
had (presumably) a storm during which a fuse blew and all power to the garage was off for weeks (during which I continued to open and close the door manually)
I replaced the fuses at 7am this morning
garage wall switch worked again
remote was programmed at noon
garage wall switch changed behavior after this
the remote button opens 6" at a time slowly slowly until it is all the way open and then does not close the door at all
I think the door opener hardware is more sturdy than some of the garage walls, things don't appear to be shimmying out of alignment.
posted by phunniemee at 12:08 PM on July 27, 2020
From a garage door installer's website (they are a local franchisee of Genie, not the company itself):
posted by brianogilvie at 12:24 PM on July 27, 2020 [3 favorites]
1. My garage door will not go down using my transmitters. I can only get the door down by holding down on the wall button.Based on that, I would try cleaning the sensor eyes again and checking the connections on the sensor wires, at the sensor and at the motor head.
When the infra-red sensors are malfunctioning, usually one of the sensor lights will be blinking. The problem is either due to a blocked path between the sensors, dirty eyes, loose wires at the sensors or at the motor head, or just bad sensors. The transmitters (remotes) will not work to close the garage door. You will find that the door will only move an inch or so in the close direction and reverse. When this happens your garage door will only close by holding down on the wall button, or wall console, until the door fully closes. This method is the only way to override the safety and close the door.
To try and correct the problem, make sure the eyes on the sensors are clean, the wire connections are securely fastened at the sensors and motor head, and the eyes are directed at each other. Also, try unplugging the garage door opener and re-plugging the unit back into the outlet. This acts as a reset and may reset the sensors. If nothing works, it may be that you have to replace the sensors. You can find new sensors on our Web site in the category section or by going directly to Infra-Red Sensors.
posted by brianogilvie at 12:24 PM on July 27, 2020 [3 favorites]
This may be the manual for your opener.
My guesses would be you dislodged one of the wires for the safety sensor or hit and reset the limit switch accidentally when programming the remote.
posted by Short End Of A Wishbone at 1:33 PM on July 27, 2020
My guesses would be you dislodged one of the wires for the safety sensor or hit and reset the limit switch accidentally when programming the remote.
posted by Short End Of A Wishbone at 1:33 PM on July 27, 2020
I had that happen when one of the sensors got knocked out of alignment, so it was registering an obstruction continuously. Turned out it was really easy to bump it, although fortunately also easy to push back into place.
posted by restless_nomad at 1:54 PM on July 27, 2020
posted by restless_nomad at 1:54 PM on July 27, 2020
Agreed on the safety sensor. When the sun comes in at just the wrong angle we have to either provide shade to that one sensor or hold the button down. I should really build a semi-permanent shade for it.
posted by advicepig at 2:08 PM on July 27, 2020
posted by advicepig at 2:08 PM on July 27, 2020
If it goes up and down manually, and seems to feel OK, that’s a good sign.
Do the lights flash when it stops moving? Sometimes that’s how it tells you what it thinks the problem is.
Also, and this is very stupid but is a real thing: what kind of light bulbs are in the opener? Some LED’s don’t get along with the remote detectors; I have to use a heavy duty incandescent in mine.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 3:24 PM on July 27, 2020
Do the lights flash when it stops moving? Sometimes that’s how it tells you what it thinks the problem is.
Also, and this is very stupid but is a real thing: what kind of light bulbs are in the opener? Some LED’s don’t get along with the remote detectors; I have to use a heavy duty incandescent in mine.
posted by Huffy Puffy at 3:24 PM on July 27, 2020
Some troubleshooting steps that may provide information, in the order I'd probably try them:
(I assume it would go without saying, but for these tests, I'm assuming that you've removed the remote from your car and are holding it in your hand, to make troubleshooting easier.)
If you use your hand to provide partial lifting pressure on the way up, does the door open fully? If you disconnect the emergency release, does the opener carriage move all the way to the open position like it used to? If so, this indicates that it's shutting off because you're tripping the force sensor. (Perhaps something shifted slightly while pressing the button and now requires slightly more force?) If you're confident that there's nothing binding, try increasing the "open force" adjustment a little bit at a time until it opens properly. If the garage is as rickety as you say, this seems plausible. Be careful not to use more force to compensate for something that shifted and is now binding, since you'll just wear out your opener faster. (And if the opener doesn't open fully with the emergency disconnect, skip straight to the limit switches.)
Use a piece of cardboard or other opaque item and purposely break the safety beam. Do any of the lights change color? Do either the remote or wall button work differently? Does the opener itself have a flashing light, or flash the overhead lights when you try to close? (If there's no difference, then that would indicate that there's an issue with the sensors; if something changes, then the sensor isn't the only culprit.)
If you erase all remote codes, does the wall button start working again? If the manual linked above is correct, this is done by pressing the 'learn' button for "10 seconds or until light goes out". If that solves it, that would indicate some incompatibility between remote and opener, or else some RF interference or something more strange.
If none of those fix it, I think the open limit switch setting is all that's left.
posted by yuwtze at 3:25 PM on July 27, 2020
(I assume it would go without saying, but for these tests, I'm assuming that you've removed the remote from your car and are holding it in your hand, to make troubleshooting easier.)
If you use your hand to provide partial lifting pressure on the way up, does the door open fully? If you disconnect the emergency release, does the opener carriage move all the way to the open position like it used to? If so, this indicates that it's shutting off because you're tripping the force sensor. (Perhaps something shifted slightly while pressing the button and now requires slightly more force?) If you're confident that there's nothing binding, try increasing the "open force" adjustment a little bit at a time until it opens properly. If the garage is as rickety as you say, this seems plausible. Be careful not to use more force to compensate for something that shifted and is now binding, since you'll just wear out your opener faster. (And if the opener doesn't open fully with the emergency disconnect, skip straight to the limit switches.)
Use a piece of cardboard or other opaque item and purposely break the safety beam. Do any of the lights change color? Do either the remote or wall button work differently? Does the opener itself have a flashing light, or flash the overhead lights when you try to close? (If there's no difference, then that would indicate that there's an issue with the sensors; if something changes, then the sensor isn't the only culprit.)
If you erase all remote codes, does the wall button start working again? If the manual linked above is correct, this is done by pressing the 'learn' button for "10 seconds or until light goes out". If that solves it, that would indicate some incompatibility between remote and opener, or else some RF interference or something more strange.
If none of those fix it, I think the open limit switch setting is all that's left.
posted by yuwtze at 3:25 PM on July 27, 2020
Hi -
I'm not a garage door genius but I've just been through the trial-and-error process of fixing my door (loud, wouldn't stay closed) and my mom's. First off, watch this 3-minute video from Lowe's about garage door maintenance. I suffered through a bunch of long and confusing ones till I found this, which gave me a working knowledge of what to look at to troubleshoot.
Here are some of the things I did:
1) Buy a $4 can of White Lithium Grease which is designed for metal-to-metal and will hold up much better than WD-40. It may say "garage door lubricant" but even the small corner hardware store near me had this.
2) As in the video, spray it on the chain and into the rollers and any door-segment links. But *don't* spray the tracks. You can clean the tracks but don't spray them.
3) Again as in the video, if your door is in linked segments, tighten all the hex bolts as much as you can.
4) Do the tension test of unlinking the door from the chain, manually opening it 1/2 way, and seeing if it stays there. If that fails, the spring tension mechanism is dangerous to mess with so call a repairperson.
5) (key for me) look at the chain and see if it's taut or sagging. If it's sagging below the level of the rail, you can adjust it to be tighter (just like a bike chain). This can be either via a turnbuckle (cool word!) that's somewhere along the chain (get on a ladder), or in my case via a little nut at the end of the chain over the door. In the first case you are shortening the chain; in the second you are lengthening the track slightly.
6) Umm ... that's all I have.
The main light bulb moment for me (obvious) was that there's a release (the string usually) that will pull a little latch off the chain, and then after that the opener is just a motor and a chain that goes around and around doing nothing. You can disconnect the physical door from it in "one click" and then move the chain with the remote/switch to get it in position for adjusting the turnbuckle, lubrication, whatever.
As a last resort you can adjust the force thing but that's not common. Symptom there would be the door closing and then "bouncing" a little.
The main things to avoid are:
* playing with the spring tensioner. It's a LOT of tension.
* putting yourself or a helper in a situation where the door can fall on you, or more likely, where you get your hand or something stuck in something moving.
BTW after I did all that my door closed perfectly every time and was about 80% quieter. Once you've done all this once, it's super easy to check now and then.
Good luck!
posted by freecellwizard at 4:17 PM on July 27, 2020 [1 favorite]
I'm not a garage door genius but I've just been through the trial-and-error process of fixing my door (loud, wouldn't stay closed) and my mom's. First off, watch this 3-minute video from Lowe's about garage door maintenance. I suffered through a bunch of long and confusing ones till I found this, which gave me a working knowledge of what to look at to troubleshoot.
Here are some of the things I did:
1) Buy a $4 can of White Lithium Grease which is designed for metal-to-metal and will hold up much better than WD-40. It may say "garage door lubricant" but even the small corner hardware store near me had this.
2) As in the video, spray it on the chain and into the rollers and any door-segment links. But *don't* spray the tracks. You can clean the tracks but don't spray them.
3) Again as in the video, if your door is in linked segments, tighten all the hex bolts as much as you can.
4) Do the tension test of unlinking the door from the chain, manually opening it 1/2 way, and seeing if it stays there. If that fails, the spring tension mechanism is dangerous to mess with so call a repairperson.
5) (key for me) look at the chain and see if it's taut or sagging. If it's sagging below the level of the rail, you can adjust it to be tighter (just like a bike chain). This can be either via a turnbuckle (cool word!) that's somewhere along the chain (get on a ladder), or in my case via a little nut at the end of the chain over the door. In the first case you are shortening the chain; in the second you are lengthening the track slightly.
6) Umm ... that's all I have.
The main light bulb moment for me (obvious) was that there's a release (the string usually) that will pull a little latch off the chain, and then after that the opener is just a motor and a chain that goes around and around doing nothing. You can disconnect the physical door from it in "one click" and then move the chain with the remote/switch to get it in position for adjusting the turnbuckle, lubrication, whatever.
As a last resort you can adjust the force thing but that's not common. Symptom there would be the door closing and then "bouncing" a little.
The main things to avoid are:
* playing with the spring tensioner. It's a LOT of tension.
* putting yourself or a helper in a situation where the door can fall on you, or more likely, where you get your hand or something stuck in something moving.
BTW after I did all that my door closed perfectly every time and was about 80% quieter. Once you've done all this once, it's super easy to check now and then.
Good luck!
posted by freecellwizard at 4:17 PM on July 27, 2020 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Ok, I'm back. I took a video after having zero success trying a bunch of stuff. Enjoy.
I jiggled all the sensor lines at every connection point--everything is firmly connected and secure. The sensor eyes have been cleaned off. The lights stay solid (I know it looks like it's blinking in the video--that's an artefact of the video, I promise the light was solid) the whole time.
The lightbulb in the opener mechanism was a burned out incandescent. I replaced it (CFL not LED). It turns on when you activate the door, turns off after a bit. No warning blinks or anything like that.
I un-learned the remote. I unplugged the thing to reset it. The wall button did not return to its previous push-once-open-full-way mode. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
When the door is off the automatic opener chain (as it was for weeks) it opens and closes and stays part open just fine.
When I push the remote button (where it opens only 6" per remote click) and give it some upward help with my hand, it makes no difference. It does not seem to be a lack of oomph preventing it from opening.
I have not done any of the turnbuckle stuff from the Lowe's video yet or the purpose-built lubing but I'm not sure that's what my issue is anyway.
THANK YOU.
posted by phunniemee at 5:12 PM on July 27, 2020
I jiggled all the sensor lines at every connection point--everything is firmly connected and secure. The sensor eyes have been cleaned off. The lights stay solid (I know it looks like it's blinking in the video--that's an artefact of the video, I promise the light was solid) the whole time.
The lightbulb in the opener mechanism was a burned out incandescent. I replaced it (CFL not LED). It turns on when you activate the door, turns off after a bit. No warning blinks or anything like that.
I un-learned the remote. I unplugged the thing to reset it. The wall button did not return to its previous push-once-open-full-way mode. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
When the door is off the automatic opener chain (as it was for weeks) it opens and closes and stays part open just fine.
When I push the remote button (where it opens only 6" per remote click) and give it some upward help with my hand, it makes no difference. It does not seem to be a lack of oomph preventing it from opening.
I have not done any of the turnbuckle stuff from the Lowe's video yet or the purpose-built lubing but I'm not sure that's what my issue is anyway.
THANK YOU.
posted by phunniemee at 5:12 PM on July 27, 2020
My garage door opener had a way to forget all previously programmed remotes - it’s a Genie and you just hold down the programming button for ten seconds. Unplugging might not have been a full reset.
My dad recently had the circuit board on his garage door opener fail - it was about the same price to replace the whole thing vs. just the board. Another potential troubleshooting path
posted by momus_window at 5:22 PM on July 27, 2020
My dad recently had the circuit board on his garage door opener fail - it was about the same price to replace the whole thing vs. just the board. Another potential troubleshooting path
posted by momus_window at 5:22 PM on July 27, 2020
I think the sad answer is that garage doors openers are considered 'wear' appliances and only good for about 10,000 openings and closings. Judging by your open/close button on your wall, it survived well past its 10,000 openings and is probably dying. Fortunately, garage door openers aren't very expensive. I got a quote for the 3/4 horsepower with a fancier display for $600 last year, but the base model with basic opener is only like $400 installed.
Your garage door being all wrecked up could be causing issues too. You have a basic cheapie door - also not terribly expensive to replace. I did mine 10 years ago for $1200 for an insulated door with windows. It might be close to double that now. But the basic like yours is only $750 for a 16 foot door at Home Depot, so it would probably be in the $1200 range for a door and new opener.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:56 AM on July 28, 2020
Your garage door being all wrecked up could be causing issues too. You have a basic cheapie door - also not terribly expensive to replace. I did mine 10 years ago for $1200 for an insulated door with windows. It might be close to double that now. But the basic like yours is only $750 for a 16 foot door at Home Depot, so it would probably be in the $1200 range for a door and new opener.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:56 AM on July 28, 2020
BTW: I got a quote for replacement because mine is doing the same thing, but not quite as bad yet. Just randomly stopping and not responding to button clicks occasionally.
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:58 AM on July 28, 2020
posted by The_Vegetables at 8:58 AM on July 28, 2020
Sorry last comment: The prices for repairs and replacements for garage doors will be all over the place - from like $500 just to look at one to $250 for full repair, so unfortunately you have to shop around. There are only like 2 or 3 manufacturers of garage door openers for consumers, so whomever you choose should be fine, so it's ok to choose on price.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:04 AM on July 28, 2020
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:04 AM on July 28, 2020
Can we get one more data point? If you detach the opener from the door, does the button run a full up cycle? A full down? How about the remote? After watching the video, I'm curious what happens if we remove the whole question of door friction.
posted by advicepig at 4:07 PM on July 28, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by advicepig at 4:07 PM on July 28, 2020 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Can we get one more data point? If you detach the opener from the door, does the button run a full up cycle? A full down? How about the remote? After watching the video, I'm curious what happens if we remove the whole question of door friction.
I went out this morning to try this and a fuse had blown again--no power in the garage.
It blew without anything even being on! The hell. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
posted by phunniemee at 8:43 AM on July 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
I went out this morning to try this and a fuse had blown again--no power in the garage.
It blew without anything even being on! The hell. (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
posted by phunniemee at 8:43 AM on July 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
Sounds like electrician time, honestly.
posted by restless_nomad at 9:18 AM on July 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by restless_nomad at 9:18 AM on July 29, 2020 [1 favorite]
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