· by Michael Blair, Nashville's Garage Door
An opener is a motor, a gear, a circuit board and a pair of sensors, and any one of them can quit. But an opener is also only meant to steer the door, not to carry it, and a good share of the calls that come in as opener trouble turn out to be a door that has lost its balance. Before anything is replaced it is worth knowing which half of the system has failed, because a new opener on a bad door fails again. This is how our crews sort it out on opener repair calls around Middle Tennessee.
The motor runs and the door stays where it is
When the opener hums or the light comes on and the rail does nothing, check the trolley first. The red emergency release cord disconnects the door from the opener, and once it has been pulled the trolley rides the chain or belt up and down while the door sits still. Someone may have pulled it during a power outage and never reconnected it. Running the opener through a full cycle usually lets the trolley latch back on; if it does not, the release mechanism itself may be worn.
If the trolley is connected and the chain or belt still does not move while the motor runs, what our crews usually find inside the head is a worn drive gear. On many chain and belt units that gear is plastic, and when its teeth wear down the motor spins without turning the sprocket, often leaving fine shavings in the housing. The gear can be replaced on a unit that is otherwise sound. A gear that wore out early is a sign the door was making the opener work too hard, which is the next thing to check.
An opener that does nothing at all, with no light and no hum, starts with the outlet. Plug a lamp into it. If the outlet is live and the unit is dead, the Chamberlain support page on an opener with no power gives replacing the logic board as the primary fix. Remotes that stop working while the wall button still runs the door point to the remote, its battery or its programming rather than the motor.
Grinding, straining and a door that will not lift
An opener that groans, slows near the top or stalls partway is often lifting weight the springs should be carrying. Chamberlain says it plainly in its travel limits troubleshooting article: if the door does not move smoothly, the problem is likely with the door and not the opener. Genie’s Excelerator self-diagnostic guide lists an improperly balanced door, a worn counterbalance spring and binding hardware or rollers among the causes of a fault code on its openers.
Chamberlain’s balance test is the quickest way to know. With the door closed, pull the release cord, lift the door by hand to three or four feet and let go. A balanced door stays about where you left it. One that drops or climbs has a spring problem, and the same page says to call a trained technician for a door that binds, sticks or is out of balance and never to adjust the springs or cables yourself. If the door is heavy in your hands, our broken spring replacement work comes first and the opener second.
- Close the door and pull the release cord
- Lift the door by hand to three or four feet
- Let go and watch it
- Stays put: the springs are carrying it
- Drops or rises: stop and leave the springs to a technician
Limits, force and the photo eyes
Every opener stores two kinds of settings. The travel limits tell it where open and closed are; the force setting tells it how hard to push before it decides something is in the way. Chamberlain notes that incorrect travel limits can make a door stop early or reverse, and its travel and force programming instructions say never to use force adjustments to compensate for a binding or sticking door, and to test the safety reversal after any adjustment at all. Turning the force up to get a stiff door moving is how an opener ends up able to crush whatever is under it.
The photo-eye sensors near the floor are the other half of the safety system. When one sensor light is off or flickering, Chamberlain’s sensor troubleshooting page says it is typically a misaligned or obstructed sensor, and otherwise an open or shorted wire. Genie’s guide likewise gives separate fault codes for incorrect force settings and for its Safe-T-Beam sensors. Sensors knocked out of line are behind many doors that refuse to close, which we cover in why a garage door will not close.
The federal reversal rule, and when to replace the opener
Openers are covered by a federal safety standard. Under 16 CFR 1211.1, the rule applies to all residential garage door operators manufactured on or after January 1, 1993 for sale in the United States. Among its requirements, a closing door that contacts an obstruction must reverse within two seconds and return to fully open, and the opener must have a secondary protection, such as a photoelectric sensor that reverses a closing door.
The instructions every opener must carry, set out in 16 CFR 1211.16, tell owners to test the opener monthly: the door must reverse on contact with a 1 1/2 inch object, or a 2 by 4 laid flat on the floor, and must be retested after either the force or the limit of travel is adjusted. The same instructions say to install an opener only on a properly balanced door and to have cables, springs and other hardware repaired first. A door that fails the board test needs attention before anyone uses it again.
A new opener makes sense when the unit predates that rule and has no photo eyes, when it cannot be made to pass the reversal test, or when the board and the drive have both failed on an old unit. It does not make sense when the opener is fine and the door is the problem, and we will say so after testing the balance rather than selling a motor. If you are weighing it, ask for a free estimate and we will check the door and the opener together.
Sources
- 16 CFR 1211.1, Safety Standard for Automatic Residential Garage Door Operators (Cornell LII) — Scope: residential openers made on or after January 1, 1993; reversal within two seconds; secondary protection such as photo eyes
- 16 CFR 1211.16, required instructions (Cornell LII) — Monthly reversal test with a 1 1/2 inch object or flat 2 by 4; install only on a balanced door
- Chamberlain Group, How to test the balance of a garage door — The balance test and the warning to leave springs and cables to a technician
- Chamberlain Group, Garage door won’t fully open or close — Travel limits; a door that does not move smoothly is a door problem
- Chamberlain Group, Programming travel and force limits — Never use force to compensate for a binding door; test reversal after adjustments
- Chamberlain Group, Why is there no power to the garage door opener — Live outlet and dead opener: replace the logic board
- Chamberlain Group, Safety reversing sensors with one LED off or flickering — Misaligned or obstructed sensor, or an open or shorted wire
- Genie, Excelerator series self-diagnostic troubleshooting — Balance, spring and binding faults; force and Safe-T-Beam codes