garage door opener

[John D Smith]

In the course of 27 years in this house I have had 3 garage door openers, two Craftsman and a Chamberlain. Nearly every year when the temperature gets below 30 degrees the opener will not go down. It starts to move and then stops and the light blinks. If I hold the wall mounted switch it will go down. I have replaced the obstetrical sensors each time I replaced the opener. I noticed that the Chamberlain seems to be made by the same vendor as the two Craftsman units. Any ideas???
John

 

[Gary from Muleshoe]

I have had the same problem with my craftsman. Each time it did it I just adjusted the down sensitivity and it works fine. Haven't had that problem for three years and the opener is seven years old.

 

[Ron-MO]

Have you tried lubing the tracks and chains? I am having same issue with one now, but I just need time to lube and check it as I am sure that is the problem

 

[flyinstyle]

Are the lenses on the sensors clean.
At 30 degrees could there be frost on
the lenses.

 

[Frankmn]

on the back side, there are force adjustment screws. turn them clockwise.

 

[Russ from MN]

You need to release the opener and try opening and closing the door by hand, there may be some adjustment you can make so it works better. Also take some light oil and lube the rollers. It should go up and down with little effort and stay in almost any position you stop it.

 

[ss55]

Dito on open and close the door by hand to make sure the door does not bind and the springs balance the door before adjusting the opener.

 

[flyinstyle]

On my opener which is a sears if you obstruct the sensor beam the door will go up and then the light will blink.
If you hold the door as it is going down it will reverse and go up but the light will not blink.
If the light is blinking I would think it is the sensor that is causing the problem.

 

[Steve@Advance]

Are they screw drives? I've seen that happen when the grease gets cold in the screw track.

Never found a solution other that replace it with a belt or chain drive.

 

[MarkB_MI]

Lube the opener track or screw with white grease and increase the downforce. To test the downforce, place a 2x4 under the door and close it. If the door doesn't reverse when it hits the 2x4, you have too much downforce.

 

[ss55]

My last opener suggested closing the door on a roll of paper towels. Adjust the down force so the roll is not fully crushed. The idea is to limit the down force if a child or pet gets caught under the door.

 

[MSD]

They make door lubricant just for that purpose. I had put some grease on mine and it worked fine in the summer but by fall it had collected enough dust and dirt that it wouldn't go up anymore. I washed it down and sprayed it with the lube and it goes up and down even when it is below zero.

 

[John D Smith]

OK guys, I adjusted the down force and that didn't fix the problem. I have a belt drive so I didn't have to mess with that. Last summer the spring broke and was replaced as were the rollers and the spring guy ran the door up and down by hand several times to see anything bound the door up. I just can't figure out why three openers over 27 years would act like this.
John

 

[ss55]

The problem could be with the door rather than with all three openers. Temperature changes affect the tension of the counterbalance springs, tension increases in colder temperatures. Also if torsion springs don't have enough axial space to expand in length as the coils wind tighter, the coils can slide against each other with increasing friction until they bind. I had to oil the torsion spring on one door to keep it moving smoothly.

If the door does not roll up and down easily the opener has to work much harder. Try unhooking the opener from the door and rolling the door up and down manually. A spring adjustment that is ideal in the summer may not work well in the winter, a compromise setting may be needed.

 

[gears]

My track separates in the cold and the little gap is enough sometimes to trigger the safetys

 

[flyinstyle]

Check the sensors

 

[W_B]

I had trouble with one of my garage doors for many years. Figured out, after breaking one of the springs, that the springs were not matched and caused the door to rack in the opening. I guess a consequence of the too frugal nature of the previous owner, replacing a broken spring instead of doing both. I replaced springs on both sides and new cables and had no more problems, at least with that aspect. Had two Sears openers that worked sometimes, until I replace the last one with a Chamberlain. Once adjusted it has worked very well for several years now.

 

[Dusty MI]

The Genie Screw Drive has worked very well for me.

Dusty

 

[John D Smith]

Well, I have been busy but I finally found time to work one the garage door problem and got it solved!
One of the wires that run from the electric sensors to the electronics board was bad. Apparently it would be ok in warm weather but as it got cold the wire would open and the door would see this as an obstruction and stop the door. I put in new wires and it works fine. I really appreciate all of your suggestions. Thanks again.
John

 

[farmboy48]

Well nuts!! I was going to suggest spraying your torsion spring with a lube like PB blaster, but you already got 'er fixed. That works on mine, 3 of them, when they get stubborn in the winter.

Dick ND