Monday, November 20, 2017

Garage Door Opener goes crazy.

Got home last night and found my garage door wide open, wind and rain blowing into the garage.  I know I had hit the button on the door opener remote control to close the door, and actually seen the door start to close, before I had left.  I tried the close button and the door would start to close, get to within a foot of the threshold, and then pop into reverse, drive full open, and flash the garage light furiously.  I tried a couple ot times, no joy.  Since it was dark and raining, I just pulled the emergency release, unhooking the door from the door opener, and closed the door by hand.
  This door opener has a safety circuit, an electric eye that looks from rail to rail, and if the beam is interrupted by say a child, or a car, or a pet, or whatever, it kills the close cycle and opens the door all the way.  Next day, I heaved the door up by hand and felt a light feathery touch from a twig that was stuck to the bottom of the door.  So I took the shop broom and swept off the entire door bottom, and the threshold for good measure.  Bingo, that did it, the door opened and closed perfectly.  Must have been something stuck to the door bottom that stuck out enough to break the electric eye beam and send the door opener into it's emergency panic open response. 
   And a good thing too.  That door opener has been working steadily for ten years now.  I don't know if I could find the instruction sheet, or even the makers name, let alone a spare parts place. 

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