Garage Door Stuck and Open By Itself
 

Have the dreaded garage door issues lately.

#1) Everyday when I open the garage door from wall switch to head out, the garage door opens 20% and then stays stuck. Then I have to open and close a couple times before the entire door fully opens.

#2) When coming home, the remote control needs to be pressed like 30 times before it makes a connection to open the door. I've replaced the batteries, so I've isolated that out.

#3) Garage door suddenly opens middle of night (luckily nothing of valuable inside)


I've cleaned the door sensors, adjusted the travel tensions. Is it time to replace the damn motor unit entirely? It is 21 years old.

^ your neighbour is effing with you and watching you on his Ring doorbell.

I'm guessing typical overhead opener with a spring assisted door?

When it stops does the overhead light flash? When you pull the safety does the door move freely in the tracks? Do you also have a car with homelink connected?

Opener circuit boards have a lifespan. If it's 10 years old I'd replace the whole thing.

Light doesn't flash as the bulb burnt out, not sure if that makes a difference. It moves freely if I pull using the safety. Like nothing obstructing movement from what I can tell.

I'm going to lube up the moving parts to see if that makes a difference. I tweaked the travel and force buttons again yesterday, hopefully that fixes it. Normally after I run the garage door a couple of times when it finally opens up, it seems fine. But whenever I let it sit oversight and try next day, the door has issues opening.

I'm already expecting to buy a new garage opener unit considering the age of this thing. But wanted to see if I can fix it DIY.

2 - 3 years ago my garage door developed a similar issue where the door would often only open maybe 1/3 of the way before it thinks something is obstructing its path of travel, and then it'll close (completely) again. Usually when I manually assist the opening (by helping to lift the door as it goes up), it would usually open the whole way.

Over time, the problem got worse to the point where it isn't really functional anymore, so I called in a garage door specialist -- J.Mac Doors -- and the owner Jim figured it out as soon as he had a look at it.

As it turned out, the door was somehow flexing near the bottom middle part, perhaps a meter up from the bottom. As the door was being pulled open, the flexy part dipped down, and according to Jim, that was enough to offset the angles of the rollers to the point where the garage door opener thinks there is some sort of snag, so it trips the safety mechanism, stops, and closes the door again.

He fixed it by replacing one of the existing horizontal braces with a longer, beefier piece. The door didn't flex anymore, and it opened and closed as it should.

If you need help, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend J.Mac Doors. He is very well reviewed in Google, and the reason for that is obvious.

A+ for J.Mac

My experience with them here (sort of.)

Similarly how does the motor run with the door unhooked with the safety? Does the chain sound like it's binding up anywhere?

my garage door is OLD

still runs ok but as of late i need to help pull it down when closing it.

definitely needs to love lube, just not 100% were to put it lol

i'm going to try it disconnected from the motor this weekend and see how it goes.

Even with a burnt bulb you'd hear the relay clicking if it was trying to flash. If you don't hear that there's no obstruction.

Opening by itself in the middle of the night, I'd replace it. Can you install a direct drive side mount unit? Liftmaster/Chamberlain and Genie have some residential units, really quiet, backup battery is possible, no wear and tear on the door itself as it's turning the shaft. I have an outside drum and double tracks, they said it couldn't be installed but it worked out just fine.

Long story short, I was able to fix the issue. What happened for some fucking reason which I don't know, the metal track on one of the sides where the door goes up/down, there was a small bend. So every time it hits that spot, there seems to be some resistance/detection of obstruction. I was able to flatten it straight, so far the door opens/closes like butter.

Lube goes in the roller shafts, not roller to track. Better yet, order a set rollers with bearings.

Make sure your tracks are straight and watch the travel of the rollers, in and out, as the door moves up and down.