[Forest Meister]

Here is what I have. The door stops about a foot above the eyes. I can force it down by holding the wall button but it will not cooperate with the remote. If I disconnect the opener I can move the door down easily, no binding anywhere. I have checked all the nuts and bolts and regreased all the rails and rollers. Any suggestions? FM

 

[DeerManager]

I would adjust the force dial for opening strength. I had to do the same this winter. I have a heavy insulated door and for some reason it was doing the same thing as you described. There are dials/knobs at the overhead unit to adjust it. Good luck

 

[kroppe]

How new/old is the door? Could be broken balance spring(s) or they might need adjusting. I needed new springs, and when replaced, the door functioned much better.

 

[justincasei812]

Check youtube for garage door set limits or it could be that the "eye's" are out of adjustment. Maybe someone hit one.

 

[hommer23]

There is a down limit you can program, depending on the opener. Some of the older ones have a button on the opener at the back of the motor housing and others use the remote to set the up and down travel. I just put a new Genie in my shed and that one uses the remote, the lift master in my garage has the buttons about 12 years old, my dads has the turn screws and his is about 20 years old.

It would not be the sensors (eyes) if those were out of alignment your door would return to the up position. If the door moves easy by hand it would not be the springs or you would feel it when you moved by hand. Holding the wall switch is the override for down travel or down force when the door hits a hard spot and returns up.

 

[Forest Meister]

Thanks for the input guys.

I set the dials to maximum, still didn't work.
The aluminum door is less than 20 years old but the spring was replace by a professional last summer.
I messed with the eyes for a half hour, nothing changed.

After messing with the %^$&# thing for over an hour I phoned "The Guy". Fortunately he had a service call not far away and had enough time to stop by late in afternoon. It took him more time to dig his cordless drill out of his truck and find the correct socket than it did for him to fix things. Apparently my garage has not been the only one that has shifted ever so slightly due to the long stretch of sub zero days we have had up here. All he did was move the bottom part of a rail about a 1/2" left, and voila.

When I asked why things worked smoothly when I moved the door by hand he explained that the door opener pushes the door from the top so it tends to bind easily. When opened by hand a person is pulling the door and that can make a world of difference. Apparently it did.

I will say that on the phone he was sure it was an eye issue or an opener issue but as soon as he looked at those he went straight to the rails.

Happy to not have to replace an opener in an unheated garage in winter but his fee stings. They have a minimum hourly charge and if I divide that by the time he spent, including the five minutes or so he took answering my questions and explaining why the door was doing what it did and why, I paid him at a rate of about $300/hr. Guess that makes up for him replacing both my garage springs last summer in less than an hour. FM

 

[jstfish48162]

Thanks for the input guys.

I set the dials to maximum, still didn't work.
The aluminum door is less than 20 years old but the spring was replace by a professional last summer.
I messed with the eyes for a half hour, nothing changed.

After messing with the %^$&# thing for over an hour I phoned "The Guy". Fortunately he had a service call not far away and had enough time to stop by late in afternoon. It took him more time to dig his cordless drill out of his truck and find the correct socket than it did for him to fix things. Apparently my garage has not been the only one that has shifted ever so slightly due to the long stretch of sub zero days we have had up here. All he did was move the bottom part of a rail about a 1/2" left, and voila.

When I asked why things worked smoothly when I moved the door by hand he explained that the door opener pushes the door from the top so it tends to bind easily. When opened by hand a person is pulling the door and that can make a world of difference. Apparently it did.

I will say that on the phone he was sure it was an eye issue or an opener issue but as soon as he looked at those he went straight to the rails.

Happy to not have to replace an opener in an unheated garage in winter but his fee stings. They have a minimum hourly charge and if I divide that by the time he spent, including the five minutes or so he took answering my questions and explaining why the door was doing what it did and why, I paid him at a rate of about $300/hr. Guess that makes up for him replacing both my garage springs last summer in less than an hour. FM

You are not only paying for the time at your house, but the knowledge of how to fix the issue.

 

[Forest Meister]

You are not only paying for the time at your house, but the knowledge of how to fix the issue.

Absolutely! Didn't mean to offend professional garage door people, or any tradesmen for that matter. Never got a fix done that I did not think was worth every dollar spent but in this case there is an irritant.........

The rest of the story is that several months back the owner of the repair company (and several other businesses) requested a plan for his sugar bush. He wanted to get certification by some sort of syrup marketing group and he begged me for completion before the next production season. Being a pushover for an "emergency" I moved him to the top of the heap, so to speak and quickly discovering some errors in his application that surely would have delayed the process another season if not quickly taken care of. I then worked him through the correction process. After getting that straightened out and after doing some preliminary mapping while he made the necessary contacts, he indicated the agreed upon quote, which was based on an estimated hourly rate about 60% less than his hourly rate, was a lot of money and he was going to rethink whether he really wanted to be certified and would get back to me.

In the mean time he took the new, improved and accurate application along with the preliminary info to someone else. Everything was in order and part of the work already completed so the other forester was obviously able to quote the plan for a reduced amount. Neither he nor I knew about the other until after the fact. I never did get paid even a dime for my time and knowledge yet I am billed for a full hour for less than fifteen minutes of time put in while the repair man was on his way home. Hey, how about some slack, maybe a half hour?

I guess that explains why the guy is very well off financially and folks with a conscience not so much. FM

 

[jstfish48162]

Now that’s a reason for a break.
The “scratching of each other’s back” scenario.