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Craftsman Garage Door Openers are sh*t

C
codemonkey

Ok, blogs are good for burning off aggression, so here goes...

Ive got extremely bad luck when it comes to automatic garage door openers.  I have 3 garage doors to store up to four cars, the newer garage has a "double wide" door, and that garage door opener has some work to pull that sucker up.  After installing it a year or so ago I went to open it one day and it pulled up, ripping the screws right out of the door... so I called up the repair guy who came and told me I need a brace because the door is so big.

...I bought the damn garage door opener from a guy that required me to give him the statistics on the door size and weight...which I did.  He never told me I needed a brace.  Ok, no big deal, I ripped it off the screws a few more times (after quickly "fixing it") before the brace arrived.  I fixed that issue.

Why was I so upset about the brace?  Well, it all started in 2002... when I got a garage door opener for my single door garage where I house my primary car (my wife got one too, but more on that later). The house was hit by lightening and it went into my wiring or whatnot and blew the board that controlled the door.  So the next day the door was completely unresponsive and I went back to pulling the door up manually.  Months later I finally got my ass up and got a new one to replace it.  I installed it and a surge protector, and it worked fine for a year...

...then, one day it just stopped responding to my clicky thing in the car, and to the pin-pad on the outside of the house, yet the internal push-button box mounted on the wall inside worked fine.  So I screwed around, reset the frequency and all that jazz.  The units light came on when I click the push button door opener, but it never reponded by actually opening the door.  It knew I was trying to open it yet it taunted me. 

So I asked the people are Sears and they said it probably has a broken sub-component on the board and they could send a repair person (for like $70 or something) to come look at it.  Then if they find the issue I can buy the replacement parts for an additional fee.  Well the door opener is probably less then 100 bucks if I recall, and that deal sounded bad.

So I went back to just opening my wifes garage door, walking in, manually pushing the button mounted inside.  Then, when I leave in the morning, I push the button and run quickly through the door, jumping the motion sensors so that it doesnt rise back up to "protect me" from being curshed.  A very humerous sight in the winter when I have to jump an invisible "laser" and land on a patch of ice, slide to the door of the vehicle and jump in.  Im like a regular batman coming out of his bat cave.  Just leave off the big bat emblem because people would make fun of me when I drop the kids off at daycare.

Anyway...

This morning, I go to open my half dead garage door and SNAP, BANG, CRASH.  Lots of noise, very little activity...except the chain is loose and hanging down from the celing.  WTF?

So now Im, once again, one garage door opener down.  Manually opening the door is fun, as I fight with the spiders, and other odd bugs that want to stop me from opening the door.  What is wrong with my doors that causes so much destruction on my door openers?  Hell, this is the second door that has had problems.  Im wondering if its the chain system, or maybe the craftsman brand?  I dont know, but now Im afraid for my other double-wide garage door because I just got the notification that the coverage on the extended warranty has expired (yes, I bought that damn thing because of all my past troubles).

Favorite part of the story: My wifes garage door opener has never had any problems.  Same brand, and has been up longer than all my replacement door openers and has never failed.  Its loud as all hell, but it has always worked.

Maybe Ill sell all my cars and get a peddle bike for my commute....

Comments (2)

J
jtgjr007·
While our house was on te market last year trying to sell, we had one of those cables that hold the garage door up snap. Those things have a lot of tension on them and it could have taken someones head off! Well, that caused the whole door to be katywompus and it went off the rails. Long story short, we had to call a service person to come and fix it, but our opener still worked fine. I think that you got a lemon.
F
FadeIntoBlack·
Probably gear and sprocket setup. They are made to strip without the proper tension. They are made to strip so the motor doesnt burn up.\r \r My guess would be a crappy install. Check the springs above the door. Typically there should be two on a double door (anything 12+) and maybe one is broke. Otherwise, they might simply be too tight. There should be one spring turn per foot of garage door height.\r \r Those are the 3 likely culprits. Good luck, and let me know if you would like instructions on a DIY job.