My opener is about 6 years old installed new on a new door in a well
kept tidy environment .
When it gets around 10* or so cold the door goes up 10 inches & stops .
letting it back down & up again lets it up 20 inches . It does this
about 5 times going up 10 inches more each time till its open . It
closes just fine .
I took the cover off and warmed it up with a heat gun and warmed up the
sensors at the floor & nothing helped . Each old spell it does this .
Any ideas ?

Ken G. wrote:
My opener is about 6 years old installed new on a new door in a well
kept tidy environment .
When it gets around 10* or so cold the door goes up 10 inches & stops .
letting it back down & up again lets it up 20 inches . It does this
about 5 times going up 10 inches more each time till its open . It
closes just fine .
I took the cover off and warmed it up with a heat gun and warmed up the
sensors at the floor & nothing helped . Each old spell it does this .
Any ideas ?




Pull the release lever when it's cold and open the door manually to see
if it's smooth. It's possible the door is out of adjustment and binding
when things contract in the cold.

(Ken G.) writes:

My opener is about 6 years old installed new on a new door in a well
kept tidy environment .
When it gets around 10* or so cold the door goes up 10 inches & stops .
letting it back down & up again lets it up 20 inches . It does this
about 5 times going up 10 inches more each time till its open . It
closes just fine .
I took the cover off and warmed it up with a heat gun and warmed up the
sensors at the floor & nothing helped . Each old spell it does this .
Any ideas ?

When's the last time you greased the track, etc.?

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Grease & oil is the first thing i checked . I oiled everything this
summer as normal .
I will try it with the door released to see what happens .
The door is light weight aluminum clean and like new still .

Thanks !

Ken G. wrote:
Grease & oil is the first thing i checked . I oiled everything this
summer as normal .
I will try it with the door released to see what happens .
The door is light weight aluminum clean and like new still .

Thanks !



That doesn't mean it's not out of adjustment and binding, some
structures can contract a lot in the cold too, my bathroom door binds in
the winter but has plenty of clearance in the summer for example.

On Sat, 10 Dec 2005 12:16:42 -0700, (Ken G.) wrote:

My opener is about 6 years old installed new on a new door in a well
kept tidy environment .
When it gets around 10* or so cold the door goes up 10 inches & stops .
letting it back down & up again lets it up 20 inches . It does this
about 5 times going up 10 inches more each time till its open . It
closes just fine .
I took the cover off and warmed it up with a heat gun and warmed up the
sensors at the floor & nothing helped . Each old spell it does this .
Any ideas ?


sure.

My father had a couple of sears openers on a two car garage. The one
he used frequently had problems opening - stalling usually about half
way up and repeated working would get to go a tad more. We greased
the tracks and put another two turns on the spring to no avail.

Finally got around to swapping the electronics between units and that
worked (it was easier than trying to swap the mechanism). The problem
followed the circuit board.

Only difference we could see was the more used one had a fine black
oily powder around the Molex type connector in the back (single row
white nylon, if my memory serves me). Not a lot of gunk - but
noticeable.

We cleaned the connector with some acetone and a metal "acid brush."
That fixed the problem opener. Seems there was an overload protection
circuit that is sensitive to a little leakage at the connector

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Ken G. wrote:
Grease & oil is the first thing i checked . I oiled everything this summer.

The door mechanism's pivot points should be greased rather than oiled.
This requires spray grease (grease mixed with solvent that will
evaporate) to penetrate into them.

The door should be balanced so that when it's unlatched from the opener
and held 1/3 of the way up it should slowly fall and when it's held 2/3
of the way up it should slowly rise.

Chain drive and maybe belt drive Chamberlain/Sears openers need grease
around the trolly (part that slides against the rail) and above the
rail. In cold areas the grease should be thin NLGI #1, not NLGI #2 or
combination #1/#2 grease, which are more common. Of course garage door
opener grease is suitable, but auto parts departments should have NLGI
#1 for much less. Clean off all old grease from the track.

Wires, connections, and solder joints break or loosen from motor
vibration. So tighten the screw connections for the wall button and
electric eye wires, especially since the opener reads voltage levels
from these devices, and the wall button has caused problems. Some of
these openers have 2 circuit boards connected together through several
pins that may have become corroded. Just unplugging and replugging the
boards (disconnect AC power first! At least one board has exposed
120VAC on it in some areas) may help (take care to allign all the
pins), but to clean and protect them get some contact
cleaner/protectant, like Caig's De-Oxit (Radio Shack, real hardware
stores, electronic parts outlets). Wires often break inside the
insulation, right next to where they're soldered to the circuit board.
Broken solder joints can be hard to see except under strong light and a
magnifying glass. Also suspect any areas of the circuit board that are
discolored from heat (can be normal), burnt or swollen components
(resistors can crack, electrolytic capacitors bulge on top or leak, but
don't confuse leakage with glue used to secure some of them).
Electrolytics also work worse in the cold, so marginal may affect
operation only then.