Garage door opener ??

gab

Well-known Member
My Chamberlin 1/2 horse chain drive opener has recently taken on a life of it's own. About two months ago it was acting up and I went through the book, made adjustments and cut and stripped the wiring ends so they had a fresh connection. Worked fine for a month or so and then the door might go up or down only with several clicks of the remotes or wall switch. Then it worked good until yesterday, I noticed the lights were on in the opener and nobody touched it, I hit the wall button and it might work a cycle or it might jerk a foot and stop. Works fine today but I'm tired of it.
It's eighteen years old.

Who likes a belt drive or the chain drive and why?
 
I have three Overhead Door brand openers. The two at the house are 19 years old and still work like new,the one at the shop is close to 40 and works fine.
 
Might try cleaning and reconnecting the board, nothing to lose but your time.

I prefer the belt drive first, or chain. No on the screw drive!

I was just working on mine today, it's a Chamberlin belt drive, put in in Dec 05. I had to replace the belt last year, first trouble I've had with it. It's battery back up, replaced the batteries twice.

I replaced the lift springs on the door today, had to reteach the torque setting, Normal any time the load changes.
 
If it has an LED light bulb in it try replacing the bulb with a regular incandescent bulb...sometimes an LED bulb will mess with door openers..
 
My folks put a Genie screw drive opener on the tremendously HEAVY 18 ft, right, 18 ft not std 16 ft wood garage door. It lasted 25 years, they put a new opener up with the new lighter aluminum door. I would not be afraid of a Genie screw drive opener. And about 95% of openers regardless of what the name on the box says are Chamberlin. I've had a belt drive, couple chain drive, the last chain drive I installed in Feburary of 2014 was absolutely the BIGGEST PIECE OF JUNK yet. I'M SURPRISED it's still working. Next opener will be ANYTHING but a Chaimberlin.
 

worked on a door that had intermittent problems. Turned out a spider web on the door brace had a small leaf in it... And when the opener started to move, the leaf would swing through the sensors and stop the door... but only if there was a breeze blowing.
 
We have been very fortunate to have great luck with our chain drive units. The house is now 32 years old and we still have the original Allister openers. Had to replace the motor drive belt a couple of times but an occasional $5.00 fix is ok with me. I think the thing they have going for them is there's few electronics and no door sensors. I lube the chain and the track once a year along with the door rollers and the spring.

I have had to replace the torsion springs on each door once and I discovered how critical the correct tension is. The spring itself has to be sized to match the weight of the door first. After that, winding it to achieve the correct pre-load is key. The lifting capability of the opener is actually minimal and the spring plays a big part in how the system works.
 
Personally, for what a new one costs, I would not mess with 18 year old opener.

I do have one with battery backup, would not do that again, batteries failed after a few years and house has backup generator.
 
I had some trouble with mine-can't remember exactly what-and I ended up cleaning the eyes with Windex. I had used a dry rag, but it did not help until I used the Windex. Mine is at least 12-15 yrs old-lightning took out the first one, which was better made. Also every year or so, I lube the plastic drive gears. The first one ground the gears to powder-no lube! Both are Chamberlin. Mark
 
That's what I'm thinking but as long as it's working again I'm not going to do anything until the temperature drops below 90, way below.
 
Chamberlain has good tech support if you call them. Lots of good advice from others on the forum. The eyes at the bottom of your door need to align, LED lights tend to mess with the transmission signal between motor and remote/ wall switches etc. Replace those LED with old style bulbs. Heat messes with the logic board. The logic board is up on the motor fixture on the end and it has the wire antenna sticking out of it. RPM sensor may also be bad. My chamberlain is 11 years old, last year the board and rpm sensor went out, 10 months later the same thing. They shipped me one free of charge. Can’t complain about that service (other than the part failing prematurely)
 
Thanks Fred, I'm going to get some old school bulbs tomorrow. I'm waiting for some cooler weather to take a look at the logic board and I don't think there's anything wrong with the eye alignment.

The opener has worked flawlessly for over a week until Friday and just went out of control bonkers again. Now it works perfect again.
 

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