Garage door remotes

IaLeo

Well-known Member
Old remote got finicky, button not working every time, tore the button out, using onlylittle tiny button under the orig. rubber one. Worked sporadically. Not anymore. 12v batterymeasures strong.

Looked for second one never used as this two car size door has only been used for one car as us Pack Rats filled the space up!

Found the other one, its 12v battery measures strong but it also will not activate the door opener.

I assume I either have two bad openers or there is something amiss in the receiver mechanism. Should I risk $35 new remote or just call repair services? Your opinion please. Leo
 
Do you have a hard-wired switch/button in the garage? How does that work operating the door? If that's fine I would question the remote before the door operator. I had an incident with my doors on the south
side of my garage not closing. These doors have photo-eye safety systems. Seems the low winter sunshine at about 4:30 PM would shine in the open door and disable the photo-eye thus causing a closing error.
 
The wired-in button works every time-for 13 years as did both remotes, whenever I tested the one I never used.
Strange, though, the door would often start to close a few inches then quit. I assumed it my fumbling the tiny button down in the recess under where the soft rubber button was.
I decided to quit using the one I always used and had taken the rubber button out of it.
But the recently found second one that worked over the years did not work. sheeesh.
I am unclear how a new remote gets programmed, hope it isn't too complicated.
 
On my opener there is a small, green button on the control board (side facing away from the door). I push and hold that button and simultaneously push and release the remote button I am programming. The light blinks to signal a completed learning.

Many of the remotes now scroll through different signals to make them harder to copy, so reprogramming may help yours.

I also found my hard-wired switch on the garage wall was not making a complete contact, and the door would just jump and stop. That same action caused the opener to "forget" it's programmed remotes. A new, higher-quality push button solved that issue for us.
 
Once the door starts moving it is dedicated to going the distance unless The power is interrupted by either the remote, the hard wired button or the photo eyes if the door is going down. When you hit the remote to start the door a magnetic switch kicks in and power goes to the motor. Any of the safety switches or your remote can kill the power that keeps the magnetic switch together and the switch opens stopping the door. At least that is the way the old ones worked maybe the new openers work in another way. So you think the door quit going down because you were fiddling with the remote? I have done the same thing, the door mysteriously quit because I touched the button again without knowing it. If the door is stopping on it's own on the way down I would suspect the photo eyes. That or the circuit board. I just had to throw away a three year old opener because the circuit board went south and a new one was nowhere to be found. The garage door guy took my old opener with him so he could salvage the almost new parts off of it.
 
Your opener would have come with an owners manual that has trouble shooting and programing instructions.

If it's gone the same info can be found on line with the model number.

There you will find programing instructions for the remotes.

Also when an opener stops mid cycle or denies a command, it will flash a code, some with the light, some with indicator lights on the back of the unit.

Before you do anything, try the time tested method of unplugging the power for a few minutes, see if it will reset.

If the remotes do nothing, no lights flash, no codes, try a reprogram. Be sure to follow the instructions exactly.

Yes, if you suspect bad remotes, go buy one and see. Of course it will have to be programed. You can return it if it doesn't work.

Calling for service is going to be expensive. Unless you have connections with a service company, almost always will they want to sell a new unit, and make no effort to repair yours.
 
(quoted from post at 20:09:02 01/13/21) Your opener would have come with an owners manual that has trouble shooting and programing instructions.

If it's gone the same info can be found on line with the model number.

There you will find programing instructions for the remotes.

Also when an opener stops mid cycle or denies a command, it will flash a code, some with the light, some with indicator lights on the back of the unit.

Before you do anything, try the time tested method of unplugging the power for a few minutes, see if it will reset.

If the remotes do nothing, no lights flash, no codes, try a reprogram. Be sure to follow the instructions exactly.

Yes, if you suspect bad remotes, go buy one and see. Of course it will have to be programed. You can return it if it doesn't work.

Calling for service is going to be expensive. Unless you have connections with a service company, almost always will they want to sell a new unit, and make no effort to repair yours.

Mine was giving trouble a little while back, so I replaced the whole operator. Now I wish that I had checked the safety light beams.
I do almost all my own service work. I've installed 8 overhead doors, rebuilt a couple, installed a have dozen operators.

Dusty
 
IaLeo; To add to Steve@Advance's very good advice, I suggest that you consider calling customer service of the manufacturer, particularly if it's a major brand. Ten years ago I had problems with my garage door's operation and the instruction manual said that it could be either of two very different things, neither of which would be a simple fix. I decided to get an expert opinion from the technical department of the company (Genie) in hopes of getting it right the first time. The woman I talked to listened to my description of the problem and told me that what I needed to do was switch places of the two photo eyes, one for the other. I considered this to be very unlikely, but I knew she wouldn't give me any more advice if I refused to do what she recommended. She stayed on the phone with me during the whole process, including the time it took me to fetch different tools when the ones I started with were the wrong size, etc. I think it took at least ten minutes, maybe even a bit more. When I finished doing what she had told me to do, the door worked again, and it has ever since. That repair solution wasn't in the instruction manual, and I never could figure out how she knew it was that. It impressed me, though---a lot. I'm not promoting that particular solution, just the idea of using free expert advice if it's available to you.

Stan
 
Thank you all for your suggestions. I will get back to this thread when I solve the problem. Right now it is darn cold, windy and sleety!
BTW this is a Genie remote and the operator is at least 10 feet off the floor, so...

Leo
 
They do eventually wear out. Amazon has them and they come with pretty decent instructions on programming them to work with your opener.
 
This may not be your problem, but it happened to me.

Have you done any other projects recently? I relocated my camera system and in the process lost the ability to remotely open / close the garage door. The system interferes with the signal from the remotes. I verified this by powering off the camera system (when powered off the remotes work again).
 

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