Sometimes you wonder about quality control

[Brad Johnson]

The garage door opener had itself for dinner last night.  The fix was easy but replacement parts would have been right at $100.  For $30 more I got a new (well, reconditioned) Craftsman unit at our local Sears outlet store.  It's a better unit than I had and even came with a remote keypad, something I'd been meaning to get for years. 

FYI - Craftsman is made by Chamberlain.  Also FYI, the reconditioned units come "white box".  They have exactly nothing extra, including instructions (they reference a web site where you can download them).  Lucky I set up a home internet account last month!

Everything went fine until I fired it up to set the limits.  Something was majorly FUBAR'd.  It would run and run until it timed out.  I messed with it for almost two hours, alternating between trying to reset the limiters and working on the interwebz trying to see if I'd messed something up on the install.  No dice.

I finally pulled the cover to see if there was something wierd going on inside.  Turns out there was.  This particular model, a no-frills bare-bones unit, has mechanical limiters.  The main trolly that carries the limiter contacts was laying at the bottom of the unit.  Hmph.  I snapped it into position and everything worked as advertised.

I'm a little miffed that I had to pull the cover, and that it took an extra couple hours I wasn't planning, but it seems to be working just fine.  Total cost, tax and all, $134.83.  They were even nice enough to include batteries in the remotes and the doorpad.  Not exactly free but it beats the crap out of the couple hundred I had running through my head when I discovered the onld unit was dead.

Brad

[Standing Wolf]

The main trolly that carries the limiter contacts was laying at the bottom of the unit.  Hmph.  I snapped it into position and everything worked as advertised.

Yep. You just saved the manufacturer $.35 in labor and $.13 in quality control.

[Brad Johnson]

I would've gotten another unit If it hadn't been a supreme PITA to take it down and haul it back to the store. Hey, it works and has a warranty.  If it craps out again they have the whole "in-home" thing I can fall back on.

Brad

[crt360]

Not exactly free but it beats the crap out of the couple hundred I had running through my head when I discovered the onld unit was dead.

Glad to hear it didn't take all of your PS3 dough. :D

The suck of losing an extra couple of hours notwithstanding, you can take pride in saying you properly installed a garage door opener that came without instructions.  That's easily worth a few extra beers.

[Brad Johnson]

It was pretty straightforward, mechanically speaking.  Being a replacement and not a new install I was able to take advantage of existing mounting points and door attachment hardware.  Had the limiter not been an issue it would have taken about two hours. 

Brad

[brimic]

I repaired mine (also a chamberlain rebranded model) a few years ago. It amounted to one of the nylon gears being worn out- I had to take the unit apart and replace a few gears and other assorted parts. Total repair cost me about $30. FWIW, I had to reset the limiters too, which was a minor PITA.

[Headless Thompson Gunner]

I helped a friend install an overhead door on a barn last summer.  That task is now officially on my list of jobs better to hire out.

It was trying to get the tracks straight and parallel and and level and spaced right and anchored solidly that made the job so miserable.  Hassling with the motor was downright pleasant after that.  Never again, personally.

[Regolith]

I helped a friend install an overhead door on a barn last summer.  That task is now officially on my list of jobs better to hire out.

Ditto.  Helped my dad install two new garage doors a few years ago, one powered and one not.

We were still working out the minor details a few years later.     We finally got the damn thing to work perfectly about a year ago.

[brimic]

That task is now officially on my list of jobs better to hire out.

I personally won't touch those torsion springs, I know they are pretty simple, but do something wrong and there's plenty of stored energy to kill you.

[Brad Johnson]

I personally won't touch those torsion springs, I know they are pretty simple, but do something wrong and there's plenty of stored energy to kill you.

Years ago I had the misfortune to be standing directly under one when it let go.  It was... loud.

Brad

[Regolith]

 

I personally won't touch those torsion springs, I know they are pretty simple, but do something wrong and there's plenty of stored energy to kill you.

Since I had the strongest upper body out of my brother, my dad and I, I got elected to wind those damn things. 

Not fun.

Years ago I had the misfortune to be standing directly under one when it let go.  It was... loud.

Brad

We let one go when we were fixing it the last time.  It wasn't wound correctly the first time (you have to do a certain number of rotations, and I must of miscounted), so we had to do it again. 

Hoping to god you got the chunk of metal you were using to wind it out of the hole before it let loose and flung it into your face was....interesting. 

[cassandra and sara's daddy]

there is a trick to putting one up  you assemble and mount door sans track  hold it in place with some 16 d nails bent over then you mount wheels and track tighten it all up  remove nails    counter intuitive but they go up in less than an hour with 2 guys.  newer doors have an opener that pulls from bottom of door with 1 cable  much quieter only one cable mounted in the center. only done one of those but was very impressed.... once i figured the darn thing out

[Brad Johnson]

One added benefit - this new unit has two light bulbs, and the rating is max 100w.  It's a HUGE improvement over the single 60w bulb in the old unit (which went through bulbs at roughly the same rate spring-breakers go through tequila shots).

Brad

[brimic]

It's a HUGE improvement over the single 60w bulb in the old unit (which went through bulbs at roughly the same rate spring-breakers go through tequila shots).

Same problem. I go through at least a bulb a month. Put in CFLs, and one of them ate it within 2 months.

[Brad Johnson]

It's the vibration that kills them.  I rigged up a solution for the old one - a simple spring-clamp worklight and on of the screw in lightbulb-socket-to-wall-plug adapters.  I hung it on a small hook in the ceiling.  Once the bulb was isolated from the opener, No more light bulb problems.

Brad

[MechAg94]

Mine broke a year or so ago.  It was one of the belt type and the rubber belt just cracked up stripped little rubber pieces everywhere.  I installed a new gear driven type that was actually very easy to install for the most part.  The hard part was the mounts didn't match up to the old one and I had to buy and install some channel bracket pieces with holes to slip mounting bolts in.  At least I didn't have to mess with the doors or the mount on the door.

[Brad Johnson]

I got lucky in that respect.  The previous unit was mounted on a strip of prepunched j-channel with downlegs bolted to it. All I had to do was move a downleg over one hole and everything matched up perfectly.

Brad