Garage door opener?

[Kodiak]

Sounds likea surge protector might some good insurance there.

 

[Joeinindy]

Hope I can help you, part of my business is installing GDO's for Lowes and Sears. Chamberlin makes Sears and quite afew others. Genie is also marketed as Dalton and other names. The chamberlin units are better built and seem to outlive most of the Genie products. The problem you are having sounds like you just need to adjust the pressure knobs on the side of the head. If you look on the side or back, depending on the model, there are two small adjusting knobs, one for down pressure and one for the lift. If these are set to sensitive the door will stop or return. The only real advantage in belts and screw drives is noise level, although the screw drive never needs adjustment of the chain due use over the years.

 

[RanchMan]

I put in a Genie screw-drive type about 5 yrs. back. It has not given me any problems - actually, a short story that I think shows they are built pretty tough....

The torsion springs my double-door uses wound up breaking earlier this year. (bad. /w3tcompact/icons/sad.gif) How long were they broken? I can only guess - but I believe it was probably for a fair amount of time - maybe a month or 2. Anyway, the door opener kept working so well, I didn't notice it until I was in the garage one day with the door closed and happened to look up. Needless to say, once I discovered it, I didn't use the door opener until I repaired it.

(BTW it is almost impossible to find someone to sell you those torsion springs as everyone claims they "can't" due to liability reasons - While yes, there is a certain amount of danger involved in tightening such a heavy-duty spring, I think it's more of a "racket" the door companies have set up as there are FAR more dangerous things out there. <power tools, chainsaws, etc. anyone?> Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there are plenty of folks who have hurt themselves when installing such springs, but there are plenty of folks who have cut off body parts with a circular saw or died while felling a tree with a chainsaw too.)

Anywho, I felt bad that "Genie" was abused, but am happy it held up well. Other brands? Can't comment from first hand experience, but I haven't heard anyone complain about them either.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

You are absolutely correct. I had a company send a repair person out and he adjusted those switches. He also adjusted the chain tension, and expanded the torsion springs a little bit to prevent coil bind. He didn't even charge me anything. I felt pretty rotten that I didn't buy the opener from his company, and then he didn't even charge me. I offered to dyno his motorcycle for him for free, and he got very excited about that. So, all's well that ends well.