Posted June 19, 2020 at 1:57 pm by & filed under Blog, Broken Garage Door Spring, Garage Door
Repair, Garage Doors, Greenville Garage Doors, Uncategorized,
Upstate Garage Doors Yes, you heard that right. We're here to talk about something so common you just wouldn't believe it. Garage door opener outages. Believe it or not, after big storms (like the one that came through yesterday in Spartanburg and the whole surrounding area) we often get calls from customers complaining that their garage door opener won't open. This can be due to either a power outage--which is a simple fix--just pull the red string on your garage door opener as seen
in the video below: Once your power is back on, you can reconnect the opener and voila! Your opener should be functioning
normally again. Keep this trick handy and it will save you time and money and a little peace of mind. If your garage door won't go up after you pull the red string, this could indicate a broken spring. The door will be extremely heavy and you probably wouldn't be able to lift the door manually with a broken spring. In this instance, it's best to call an expert! You know a guy, right? (cough cough)How to Disconnect your Garage Door from the Garage Door Opener:
Thunderstorms, with their dramatic lightning strikes, can be as damaging as they are impressive. The electricity discharged by a lightning strike can start a fire and fry any number of electrical objects in a house. The power will surge from the ground through water and into electrical wiring. A direct hit is not necessary for a lightning strike to damage household equipment.
Signs to look for after a storm:
One very vulnerable item is the electric garage door opener. After a lightning storm, there are three signs to look for to determine if a garage door opener was damaged by lightning.
- The opener acts haphazardly. It may open suddenly without a person pushing the button or it may stop half-way open. The electrical circuits can be harmed by a power surge from a nearby lightning strike.
- Remote controls and/or keypads stop working. The circuits that detect the remote signals could be damaged. Change the batteries in case those happened to die out at the same time. If new batteries do not help, it’s most likely the result of a lightning power surge.
- Lights on the unit are acting up or will not turn on. Most units have a light on the back of the opener that flashes if there is an object in the way of the door or other issues. If that light is flashing for no reason, there is probably damage.
Most homeowners do not think of protecting the opener with a surge protector. Most units are attached to a ceiling so it is tricky to add a surge protector. But, it can save a homeowner hundreds for replacement dollars.
If you suspect that your garage door opener may have been affected by a thunderstorm or lightning, give us a call. Circuit boards can run about $100 per board, which is not cheap! But it's less expensive than replacing the entire unit.
Give John a call at 864-506-6735 if you suspect that you need a new circuit board.
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Liftmaster is a popular style of garage door opener that can link to the garage doors of your home and open them remotely. However, if you move homes, get a new garage door, or install a new garage door opener on your existing garage doors, the remote door opener will no longer work. In this case, resetting the door opener will de-link it from your garage doors. Additionally, you can easily re-link the garage opener to your doors if necessary.
Things You Should Know
- Pull down firmly on the left side of the motor unit, becuase this is the cover to the control panel. The side should fall down and reveal the controls.
- Press the "Learn" button to de-link any smart devices that are currently connected to your garage door.
- To link a new opener, hold "Learn" until you see an LED light come on. Hold any button on your new remote, and the device should pair automatically.
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1
Set up a ladder beneath the garage door motor in your garage. The garage door motor is a roughly 8 in × 5 in (20 cm × 13 cm) box mounted to the roof of your garage. Open the ladder by pulling the 2 metal halves apart from each other and pressing down on the 2 cross-beams. Then, climb up the ladder until you can comfortably reach the garage door motor.[1]
- If you don’t have a ladder, purchase one from a hardware store or a home improvement store. Or, borrow one from a friend.
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2
Open the panel on the left side of the motor unit. If you’re standing in front of your garage door and looking at the motor unit, the left-hand light compartment doubles as a panel covering the unit’s controls. Pull firmly down on this panel until it comes away from the motor unit. The hinges at the bottom of the panel will allow it to swivel down without falling.[2]
- The panel placement may differ from one style of unit to the next. The panel may also be located at the back or side of the garage door motor box.
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3
Locate the “Learn” button at the front of the control panel. Once you’ve lowered the light panel out of the way, you’ll see a series of warnings and safety information, a light bulb, and a small control panel. Look over the control-panel area until you spot a small button labeled “Learn.” The button will only be about 1⁄2 inch (1.3 cm) in diameter.[3]
- Depending on the make and model of your garage door opener, the button may be yellow and round or purple and square.
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1
Press and hold the “Learn” button for roughly 6 seconds. Press firmly down on the button to engage it. When you press it, you’ll notice that a small LED lights up next to the button. Continue pressing down until the LED goes out. This will erase all remote-control and keyless entry codes that had been connected to the garage door.
- If your fingers are too large to push the small button, try poking it with the tip of a pen.
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2
Press and hold the button again to erase linked smart devices. If you have a smart phone or tablet linked to your garage door, they will still be active at this point. If you’d like to de-link these devices, press down on the “Learn” button a second time. Hold it down for 6 seconds. When the light goes out, all linked devices will have been de-linked.
- Liftmaster smart garage door openers can be connected to smartphones and tablets via the “myQ” setting. To use myQ, download the myQ app from the Apple or Google Play store. Set up an account on the app if you don’t already have one. From there, follow the app’s directions to connect myQ to your home Wi-Fi network and hook it up with your smart garage door opener.[4]
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3
Test the remote-control button to make sure it’s de-linked. Safely climb down from the ladder. Then, fetch your garage door’s remote control opener. Click the button to check and make sure that the garage door does not open. If you de-linked any smart devices, double check those to make sure they can’t still open your garage door either.[5]
- If you have more than 1 garage door, you’ll need to reset each unit individually.
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1
Pull off the bulb cover to expose the motor unit’s control panel. Pry off the bulb cover that covers up the unit’s safety warnings and control panel. If your bulb unit has release tabs on the top right and left corners, press those and then pull down on the bulb panel.[6]
- Different models of Liftmaster motor units may have the control panel on the back, left, or right.
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2
Press the “Learn” button until the LED light comes on. The “Learn” button should be in the top-right corner of the motor unit’s small control panel. Press it down 1 time and don’t hold it. You’ll see a small LED light illuminate. This lets you know that the motor unit is ready to receive a radio signal from the remote unit.[7]
- If you have large fingers and can’t push the small “Learn” button, press it with the tip of a pen instead.
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3
Hold down a button on your remote garage door opener. Within 30 seconds of pressing the “Learn” button, press down on a button on the remote. This will send out a radio signal to the ceiling-mounted motor unit. In the future, when the unit receives that specific signal, it will open the garage door it’s attached to.[8]
- On most Liftmaster units, the light attached to the motor unit will light up for 1/2 a second to indicate that the remote’s button has been linked.
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4
Repeat the process with any additional garage doors. Most remote controls have 2 or 3 buttons on them and can be linked to 2 or 3 garage doors. To link another garage-door motor to your remote, move your ladder over to a second or third ceiling-mounted garage door opener. Remove its bulb cover. Press down on the “Learn” button until the LED lights up. Then press the button on the remote control that you’d like to open that door.
- Be careful not to press a button that you’ve already linked to another garage door! If you do, pressing the button will open both doors.
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Things You’ll Need
- Liftmaster garage door motor unit
- Liftmaster remote garage door opener
- Ladder
- Pen (optional)
Models of Liftmaster garage door opener may vary slightly from one to the next. Consult your owner’s manual for directions and illustrations specific to your unit.
As a small thank you, we’d like to offer you a $30 gift card (valid at GoNift.com). Use it to try out great new products and services nationwide without paying full price—wine, food delivery, clothing and more. Enjoy!
If the garage door motor unit won’t reset, or stops operating correctly immediately after you reset it, it’s probably broken. Check to see if the opener is still under warranty. If it is, contact the manufacturer and ask them to replace the broken unit.
As a small thank you, we’d like to offer you a $30 gift card (valid at GoNift.com). Use it to try out great new products and services nationwide without paying full price—wine, food delivery, clothing and more. Enjoy!
Consider contacting a garage door specialist if all else fails, as they’ll be able to locate specific problems or malfunctions.
As a small thank you, we’d like to offer you a $30 gift card (valid at GoNift.com). Use it to try out great new products and services nationwide without paying full price—wine, food delivery, clothing and more. Enjoy!
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Be careful when you’re standing on the ladder. Avoid climbing higher than you need to, and don’t lean very far to 1 side or the other or you could fall over.
As a small thank you, we’d like to offer you a $30 gift card (valid at GoNift.com). Use it to try out great new products and services nationwide without paying full price—wine, food delivery, clothing and more. Enjoy!
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References
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