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Can a dead garage door opener be fixed?


Harry P.

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Love your avatar, Chuck. Well, I would if you could get Johnny Fever to step back a bit! Yo! Jennifer. Yo! Bailey! Woooo hooooo! :wub:

Always thought Bailey was "hot one" on that show.

Paging Harry P., please pick up the red courtesy phone, you have a call! :P

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Harry's posting on other threads, so he must have his smart-phone in the garage with him. :)

Can they send pizza through a smart phone yet? And if not, why not? That would be a SURE seller. I'm sure someone could sell the idea to Jeff Bezos if the "drone-delivery" scheme doesn't quite work out.

So... you could be trapped in your garage, and still have internet and pizza. Why bother to ever come out?

Edited by Ace-Garageguy
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Ok.... my lengthy and noble attempt to revive my dead opener has officially been called off. :lol:

The Reader's Digest condensed version:

1. Called the Genie support center, went through a step-by-step troubleshooting sequence, was told part "A" was the problem. Bought part "A," installed it, same broken opener.

2. Repeat step 1, this time, since part "A" had been ruled out, bought recommended part "B," installed it, same broken opener.

3. Repeat step 1 again, this time, since parts "A" and "B" had been ruled out and I still had a broken opener, they offered to send me the last thing it could possibly be (part "C") for free. Received it today, installed it, same broken opener.

From my third attempt at a troubleshooting session, I learned that if parts A, B, and C are not the problem (which they were not)... the only possibility left is that the motor itself is bad (worn bearings), and a replacement would run $150. When I cheerfully told the tech on the line that I could buy an entire brand new opener for less than that, she wholeheartedy agreed. :lol:

Plus/Minus of my attempt to fix the opener...

On the minus side... three weeks worth of troubleshooting sessions, ordering/waiting for/installing parts/testing/calling back.

On the plus side...I now know so much about this particular model of Genie garage door opener that I could easily get a job as one of their online troubleshooting techs! :lol: And the parts I bought (that were not needed) are returnable, so I'm only out the cost to mail them back.

And the happy ending... my son bought me a whole new opener! B)

And so ends the story of Harry and the broken garage door opener...

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Wow! Glad to hear Harry is okay. I was worried that he had fallen and didn't have his Life Alert device with him. :P

Sad to hear that he didn't fix the garage door opener since I currently own two of those buggers with gremlins in them. Like Harry, I bought the capacitor and that didn't help a bit on Unit A. I need to clear some junk out of the way to try same new piece on Unit B. So that leaves me without a successful mentor! :huh:

When I went on eBay to look for parts, I noticed that most of the ones I saw were being sold by very small sellers. Probably guys just like us, who failed at fixing their opener and are now selling off the parts they bought!

Edited by Tom Geiger
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So I guess the answer to your original question is in a word........................ no. : ) New one is better.

Well, technically I could have bought the new motor and fixed the old opener. But when a replacement part costs more than buying a whole new unit, well... :D

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Well, technically I could have bought the new motor and fixed the old opener. But when a replacement part costs more than buying a whole new unit, well... :D

Like my recent foray into fixing my printer! The printer quality was poor and I wanted to print decals. First I followed friends directions on cleaning the head. No improvement. Then the print server told me I needed to replace the cartridges so I did ($40). No improvement. Then someone said if I had new cartridges, then I needed a new head. So I ordered one on eBay. ($40). The new head was worse than the one I had. So at that point I went to Staples and bought a whole new printer on sale using two different coupons ($60!) Yea, I'm hard headed.

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Just curious... I went to the Home Depot website. Chamberlain garage door openers start at $119. For $158 I can get one better than mine that includes the complete rail system, 2 remotes and an outdoor keypad. Doh!

And I do have a coupon!

Edited by Tom Geiger
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Why get a whole new garage door opener Tom, when you can just buy parts and fiddle with your old one for weeks just like Harry did? This way you can learn about things and also about defeat as well. Same thing 'bout your "daily driver" if it fails, fix it yourself and take a cab to work for the next month while the car is "laid up" on jack stands in your driveway. See how much money you can save by doing that as well, and don't forget to factor in the frustration also.

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Why get a whole new garage door opener Tom, when you can just buy parts and fiddle with your old one for weeks just like Harry did? This way you can learn about things and also about defeat as well. Same thing 'bout your "daily driver" if it fails, fix it yourself and take a cab to work for the next month while the car is "laid up" on jack stands in your driveway. See how much money you can save by doing that as well, and don't forget to factor in the frustration also.

That's kinda how I learned my wide array of skills and crafts, and my perpetual "self-reliant can-do" attitude including a reluctance to give up when things get a little difficult. Sounds like good advice to me. B)

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Ummm, Harry? I thought early on you said the thing would run for a couple seconds and quit...

Doesn't really sound like a defective motor, unless it has a starting capacitor and it will only run with the cap engaged...which may point to a bad run-capacitor, if it has one.

Just thinking out loud here...of course not actually "loud", as in sound waves being propagated, but you know what I mean...

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Ummm, Harry? I thought early on you said the thing would run for a couple seconds and quit...

Doesn't really sound like a defective motor, unless it has a starting capacitor and it will only run with the cap engaged...which may point to a bad run-capacitor, if it has one.

Just thinking out loud here...of course not actually "loud", as in sound waves being propagated, but you know what I mean...

Capacitor was replaced. No difference.

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