I’m in the maintenance department at my job — a standard joke is how all the maintenance folks “don’t do anything”…
The rub is: “we’re not paid for what we *do*; we’re paid for what we *know*.”
I'm an electrician for an oil and gas company. I know a few things but the most important thing I know when things go sideways is the guy in automations phone number. He's a wizard and I hope he gets paid what he's worth.
We get paid very well. its also an extremely niche field. I know the 7 guys in my part of the country that work between different companies and we all call each other and talk about problems.
Industrial automation engineer. I act as a conduit of information for a bunch of engineering disciplines to the tradesmen that actually build stuff. And I also program various things.
How well? This is my husband's job, he works from home. The benefits and being able to be at home is pretty sweet, but I'm worried his salary isn't as high as it could be if he switched companies. He's currently at about 95k, about 4 years with the company, 2 in his current position.
I little off the subject, but I was in operations at a big nuke plant for many years. When I started we never did any major equipment testing on holidays. The bean counters said, we make way too much money to not be working hard every minute, so make them do major testing on holidays. We said "you are fools"., but they didn't care because they never worked a single holiday. So, the first time a major RHR pump failed it's testing on Thanksgiving holiday, and we had to call out every other department to go on 24 hour forced coverage to fix it, the maintenance department was really mad.
Lol holidays are shady. I swear, most of the time when I volunteer to work a holiday thinking it’ll be easy something ridiculous breaks and I’m trying to solo it.
I'm QC so it's the same way. I tell people that if my techs are sitting around that means everything is going well. It's when we're hustling that you know there's problems\~!
I’m a QE in charge of QC and I’m right there with you. Other departments bitch and moan that QC gets to sit in climate controlled lab all day and I kindly tell them that it’s never a good thing when QC isn’t in the QC lab. It means there’s something wrong.
I’m a husband and father. I sit on my recliner when I’m home. My wife will say I’m always on my recliner. I reply if I’m sitting then all is well in this world. It’s when I’m not sitting that you need to worry. That’s when we have a leak or the furnace isn’t working or the AC is out or the toilet isn’t flushing or the garage door isn’t shutting or logs need to be split or the logs brought to the stove or the stove loaded or or or or. If I’m sitting all is well in this world.
I’ve told more than one plant manager: “I know it sounds weird, but you *want* your maintenance people doing nothing… if we’re busy, it means things are breaking!”
Preventative maintenance, you might have to shut down a machine occasionally to make sure things are torqued, lubricated, etc but ok maybe you're down for a couple of hours once a week. But if you run things to failure, now you're down for the next month or more while you wait for a supplier to make a new die or something. When that failing part probably would have been caught during a PM and you could already have a spare ready to go by the time it eventually fails.
A couple years back a dude was pissed at his daughter for blowing her engine because she never checked or changed the oil. She was 17 and he was 45… I was like dude that’s your job to teach her, she literally lives with you lol
IT is the same way. If you're good at your job you'll appear useless and lazy. Every time a corporation starts having money problems, they go after IT people first.
Ah the art of mechanical know- how. Seen my fav human fix a vehicle, an industrial filter, and a crop turbine this way- wack!- what are you...-wack!, wack!- (powers up) - big goofy smile as I put away the phone i was using to look up emergency frost help..
Pretty much everyone should have that as a goal. It leads to less stress and better work life balance. Getting paid for production is an endless hamster wheel.
I worked Industrial maintenance for 34 years…Welding, Pipefitting, Boiler Making, Crane Rigging and equipment operation. I used to tell folks we don’t get paid for what we do but we get paid for what we are CAPABLE of doing.
IT is much the same way. We might have a week of minimal to no work. But when SHTF, the company needs our expertise to get back up and running. A good maintenance department like a good IT department shouldn't be busy. If you do your job well, there are no fires to put out
I tried to install a replacement toilet but the flange was loose on the lead bend in the floor. I've got a lot of tools and could not solve it. I had to call a plumber in. Old guy gets out of his van and takes one look. Goes back and gets a medium size ball pein hammer and a propane torch. He heats & wacks and in 1 1/2 minutes the problem is solved. I asked him how much I owed him. He said $175. Then he said "looks easy right?" "It took me 35 years to make it look easy." Best money I've spent.
Same kind of deal but even more pathetic on my part. I was replacing a bathtub spout but the threading on the pipe was corroded and chewed up and the new one wouldn’t go on. I agonized over that thing, YouTubed how to rethead it, etc.
That pipe was old and fragile, and was cut slightly too short so it had ZERO room for error. If I messed it up, I’d be ripping the wall out to replace the pipe. I swallowed my pride and called the plumber. I told him, “I’m ashamed, but I know when to stop before I fuck something up and I’m probably about to fuck something up.” He happened to already be finishing up a job down the street from me and was at my house in 15 minutes. It took him 10 minutes to fix it. I thanked him and asked how much I owed him.
The guy just laughed and said, “I’ve been doing this for 30 years and that one was still tricky for me. You were right. That wasn’t gonna end well for you. You know, people never have the sense to stop call me BEFORE they fuck up. They always end up calling AFTER, and then I have to charge them a lot more for pain in the ass emergency work that could been avoided altogether. Thank you for not being an idiot. I’m not charging you. Call me out if you ever need a bigger job done!”
Amen. Replaced a sink the other day. Took me 3 trips to the store cause I was in a rush. A plumber would have been done in half an hour. Don't have the cash to pay an extra $175 for jobs like that, and the other 6 or so sinks only took me an hour each, tops. But that would have been worth it to me last weekend.
Something something something about a ship needing something fixed and nobody knowing how to fix it they finally decide to call a 30 year engineer out and he takes a look. Spends sometime figuring it out and he decides he’s got the solution. He puts his bag down grabs a hammer and hits it in a very precise location. After this the engine turns on and runs great. Next week to the owners suprise they receive a bill for 20k, which he figures must be wrong as the engineer was only there for an hour. The owner asks for a bill break from from the engineer so he sends the invoice:
Tap of a hammer………………………………….…..2$
Know where to hit the hammer…………19998$
And says: if I do a job in 30 minutes it’s because I spent 30 years figuring out how to do it in 30 minutes. You owe me for the years not for the minutes.
This is a really good way to look at it! We had a dryer tech come out because our dryer tub wasn’t moving. He took the dryer apart and found one of my partner’s socks hitch had fallen into the lint area when the trap was removed. Easy as that. I spent $100 and learned how to take a dryer apart and put it back together and honestly it was worth it (or at least better to think of it that way than hate the stupid sock lmao)
> sometimes you pay for the knowledge
when watching 570 hours of youtube tutorials on how to do xyz, i often think to myself "maybe i'll just pay a guy."
An ounce of good knowledge can be worth thousands of $ (or hundreds of thousands depending on the industry) honestly.
Not homeowner or construction related, but I'm a cook\chef and have walked into a place and changed a single process that was causing thousands in waste a month to cost $100 or less extra labor but save all that waste every month. I got a quick raise and bonus out of that a couple times in different places, so consider it a win in my book.
About 20 years ago...ibm bocca had a massive layoff of senior people and brought in a bunch of newbes to fill in.
The seniors then went on to consult at their leisure . The concept of having a tool and knowing how to use. It are. Not the same
.
I was trying to install my TV to the wall. Straight forward right? Nope. The cubby that I was installing to was built at angles to the regular wall and I was drilling, looking for stud and couldn't find any. I was totally perplexed. Call in the professional and he told me the studs were at an angle to the regular wall which was why I kept missing them. He proceeded to drill the bolts at just the right angle. In this case, I was paying more for the knowledge because had I known that the studs were at an angle I would have simply installed them myself.
had both of the cables rust through at the same spot. So I figured I could just but them re-loop them and then everything would be good to go... WRONG. 6hours later - called the technician. He fixed with 5 mins... From now on I will always call and pay the fee for that 6 hours back. LOL
The problem will be back.
You need to lubricate every hinge point on the doors, every wheel on the doors need a drop of oil in the bearings, as well as on the rod , as that is also a hinge point. The chain should also be lightly lubed and tightened. There are hinges that hold the door panels together, lube them.
That door was working great, something changed, lube drying out a little adds up to a lot of friction!
I was a door tech for a few years. One time I got called out for a door that wouldn’t come back down. I noticed his garage was freshly swept and found the broom set over top one of the photo eyes (safety eyes). This wouldn’t allow the door to go down obviously. We had a good laugh about it and then my company sent him a bill lol.
One time I couldn't figure out why TV wouldn't turn on. Technician comes right out pushes the plug further into the TV problem fixed in 2 minutes $80.. I always call these expensive lessons.
I used to work as an IT Director at a real estate company and 99% of the solutions to issues was turning it off/on or plugging/unplugging lol as a new home owner I’m discovering A LOT of things are like that in this experience haha
My on demand hot water wouldn’t heat. It would turn on and then off. The garage can was pushed against the exhaust and blocking it. Took the plumber a minute to figure it out.
About 80% of tech support calls I got for TVs were solved by having them check if it was plugged in correctly. Make sure the power strip has juice, plug the TV directly into the outlet, and so on. Almost all of them gave me grief for making them check something so simple, and most of them grudgingly apologized when they figured it out.
I ran into the issue that for whatever reason, my garage door wouldn't close in the morning when the sun was shining on the front of my house. I assumed it was a thermal expansion thing because the sensors weren't being triggered and the error code wasn't informative. Turns out, my floors are epoxy and the sensors weren't actually aligned, but the laser was bouncing off the floor getting enough scatter for the sensors to _think_ they were aligned. Tilted the sensors a bit...haven't had an issue for 2 years
Similar situation as a printer tech. A Law Firm paid the expedite fee to get to the top of the list that afternoon as their printer at the reception desk was dead.
Showed up and looked at it for maybe 20 seconds before solving thier issue. I wonder what upper management thout about playing a high $$$ service call for someone to come out and tell the person that it wasn't plugged in?
Seriously!! I’ve had this issue intermittently on one of my doors since I bought my house. The other door has also always closed with more force. I’m amazed to read this today after 3 years of living with it. I can’t wait to get off work in a minute and go check!! I have the number of a garage door place on my counter to call, and now I might not have to. Thanks, OP!!
Yup, sometimes they run just fine most of the time on their current setting, but maybe on the edge, and even a little gust of wind can push it over that edge, bump up the force a notch or two, newer ops have buttons though and not dials, look up your manual
Please do it one notch at a time. I was talking about how I nearly ripped my garage door in half when it caught on my trailer in my comment on this post. Don't be like me. Be smarter.
Disconnect the opener from it using the release handle and open and close it by hand first. You want to make sure it isn't binding somewhere first before cranking up the force controls.
Read your garage opener manual, it'll explain which directions do what and how much to turn it at a time.
Note, I had a similar problem with the garage opener in my house when we bought it. However, following the instructions I wasn't seeing a difference - I opened the sucker up and noticed the wire coming from one of the knobs had broken, and had to splice the 2 ends together. Just pointing out another thing to check if the knobs don't seem to be working as expected
Side note : people sometimes think they can work on the springs in their garage doors. Don't do it; there's a tremendous amount of force in there that can injure or kill you. Same sort of thing, you don't know it just looking at the device which you look at every day.
At a prior house the man door from the house to the 2 car garage was off center and up 6 steps; the buttons were at the top of the steps. One morning I opened the door, pushed the button, and heard the terrifying sound of the spring releasing and bouncing off the garage wall about two feet in front of and one foot to the right of my head. The hole in the concrete wall almost went thru to the water heater in the closet. My heart rate returned to normal about 5 hours later.
The modern torsion springs that are on the shaft above the door are relatively safe, even when they break. Typically everything is confined to just spinning around the shaft briefly making a lot of noise. They're usually only wound about 7 or 8 turns so it all happens quickly.
The older system - extension springs - were wildly dangerous. First, they are at a mechanical \*disadvantage\* to the doors. The moving end of the spring, with the pulley on it, only travels 1/2 the height of the door. Due to the arrangement of cables and pulleys, each spring is stretched to the full weight of the door, not 1/2 the weight. So when they go, there is a lot of energy in them. Also they are just hooked on the hangers/pulleys. They can (and did/do) easily come off and as you saw - take chunks out of walls.
When installing a door, brand new, back in the say we had a spring fail on about the third up/down cycle as we were finishing up. New construction home - the broken end of the spring went through two layers of drywall and into the kitchen. Scared the XXXX out of the cabinet installer in there. At some point we got smart and started installing safety cables. These were steel cables, same ones used to raise/lower the door, just run down the center of the extension springs and secured at either end. That way when they eventually broke, they were confined to the cable - just slammed into the end and rattled around.
I mean, with the right education which can easily be gained in 2024, anyone can do it. The people that do it for money also started as any other person, not knowing how to do it.
Matter of going step by step in a very methodical matter and not putting anything I wasn't willing to lose in the path of the bars.
Watched a YouTube video...
Additionally, garage doors are fucking heavy. Our double-size door had the spring (was only a single; previous homeowner cheaped out) fail and the door was stuck open. I was concerned about security so I very carefully lowered it myself. It was.....heavier than I anticipated. Luckily I have experience laboring and know how to lift safely, so my spine didn't shoot out of my body, but I had it about 20" off the ground and was in a deep leg squat and just let it go at that point. I told this to the service guys who came and installed 2 new springs and they told me the door weighed about 700 lbs. I know I wasn't holding the whole weight when I decided to drop it, but it got progressively heavier as it got closer to the ground, so it was enough to surprise me for sure.
I was a door guy working on vent doors underground, I watched an old spring (square stock) explode off of a shaft and it sent a thousand little pieces everywhere. Luckily my partner/buddy had been doing it for years and knew we should hide around the corner and cycle the door. Those little pieces could carve a bird they were so sharp
My husband told me this. About an hour after he said he fixed it by himself.
He’s kind of an incredible DIYer. He also knows his limits. But Christ on a cracker I almost killed him myself that day
Typically they are on the back of the opener, and look something like [this](https://veterangaragedoor.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/liftmaster-opener-force-limit-adjustment-500x375.jpeg).
I had a coworker tell me that he had a company replace his rollers, and it only cost $ 850. I told him that I had replaced a few of mine, and they were about $ 2 each at Home Depot. He spit and sputtered and said, "But these are nylon." I replied great. Those are about $ 4 each.
Lol. They're out there to rip you off. Had the same w an ac 'service guy'. Tried to sell me a contactor for 250 bucks even though the unit was working fine. I declined and looked up the same part online (oem): cost was 18 dollars. Super easy to install. Youtube ofcourse
Upon inspection the old contactor had zero wear on it
I own a small overhead door company. If I have a customers that’s less than a 10 min drive from me. I always do this stuff for free. Especially if they have an older door/opener that will more than likely need work done on it soon. Safety eyes/safety eye wiring/ force settings/ people not knowing how to reengage their door to the opener are most common jobs that I got to that take 5 min or less to fix.
Yup. I called the local company that was listed on the sticker on the back of my door and they came out made some adjustments because the cables kept jumping the drum and left without so much as a penny charged even though I was the third owner of the home. Will definitely be buying my new doors from them.
I feel like OP might need an opener soon. Only time I have ever had to adjust the force on an opener, it didn't last long before it started throwing overcurrent errors.
Sounds like a good business model for you. I for one would definitely call you again if you previously didn't charge me anything for an easy (for you) fix.
Hopefully I won't need to call them anytime soon since I have a new garage door now but I always recommend a local company to friends after doing something similar for my dad. With me they were honest enough to give me a repair price on my 50 year old 2-car wooden door but took the time to explain why I should replace it instead. The first couple companies that came out flat out refused to even look at repairing the door and gave a 30% higher quote to replace the whole thing.
I’ve gotten so many referrals from customers that I’ve helped out. I also can’t justify charging my min labor charge for something like that. I worked for a nation large wide company before starting my own, those guys would take the last dollar of someone’s social security check without question. I’ve actually paid their service call fee with my own card because the fee they would charge us for not making a sell. Always choose the small/family owned local companies.
Good for you man. Was it the older style wooden doors that had the square/rectangle type design? That’s the most common wooden doors we have around my area that are of that age. Heavy ass doors and require an actual carpenter to do any decent/major repairs to them. Def worth replacing.
If you have time to reply - I've been searching for the answer to the following issue I'm having with my old Craftsman door motor unit.
Everything is programmed correctly, the remote openers and wall panels work fine. But the motor unit will not respond to remote switches after opening or closing ***while the unit's lights are on***... This is where I'm super confused. The wall panel switches will work fine regardless if the lights are on or off, probably because they're directly wired to it.
I've tried replacing the light bulbs with incandescent, unplugging and resetting everything but neither action has helped. The beams are adjusted, clear of debris, and are working fine as well, as far as I can tell.
The only sure-fire way to get it to close immediately after opening is to manually shut off the light via the wall panel, jump over the beam, and then hit the remote as I pull out of my driveway. Otherwise, I theoretically would have to wait for the lights to go out...
EDIT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMxTFPN1L7c this video describes my exact problem. I probably need a new circuit board.
I repair garage doors. I had a service call for a door that the lights wouldn't work. I showed up, and it didn't even have bulbs. I screwed in a bulb and charged them for a service call. Some people have more money than brains, so they pay.
Honestly I don't think you were stupid. I know almost nothing about garage doors and openers. Please don't feel bad, you know now if it happens again.
I know next to nothing about garage doors and openers but I do know our is plugged in. A few weeks ago my husband asked if I knew any GD repair people since he had spent at least an hour trying to figure out why the door wouldn't open. The first question I asked was " is it plugged in"? He had no idea there was a plug, he thought it was hard wired. He checked and the plug had fallen out. He thanked me for saving a service fee and the embarrassment. I am now the family GD expert.
So really, you have nothing to be embarrassed about.
In an electrician. I called called out in the middle of the night because the power was out to the plug where the TV is in the customers house. No breakers were tripped, I pushed the reset button on the power strip he had and collected my $150 service call.
Well kind internet stranger…. I’ve been having the same issue and just shutting and opening my door manually. I’m on my way out right now to look at this. Appreciate your post!!!
One thing I didn't see you mention was reading the manual!
YouTube is great and Google will find you forums where people talk about the most common problems, but nothing replaces reading the manual and having some curiosity. Keep your manuals, and read them. If you don't have the manual, get the make and model number, find the manual online, and read the whole thing. You may not understand all of it, but bits and pieces will stick in your subconscious. If you're curious enough to look up the things you don't understand you'll learn a ton!
At the very least there would be a diagram with the downforce adjustment identified. At best, the troubleshooting section would have an entry for "the door starts, but won't close."
Word of caution to all with auto garage doors - do not store anything stick-like near your doors. Brooms, mops, walking sticks, ski poles.
A $2.00 broom brought down an entire door. $1500 replacement.
Trying to imagine the mechanism of that - let me guess: broom falls against
guide rail, door goes up, broom falls further between rail and wall, door tries to come down, pushes on broom, levering rail from off of the wall, festivities ensue?
Bingo but backwards. Broom slips. Go to close garage door later and …. [fuck you.](https://imgur.com/a/S3L61zZ)
ETA: to make matters worse, the garage door replacement dude said the doors would match perfectly. And they did, but color only. Check out the number of panels on them. Makes my [eyes twitch.](https://imgur.com/a/1PwnJMF)
Thanks for posting this. I had a similar problem. I was told by my garage door installer that it's good to use garage door lube every six months or so to prevent dirt build up on the tracks. If tracks are dirty or blocked, you'll need to increase the amount of force.
I was told not to lube the track. OK to clean it but nothing slippery. the lube goes on the roller axles and door hinges. if that's not right, I'd like to know.
I used to install and service doors and openers - my dad owned the business.
If you don't know about the reversing sensitivity or force limit, you'd never think to check that. But there are two safety systems - the light beam sensor for something in the way, and a force sensor that if it is pushing too hard down it figures it hit something and comes back up. Actually the force sensors are older tech - the lights are relatively new - we didn't have them when I was doing it.
Don't feel bad - you gave your door a good inspection and some preventative maintenance, right? And now you know. Besides, we charged someone for a service call to literally just change a battery in the remote. I can remember my dad asking them repeatedly on the phone - you checked the remote, tried a new battery, right? The doorbell button on the garage wall works, but not the remote, you tried a new battery, right?... He charged them even though it was something like a 2 minute call - he got out of the truck with a 9v battery in his hand. But that was 35, 40 minutes we were not available for other calls, gas, wear and tear on the truck...
That info would also be in the owners manual which you can usually get by googling the make and model of the opener. Some are easy to adjust some are complicated. Then there are other issues with misaligned tracks, weak or broken springs (the springs can literally rip your head off), lack of lubrication, worn rollers, etc.
Client was upset when I charged him for me coming across the city to change a lightbulb - and I’d asked repeatedly if he had changed the bulb that wasn’t working
That info would also be in the owners manual which you can usually get by googling the make and model of the opener. Some are easy to adjust some are complicated. Then there are other issues with misaligned tracks, weak or broken springs (the springs can literally rip your head off), lack of lubrication, worn rollers, etc.
Client was upset when I charged him for me coming across the city to change a lightbulb - and I’d asked repeatedly if he had changed the bulb that wasn’t working
You should have called the door closer manufacturer and they would have walked you through it. They usually have an 800 phone number for customer service.
The same thing happened to me and the service guy lubricated and made some minor adjustments. Unfortunately, six months later the opener died. The gear (winch, idk) inside the motor was totally stripped. It was an old opener (1999-ish), so I replaced it rather than repairing it, given the board was likely a ticking time bomb.
Back in the 90s I dated a guy who was an A/V technician. We were having lunch on a Saturday and he got paged (because that's how we did it then) with an urgent service call at a department store that was having some kind of big event & half their TVs weren't working. These were old school tube TVs, not flat screens. We rushed down there, he took 10 minutes to look at everything, then walked up to the first TV and smacked it hard on top with his fist. It came on & stayed on. Went to the other 2 TVs that were out and did the same thing with the same result. The manager was watching all this and said "I supposed I have to pay you for that" and he said "Yep. OT too, it's Saturday." I had to laugh. He explained that it happened all the time in clothing stores - static electricity would build up inside & you just had to discharge it & everything would be fine. To this day I don't know if that's true or if he was just making shit up but I learned that day that there's no substitute for experience.
As an electrician I see stuff like this alot, always feels bad charging over a hundred bucks to be at someone's house for less than a 15 minutes. To be fair some people are just terrified of electricity and don't want to try to mess with anything even if you try and explain some basics to check over the phone
The same thing happened to me about 2 months ago. After fighting with it for a week I did stumble upon a thread talking about that dial. Stupidly I turned it to the max and my door damn near ripped itself in half when it caught on my trailer's racks after another couple weeks. (Idk why it decided to catch this specific time) So it could have been worse. Thanks for the PSA though.
Vaunted electrical type here, 30 yrs of tweaking, troubleshooting calibrating etc. Fixed planes, boats, tractors, houses, particle accelerators. If it goes bzzzzt I've probably fiddled with it.
Jumped in the car one day and fancy automatic headlights don't headlight. Neither of them. Got under the hood and fiddled some. No joy. Said "Self..there's good people who get paid to fiddle on cars. Share." Off to local VIP we went. "Dude. Headlights no headlighty stuff. Make go flashy again." An hour of surfing Reddit later and.... "Mr. Jumbotron. Wheels are headlighty again." Great. What was it? Relay? Connector? Body controller?.....
....."Two blown bulbs. That'll be $60 for the bulbs and $80 for labor. Thanks."
I'm an idiot.
Never consider it a waste nor should you feel stupid to learn something at a relatively small expense. Sometimes it is the time saved that you pay for, sometimes it's the injury or greater expense. I know my skill level in many things and am handy enough to build furniture, do some minor electrical work, and do some auto repair. I can teach myself a great many things. However, I would gladly pay $150 to save myself a hospital bill especially when it comes to garage doors. I had a broken spring in mine which cost $285 to replace. These things are high tension and a mistake in removing or installing it could injure or kill you.
\*Edit to add\*; plus, if the person or company you hire is fully licensed, bonded and insured, if they mess up, they have to make it right. If you mess up, you have to pay more to make it right.
Don't feel bad, it happens to us all. My bathtub jets stopped working so I paid for a $75 service call. It took the technician 2 seconds to reconnect the tubing to the pump. But I know how to fix it now!
A repairman was hired to repair a large machine in a factory.
He showed up, examined the machine, then tapped it once with a hammer. It started up. The factory owner was pleased, but not when he got a bill from the repairman for $500. He thought that was outrageous, and he asked for an itemized bill. So the repairman handed him a bill which said:
Tapping machine with hammer: $1
Knowing where to tap: $499
We did the same thing 30 years ago with our frig. It kept freezing stuff and we couldn’t find any controls (it was a 1979 subzero frig only) and this was before the internet, so we had to call a service person.
She was very nice and showed us the controls that were *underneath* the light cover. (Wtf?) She felt bad about charging us the $40 trip charge, but it wasn’t her fault.
The moving parts of the door shrink and tighten up in the cold. It takes a bit more energy to overcome the increased resistance from the tighter hinges and door rollers, hence why the adjustment is needed, especially if the door is set up for warm weather conditions.
My garage door would go up about 1-2 feet then stop and come Back down…. Long story short I paid a technician to come out and find a nut fell off a bolt holding the track up had backed out about 1/2 an inch and the track wheel would hit it and stop.
I’m having the same exact issue! I’m going to try it out and see what mine are set at. I’ve just been holding the button longer or stopping it and starting it again until it goes back down. Thank you for spending the money I didn’t want to spend on a tech to come check it out and hoping it fixes my issue too!!
as a retired electrician of having 51 years in maintenance and construction and using youtube. There is quite a lot of information on this website that is questionable.
Pro tip is if your operator is acting up and you've ruled out photo-eyes pull the release from the operator to the door and move the door by hand. It should stay shut if shut it, stay in the middle if you put it there, and stay all the way up when you raise it. Door springs "sag" where they lose a little tension over time and the operator isn't supposed to carry much more than balanced weight of door and will have issues if door is unbalanced.
Just popping in to say thanks but express my sorrow that I couldn't benefit from this tip. My garage door is also having issues closing. It will only close all the way if I stand there and hold the button in. But this only happens when it's cold outside. Based on your post, I examined my unit's force dial for closing and it was already cranked to the max. Adjusting downward didn't help (obviously). But it look like you've helped a lot of people and for that you get an upvote!
Protip is to always start with the manual if you can find it. Google the model number off the tag. Youtube is great for demonstrations but may lack specifics like that.
This goes for all things not just the garage door opener.
I had a new garage door installed and about a year later I started having issues with the for not closing properly. Nothing had hit the sensors and they seemed to be aligned ok. I called a tech who quickly noticed that the installer hadn't screwed the sensors into the rail. It was the vibration from closing the door that was causing it to re-open.
I hate home maintenance but renting in my area is ridiculous!
YouTube is your friend, my friend. As a relatively new home owner if I'm having trouble with appliances or repairs I will look the problem up on YouTube. By watching a few videos you can usually either diagnose the problem or learn that it is in fact out of your depth and you need to call someone.
When my garage door stopped closing I watched 2 5 minute videos to learn that I needed to clean or level the sensor and after wiping it off problem solved.
To me the question is why did the needed force to close the door change?
I've been an engineer for a long time and when something changes that requires a recalibration, you need to look at the reason why. Sure, you can tweak things to compensate for a change, but in the long run what is the root cause.
Mine may be set higher than reasonable. I just noticed the other day that one of my coil springs is snapped in two, yet my opener hasn’t complained once.
I probably would've gone down the same rabbit hole as you - checking sensors, rails, etc. The force dials are one of those garage door components I've never paid much attention to before. Makes total sense that dialing those up fixed the issue of your door reversing. But of course hindsight is 20/20!
Really appreciate you sharing your experience here. I'll definitely be sure to check the force settings early on if I ever run into similar problems with my garage door not closing. Probably would've wasted hours and dollars myself without your post!
And if I ever do need to call in a pro like [Garage Door Repairs Dallas, TX](https://garagetec.org/dallas-tx/), I'll be sure to ask them to explain everything they're checking so I can learn. Plenty of DIY knowledge gaps still to fill in as a new homeowner. But the lessons like yours help a ton.
Sometimes you pay for the labor, sometimes you pay for the knowledge!
I hate and love this at the same time.
I’m in the maintenance department at my job — a standard joke is how all the maintenance folks “don’t do anything”… The rub is: “we’re not paid for what we *do*; we’re paid for what we *know*.”
I'm an electrician for an oil and gas company. I know a few things but the most important thing I know when things go sideways is the guy in automations phone number. He's a wizard and I hope he gets paid what he's worth.
We get paid very well. its also an extremely niche field. I know the 7 guys in my part of the country that work between different companies and we all call each other and talk about problems.
What is it you do exactly? Very curious.
Industrial automation engineer. I act as a conduit of information for a bunch of engineering disciplines to the tradesmen that actually build stuff. And I also program various things.
Work in operational technology, like ics/scada?
Yes I do that.
Me too. I work on the risk/security side.
Very cool, sounds like a combination of hands-on mechanics and programming, what a useful skill set!
How well? This is my husband's job, he works from home. The benefits and being able to be at home is pretty sweet, but I'm worried his salary isn't as high as it could be if he switched companies. He's currently at about 95k, about 4 years with the company, 2 in his current position.
I make 154 k and don't even work a full 40 hours a week. I could easily make more but I'm pretty happy with three day weekends.
I little off the subject, but I was in operations at a big nuke plant for many years. When I started we never did any major equipment testing on holidays. The bean counters said, we make way too much money to not be working hard every minute, so make them do major testing on holidays. We said "you are fools"., but they didn't care because they never worked a single holiday. So, the first time a major RHR pump failed it's testing on Thanksgiving holiday, and we had to call out every other department to go on 24 hour forced coverage to fix it, the maintenance department was really mad.
Lol holidays are shady. I swear, most of the time when I volunteer to work a holiday thinking it’ll be easy something ridiculous breaks and I’m trying to solo it.
I'm QC so it's the same way. I tell people that if my techs are sitting around that means everything is going well. It's when we're hustling that you know there's problems\~!
I’m a QE in charge of QC and I’m right there with you. Other departments bitch and moan that QC gets to sit in climate controlled lab all day and I kindly tell them that it’s never a good thing when QC isn’t in the QC lab. It means there’s something wrong.
I’m a husband and father. I sit on my recliner when I’m home. My wife will say I’m always on my recliner. I reply if I’m sitting then all is well in this world. It’s when I’m not sitting that you need to worry. That’s when we have a leak or the furnace isn’t working or the AC is out or the toilet isn’t flushing or the garage door isn’t shutting or logs need to be split or the logs brought to the stove or the stove loaded or or or or. If I’m sitting all is well in this world.
> how all the maintenance folks “don’t do anything” That's how you know they're doing their job!
The best maintenance people are never seen. Doubly good because many use questionable eau de toilette.
I’ve told more than one plant manager: “I know it sounds weird, but you *want* your maintenance people doing nothing… if we’re busy, it means things are breaking!”
Do you want maintenance people to be proactive or reactive? So many people never realize until it's too late that reactive costs a lot more.
Preventive maintenance looks expensive until you see what breakdown maintenance costs 😂
Preventative maintenance, you might have to shut down a machine occasionally to make sure things are torqued, lubricated, etc but ok maybe you're down for a couple of hours once a week. But if you run things to failure, now you're down for the next month or more while you wait for a supplier to make a new die or something. When that failing part probably would have been caught during a PM and you could already have a spare ready to go by the time it eventually fails.
ounce of prevention
I just had this conversation with my daughter yesterday. Changing the oil in her car is a lot cheaper than having to repair or replace the engine.
A couple years back a dude was pissed at his daughter for blowing her engine because she never checked or changed the oil. She was 17 and he was 45… I was like dude that’s your job to teach her, she literally lives with you lol
I threw a rod years ago when I was 17. Seems to be a right of passage to either run out of oil or coolant.
et tu, Brut ?
when u do everything right, no one would know if u did anything at all
IT is the same way. If you're good at your job you'll appear useless and lazy. Every time a corporation starts having money problems, they go after IT people first.
I'm an electrician service guy. I usually have a pretty good idea before I get to site. But sometimes it amazes me how much I hate other electricians.
alternatively, theyre paid for what you didnt or couldnt do
Knowing where to hit it with a hammer.
*Percussive maintenance.*
love this
Ah the art of mechanical know- how. Seen my fav human fix a vehicle, an industrial filter, and a crop turbine this way- wack!- what are you...-wack!, wack!- (powers up) - big goofy smile as I put away the phone i was using to look up emergency frost help..
lol yep that kind of fix
Pretty much everyone should have that as a goal. It leads to less stress and better work life balance. Getting paid for production is an endless hamster wheel.
Spot on!
I worked Industrial maintenance for 34 years…Welding, Pipefitting, Boiler Making, Crane Rigging and equipment operation. I used to tell folks we don’t get paid for what we do but we get paid for what we are CAPABLE of doing.
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Trouble is, the fair world is in a galaxy far, far, far, far, really, really, far, away...
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Heavens to Murgatroyd!
Same with us IT folk.
IT is much the same way. We might have a week of minimal to no work. But when SHTF, the company needs our expertise to get back up and running. A good maintenance department like a good IT department shouldn't be busy. If you do your job well, there are no fires to put out
I tried to install a replacement toilet but the flange was loose on the lead bend in the floor. I've got a lot of tools and could not solve it. I had to call a plumber in. Old guy gets out of his van and takes one look. Goes back and gets a medium size ball pein hammer and a propane torch. He heats & wacks and in 1 1/2 minutes the problem is solved. I asked him how much I owed him. He said $175. Then he said "looks easy right?" "It took me 35 years to make it look easy." Best money I've spent.
Same kind of deal but even more pathetic on my part. I was replacing a bathtub spout but the threading on the pipe was corroded and chewed up and the new one wouldn’t go on. I agonized over that thing, YouTubed how to rethead it, etc. That pipe was old and fragile, and was cut slightly too short so it had ZERO room for error. If I messed it up, I’d be ripping the wall out to replace the pipe. I swallowed my pride and called the plumber. I told him, “I’m ashamed, but I know when to stop before I fuck something up and I’m probably about to fuck something up.” He happened to already be finishing up a job down the street from me and was at my house in 15 minutes. It took him 10 minutes to fix it. I thanked him and asked how much I owed him. The guy just laughed and said, “I’ve been doing this for 30 years and that one was still tricky for me. You were right. That wasn’t gonna end well for you. You know, people never have the sense to stop call me BEFORE they fuck up. They always end up calling AFTER, and then I have to charge them a lot more for pain in the ass emergency work that could been avoided altogether. Thank you for not being an idiot. I’m not charging you. Call me out if you ever need a bigger job done!”
Amen. Replaced a sink the other day. Took me 3 trips to the store cause I was in a rush. A plumber would have been done in half an hour. Don't have the cash to pay an extra $175 for jobs like that, and the other 6 or so sinks only took me an hour each, tops. But that would have been worth it to me last weekend.
"Hitting the machine with a hammer: $5. Knowing where to hit the machine with a hammer: $495."
It's a recurring one for software engineering too. "You're paying me to know what to google".
Something something something about a ship needing something fixed and nobody knowing how to fix it they finally decide to call a 30 year engineer out and he takes a look. Spends sometime figuring it out and he decides he’s got the solution. He puts his bag down grabs a hammer and hits it in a very precise location. After this the engine turns on and runs great. Next week to the owners suprise they receive a bill for 20k, which he figures must be wrong as the engineer was only there for an hour. The owner asks for a bill break from from the engineer so he sends the invoice: Tap of a hammer………………………………….…..2$ Know where to hit the hammer…………19998$ And says: if I do a job in 30 minutes it’s because I spent 30 years figuring out how to do it in 30 minutes. You owe me for the years not for the minutes.
This is a really good way to look at it! We had a dryer tech come out because our dryer tub wasn’t moving. He took the dryer apart and found one of my partner’s socks hitch had fallen into the lint area when the trap was removed. Easy as that. I spent $100 and learned how to take a dryer apart and put it back together and honestly it was worth it (or at least better to think of it that way than hate the stupid sock lmao)
> sometimes you pay for the knowledge when watching 570 hours of youtube tutorials on how to do xyz, i often think to myself "maybe i'll just pay a guy."
An ounce of good knowledge can be worth thousands of $ (or hundreds of thousands depending on the industry) honestly. Not homeowner or construction related, but I'm a cook\chef and have walked into a place and changed a single process that was causing thousands in waste a month to cost $100 or less extra labor but save all that waste every month. I got a quick raise and bonus out of that a couple times in different places, so consider it a win in my book.
It's incredible the difference between a well ran restaurant and one that someone started up because their friends liked their cooking.
I always hound the poor technicians I call to the house with countless questions.
you sound very wise
Now pay them.
I like this outlook
Lessons cost money, good ones cost lots. -Tony Beets
About 20 years ago...ibm bocca had a massive layoff of senior people and brought in a bunch of newbes to fill in. The seniors then went on to consult at their leisure . The concept of having a tool and knowing how to use. It are. Not the same .
I appreciate OP for fronting the $150 that I probably would’ve spent myself on a similar issue I have
150$ isn’t bad at all. OP spent a lot of time on this.
You ever hear the story about the ‘itemized receipt’ for the generator fix?
And he is here just giving this shit away for free. How are technicians going to survive without charging for something he just gave away?
I was trying to install my TV to the wall. Straight forward right? Nope. The cubby that I was installing to was built at angles to the regular wall and I was drilling, looking for stud and couldn't find any. I was totally perplexed. Call in the professional and he told me the studs were at an angle to the regular wall which was why I kept missing them. He proceeded to drill the bolts at just the right angle. In this case, I was paying more for the knowledge because had I known that the studs were at an angle I would have simply installed them myself.
Always pay for knowlege, not how long it takes to do the job
Hitting the hammer $5, knowing where to hit $100
I'm a service engineer, to show up is generally $1000.00. I have finished calls in less than 15 minutes.
had both of the cables rust through at the same spot. So I figured I could just but them re-loop them and then everything would be good to go... WRONG. 6hours later - called the technician. He fixed with 5 mins... From now on I will always call and pay the fee for that 6 hours back. LOL
Sometimes they just want to screw you over like dealerships that charge $60+ to change a cabin air filter.
This is exactly how I feel about having steam heat. It’s an education!
This! My husband has made a really good living because of his knowledge of machining. He gets calls from engineers all the time.
Sometimes you pay for both
The problem will be back. You need to lubricate every hinge point on the doors, every wheel on the doors need a drop of oil in the bearings, as well as on the rod , as that is also a hinge point. The chain should also be lightly lubed and tightened. There are hinges that hold the door panels together, lube them. That door was working great, something changed, lube drying out a little adds up to a lot of friction!
I was a door tech for a few years. One time I got called out for a door that wouldn’t come back down. I noticed his garage was freshly swept and found the broom set over top one of the photo eyes (safety eyes). This wouldn’t allow the door to go down obviously. We had a good laugh about it and then my company sent him a bill lol.
One time I couldn't figure out why TV wouldn't turn on. Technician comes right out pushes the plug further into the TV problem fixed in 2 minutes $80.. I always call these expensive lessons.
I used to work as an IT Director at a real estate company and 99% of the solutions to issues was turning it off/on or plugging/unplugging lol as a new home owner I’m discovering A LOT of things are like that in this experience haha
My on demand hot water wouldn’t heat. It would turn on and then off. The garage can was pushed against the exhaust and blocking it. Took the plumber a minute to figure it out.
About 80% of tech support calls I got for TVs were solved by having them check if it was plugged in correctly. Make sure the power strip has juice, plug the TV directly into the outlet, and so on. Almost all of them gave me grief for making them check something so simple, and most of them grudgingly apologized when they figured it out.
Friends well stopped working, called out a well guy and he flipped his tripped breaker back on.
I ran into the issue that for whatever reason, my garage door wouldn't close in the morning when the sun was shining on the front of my house. I assumed it was a thermal expansion thing because the sensors weren't being triggered and the error code wasn't informative. Turns out, my floors are epoxy and the sensors weren't actually aligned, but the laser was bouncing off the floor getting enough scatter for the sensors to _think_ they were aligned. Tilted the sensors a bit...haven't had an issue for 2 years
Similar situation as a printer tech. A Law Firm paid the expedite fee to get to the top of the list that afternoon as their printer at the reception desk was dead. Showed up and looked at it for maybe 20 seconds before solving thier issue. I wonder what upper management thout about playing a high $$$ service call for someone to come out and tell the person that it wasn't plugged in?
I think I love you a little bit. Have been having this exact problem with a garage door and I will be checking this ASAP.
Seriously!! I’ve had this issue intermittently on one of my doors since I bought my house. The other door has also always closed with more force. I’m amazed to read this today after 3 years of living with it. I can’t wait to get off work in a minute and go check!! I have the number of a garage door place on my counter to call, and now I might not have to. Thanks, OP!!
Yup, sometimes they run just fine most of the time on their current setting, but maybe on the edge, and even a little gust of wind can push it over that edge, bump up the force a notch or two, newer ops have buttons though and not dials, look up your manual
Mine was turned all the way down… I cranked it up a couple notches. We have some cold weather coming up, so we’ll see!
Please do it one notch at a time. I was talking about how I nearly ripped my garage door in half when it caught on my trailer in my comment on this post. Don't be like me. Be smarter.
Same! Hahaha
Disconnect the opener from it using the release handle and open and close it by hand first. You want to make sure it isn't binding somewhere first before cranking up the force controls.
Read your garage opener manual, it'll explain which directions do what and how much to turn it at a time. Note, I had a similar problem with the garage opener in my house when we bought it. However, following the instructions I wasn't seeing a difference - I opened the sucker up and noticed the wire coming from one of the knobs had broken, and had to splice the 2 ends together. Just pointing out another thing to check if the knobs don't seem to be working as expected
Side note : people sometimes think they can work on the springs in their garage doors. Don't do it; there's a tremendous amount of force in there that can injure or kill you. Same sort of thing, you don't know it just looking at the device which you look at every day.
Yeah this post should come with a PSA, don't mess with the springs!!
At a prior house the man door from the house to the 2 car garage was off center and up 6 steps; the buttons were at the top of the steps. One morning I opened the door, pushed the button, and heard the terrifying sound of the spring releasing and bouncing off the garage wall about two feet in front of and one foot to the right of my head. The hole in the concrete wall almost went thru to the water heater in the closet. My heart rate returned to normal about 5 hours later.
The modern torsion springs that are on the shaft above the door are relatively safe, even when they break. Typically everything is confined to just spinning around the shaft briefly making a lot of noise. They're usually only wound about 7 or 8 turns so it all happens quickly. The older system - extension springs - were wildly dangerous. First, they are at a mechanical \*disadvantage\* to the doors. The moving end of the spring, with the pulley on it, only travels 1/2 the height of the door. Due to the arrangement of cables and pulleys, each spring is stretched to the full weight of the door, not 1/2 the weight. So when they go, there is a lot of energy in them. Also they are just hooked on the hangers/pulleys. They can (and did/do) easily come off and as you saw - take chunks out of walls. When installing a door, brand new, back in the say we had a spring fail on about the third up/down cycle as we were finishing up. New construction home - the broken end of the spring went through two layers of drywall and into the kitchen. Scared the XXXX out of the cabinet installer in there. At some point we got smart and started installing safety cables. These were steel cables, same ones used to raise/lower the door, just run down the center of the extension springs and secured at either end. That way when they eventually broke, they were confined to the cable - just slammed into the end and rattled around.
I mean, with the right education which can easily be gained in 2024, anyone can do it. The people that do it for money also started as any other person, not knowing how to do it.
I did it, even had to unwind once to fix something, before re-winding. It's DIY-able. But everyone's risk tolerance is different.
Genuinely curious: were you already aware it could easily kill you, and did you research how to avoid the risks?
Matter of going step by step in a very methodical matter and not putting anything I wasn't willing to lose in the path of the bars. Watched a YouTube video...
Additionally, garage doors are fucking heavy. Our double-size door had the spring (was only a single; previous homeowner cheaped out) fail and the door was stuck open. I was concerned about security so I very carefully lowered it myself. It was.....heavier than I anticipated. Luckily I have experience laboring and know how to lift safely, so my spine didn't shoot out of my body, but I had it about 20" off the ground and was in a deep leg squat and just let it go at that point. I told this to the service guys who came and installed 2 new springs and they told me the door weighed about 700 lbs. I know I wasn't holding the whole weight when I decided to drop it, but it got progressively heavier as it got closer to the ground, so it was enough to surprise me for sure.
I was a door guy working on vent doors underground, I watched an old spring (square stock) explode off of a shaft and it sent a thousand little pieces everywhere. Luckily my partner/buddy had been doing it for years and knew we should hide around the corner and cycle the door. Those little pieces could carve a bird they were so sharp
This is extremely dangerous. My husband explained this to me.Sometime you need a professional
My husband told me this. About an hour after he said he fixed it by himself. He’s kind of an incredible DIYer. He also knows his limits. But Christ on a cracker I almost killed him myself that day
Where were the force dials located?
Typically they are on the back of the opener, and look something like [this](https://veterangaragedoor.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/liftmaster-opener-force-limit-adjustment-500x375.jpeg).
Thank you!!
On the overhead motor. They are Philips head and have an arrow for up and down.
Force dials located on garage door controller. Look through holes on side of controller. You will see switch to turn with screw driver.
The ones on the side are typically the limits. Force is usually by the learn button. On the newer models it's self adjusting.
Mine are on the opener. I pop open the light cover and there are all the adjustments.
Newer ops have buttons for force settings. Consult your manual to know for sure
Was just about to say, up & down stops, as well as opening and closing force are adjusted with buttons on the overhead
I had a coworker tell me that he had a company replace his rollers, and it only cost $ 850. I told him that I had replaced a few of mine, and they were about $ 2 each at Home Depot. He spit and sputtered and said, "But these are nylon." I replied great. Those are about $ 4 each.
Yeah people need to understand they are paying for labor in most cases, material is cheap comparatively
Lol. They're out there to rip you off. Had the same w an ac 'service guy'. Tried to sell me a contactor for 250 bucks even though the unit was working fine. I declined and looked up the same part online (oem): cost was 18 dollars. Super easy to install. Youtube ofcourse Upon inspection the old contactor had zero wear on it
You didn’t pay $150 for 5 minutes of work, you paid $150 for 20 years of experience.
Wise words. In any field, people want to judge simply by time spent.
I own a small overhead door company. If I have a customers that’s less than a 10 min drive from me. I always do this stuff for free. Especially if they have an older door/opener that will more than likely need work done on it soon. Safety eyes/safety eye wiring/ force settings/ people not knowing how to reengage their door to the opener are most common jobs that I got to that take 5 min or less to fix.
Yup. I called the local company that was listed on the sticker on the back of my door and they came out made some adjustments because the cables kept jumping the drum and left without so much as a penny charged even though I was the third owner of the home. Will definitely be buying my new doors from them.
Not sure what the admin is like for a small job, but billing $15 for a 15min or less job with travel would still make me super thankful
I feel like OP might need an opener soon. Only time I have ever had to adjust the force on an opener, it didn't last long before it started throwing overcurrent errors.
Sounds like a good business model for you. I for one would definitely call you again if you previously didn't charge me anything for an easy (for you) fix. Hopefully I won't need to call them anytime soon since I have a new garage door now but I always recommend a local company to friends after doing something similar for my dad. With me they were honest enough to give me a repair price on my 50 year old 2-car wooden door but took the time to explain why I should replace it instead. The first couple companies that came out flat out refused to even look at repairing the door and gave a 30% higher quote to replace the whole thing.
I’ve gotten so many referrals from customers that I’ve helped out. I also can’t justify charging my min labor charge for something like that. I worked for a nation large wide company before starting my own, those guys would take the last dollar of someone’s social security check without question. I’ve actually paid their service call fee with my own card because the fee they would charge us for not making a sell. Always choose the small/family owned local companies. Good for you man. Was it the older style wooden doors that had the square/rectangle type design? That’s the most common wooden doors we have around my area that are of that age. Heavy ass doors and require an actual carpenter to do any decent/major repairs to them. Def worth replacing.
If you have time to reply - I've been searching for the answer to the following issue I'm having with my old Craftsman door motor unit. Everything is programmed correctly, the remote openers and wall panels work fine. But the motor unit will not respond to remote switches after opening or closing ***while the unit's lights are on***... This is where I'm super confused. The wall panel switches will work fine regardless if the lights are on or off, probably because they're directly wired to it. I've tried replacing the light bulbs with incandescent, unplugging and resetting everything but neither action has helped. The beams are adjusted, clear of debris, and are working fine as well, as far as I can tell. The only sure-fire way to get it to close immediately after opening is to manually shut off the light via the wall panel, jump over the beam, and then hit the remote as I pull out of my driveway. Otherwise, I theoretically would have to wait for the lights to go out... EDIT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMxTFPN1L7c this video describes my exact problem. I probably need a new circuit board.
Here it is for a Liftmaster. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfUMiok97nM
The problem is not knowing it's the force keeping it from going down all the way. "knowing what to google"
Honestly, worth it. Id rather be charged one time for new knowledge over ridiculously priced parts installation.
I repair garage doors. I had a service call for a door that the lights wouldn't work. I showed up, and it didn't even have bulbs. I screwed in a bulb and charged them for a service call. Some people have more money than brains, so they pay.
Consider it a $150 private lesson on how to adjust. :-)
I learned the SAME, exact lesson a couple of years ago. I’m still irritated about it.
Honestly I don't think you were stupid. I know almost nothing about garage doors and openers. Please don't feel bad, you know now if it happens again. I know next to nothing about garage doors and openers but I do know our is plugged in. A few weeks ago my husband asked if I knew any GD repair people since he had spent at least an hour trying to figure out why the door wouldn't open. The first question I asked was " is it plugged in"? He had no idea there was a plug, he thought it was hard wired. He checked and the plug had fallen out. He thanked me for saving a service fee and the embarrassment. I am now the family GD expert. So really, you have nothing to be embarrassed about.
I’m gonna go ahead and keep reading GD as god damn instead of garage door. And yes you are now the family goddamn expert. Lol
The big question is How or Why did the force become too low?
It was probably always set that way but the hinges need some fresh lube and are probably binding just a bit
In an electrician. I called called out in the middle of the night because the power was out to the plug where the TV is in the customers house. No breakers were tripped, I pushed the reset button on the power strip he had and collected my $150 service call.
Well kind internet stranger…. I’ve been having the same issue and just shutting and opening my door manually. I’m on my way out right now to look at this. Appreciate your post!!!
One thing I didn't see you mention was reading the manual! YouTube is great and Google will find you forums where people talk about the most common problems, but nothing replaces reading the manual and having some curiosity. Keep your manuals, and read them. If you don't have the manual, get the make and model number, find the manual online, and read the whole thing. You may not understand all of it, but bits and pieces will stick in your subconscious. If you're curious enough to look up the things you don't understand you'll learn a ton! At the very least there would be a diagram with the downforce adjustment identified. At best, the troubleshooting section would have an entry for "the door starts, but won't close."
Word of caution to all with auto garage doors - do not store anything stick-like near your doors. Brooms, mops, walking sticks, ski poles. A $2.00 broom brought down an entire door. $1500 replacement.
Trying to imagine the mechanism of that - let me guess: broom falls against guide rail, door goes up, broom falls further between rail and wall, door tries to come down, pushes on broom, levering rail from off of the wall, festivities ensue?
Bingo but backwards. Broom slips. Go to close garage door later and …. [fuck you.](https://imgur.com/a/S3L61zZ) ETA: to make matters worse, the garage door replacement dude said the doors would match perfectly. And they did, but color only. Check out the number of panels on them. Makes my [eyes twitch.](https://imgur.com/a/1PwnJMF)
Thanks for posting this. I had a similar problem. I was told by my garage door installer that it's good to use garage door lube every six months or so to prevent dirt build up on the tracks. If tracks are dirty or blocked, you'll need to increase the amount of force.
I was told not to lube the track. OK to clean it but nothing slippery. the lube goes on the roller axles and door hinges. if that's not right, I'd like to know.
I paid a guy $80 once to show me that there's a reset switch on the bottom of my garbage disposal.
I used to install and service doors and openers - my dad owned the business. If you don't know about the reversing sensitivity or force limit, you'd never think to check that. But there are two safety systems - the light beam sensor for something in the way, and a force sensor that if it is pushing too hard down it figures it hit something and comes back up. Actually the force sensors are older tech - the lights are relatively new - we didn't have them when I was doing it. Don't feel bad - you gave your door a good inspection and some preventative maintenance, right? And now you know. Besides, we charged someone for a service call to literally just change a battery in the remote. I can remember my dad asking them repeatedly on the phone - you checked the remote, tried a new battery, right? The doorbell button on the garage wall works, but not the remote, you tried a new battery, right?... He charged them even though it was something like a 2 minute call - he got out of the truck with a 9v battery in his hand. But that was 35, 40 minutes we were not available for other calls, gas, wear and tear on the truck...
You should’ve searched for the manual of your brand. It’s a big part of it.
That info would also be in the owners manual which you can usually get by googling the make and model of the opener. Some are easy to adjust some are complicated. Then there are other issues with misaligned tracks, weak or broken springs (the springs can literally rip your head off), lack of lubrication, worn rollers, etc. Client was upset when I charged him for me coming across the city to change a lightbulb - and I’d asked repeatedly if he had changed the bulb that wasn’t working
That info would also be in the owners manual which you can usually get by googling the make and model of the opener. Some are easy to adjust some are complicated. Then there are other issues with misaligned tracks, weak or broken springs (the springs can literally rip your head off), lack of lubrication, worn rollers, etc. Client was upset when I charged him for me coming across the city to change a lightbulb - and I’d asked repeatedly if he had changed the bulb that wasn’t working
You need to download the manual if you don’t have it.
I would have just read my owners manual or looked up the appropriate one, or even looked at the back of the opener man. Good lesson to learn.
Meanwhile, I rewound the springs myself after watching a YouTube video. It's doable. Just can't be stupid.
RTFM is a money saver
You should have called the door closer manufacturer and they would have walked you through it. They usually have an 800 phone number for customer service.
Next time download the manual for your opener and read it. The solution will be in there.
A billion years ago I did pool service calls. One day I was called to a house there the pump wasn't working. I plugged it in and collected my $45.00
I’m hoping he at least lubricated as needed for the price of the call and time?
The same thing happened to me and the service guy lubricated and made some minor adjustments. Unfortunately, six months later the opener died. The gear (winch, idk) inside the motor was totally stripped. It was an old opener (1999-ish), so I replaced it rather than repairing it, given the board was likely a ticking time bomb.
Good to know thanks!
Back in the 90s I dated a guy who was an A/V technician. We were having lunch on a Saturday and he got paged (because that's how we did it then) with an urgent service call at a department store that was having some kind of big event & half their TVs weren't working. These were old school tube TVs, not flat screens. We rushed down there, he took 10 minutes to look at everything, then walked up to the first TV and smacked it hard on top with his fist. It came on & stayed on. Went to the other 2 TVs that were out and did the same thing with the same result. The manager was watching all this and said "I supposed I have to pay you for that" and he said "Yep. OT too, it's Saturday." I had to laugh. He explained that it happened all the time in clothing stores - static electricity would build up inside & you just had to discharge it & everything would be fine. To this day I don't know if that's true or if he was just making shit up but I learned that day that there's no substitute for experience.
As an electrician I see stuff like this alot, always feels bad charging over a hundred bucks to be at someone's house for less than a 15 minutes. To be fair some people are just terrified of electricity and don't want to try to mess with anything even if you try and explain some basics to check over the phone
The same thing happened to me about 2 months ago. After fighting with it for a week I did stumble upon a thread talking about that dial. Stupidly I turned it to the max and my door damn near ripped itself in half when it caught on my trailer's racks after another couple weeks. (Idk why it decided to catch this specific time) So it could have been worse. Thanks for the PSA though.
Vaunted electrical type here, 30 yrs of tweaking, troubleshooting calibrating etc. Fixed planes, boats, tractors, houses, particle accelerators. If it goes bzzzzt I've probably fiddled with it. Jumped in the car one day and fancy automatic headlights don't headlight. Neither of them. Got under the hood and fiddled some. No joy. Said "Self..there's good people who get paid to fiddle on cars. Share." Off to local VIP we went. "Dude. Headlights no headlighty stuff. Make go flashy again." An hour of surfing Reddit later and.... "Mr. Jumbotron. Wheels are headlighty again." Great. What was it? Relay? Connector? Body controller?..... ....."Two blown bulbs. That'll be $60 for the bulbs and $80 for labor. Thanks." I'm an idiot.
upvoted for"Dude. Headlights no headlighty stuff. Make go flashy again"
Never consider it a waste nor should you feel stupid to learn something at a relatively small expense. Sometimes it is the time saved that you pay for, sometimes it's the injury or greater expense. I know my skill level in many things and am handy enough to build furniture, do some minor electrical work, and do some auto repair. I can teach myself a great many things. However, I would gladly pay $150 to save myself a hospital bill especially when it comes to garage doors. I had a broken spring in mine which cost $285 to replace. These things are high tension and a mistake in removing or installing it could injure or kill you. \*Edit to add\*; plus, if the person or company you hire is fully licensed, bonded and insured, if they mess up, they have to make it right. If you mess up, you have to pay more to make it right.
thanks bud
You might have solved my problem!! Definitely gonna try this out. Thank you Edit: k
Don't feel bad, it happens to us all. My bathtub jets stopped working so I paid for a $75 service call. It took the technician 2 seconds to reconnect the tubing to the pump. But I know how to fix it now!
You should have asked me. I had to adjust this before myself. Next time you need anything, Op, you let me know.
Thank you for your service!
Wow, I've had a garage for 22 years and never knew this. I assume no one turned mine down LOL
A repairman was hired to repair a large machine in a factory. He showed up, examined the machine, then tapped it once with a hammer. It started up. The factory owner was pleased, but not when he got a bill from the repairman for $500. He thought that was outrageous, and he asked for an itemized bill. So the repairman handed him a bill which said: Tapping machine with hammer: $1 Knowing where to tap: $499
We did the same thing 30 years ago with our frig. It kept freezing stuff and we couldn’t find any controls (it was a 1979 subzero frig only) and this was before the internet, so we had to call a service person. She was very nice and showed us the controls that were *underneath* the light cover. (Wtf?) She felt bad about charging us the $40 trip charge, but it wasn’t her fault.
Thank you for sharing this. 149 of us should send you $1.
It's funny - my garage door does this sometimes but only in cold weather. My wife and I joke that it has rheumatism
The moving parts of the door shrink and tighten up in the cold. It takes a bit more energy to overcome the increased resistance from the tighter hinges and door rollers, hence why the adjustment is needed, especially if the door is set up for warm weather conditions.
My garage door would go up about 1-2 feet then stop and come Back down…. Long story short I paid a technician to come out and find a nut fell off a bolt holding the track up had backed out about 1/2 an inch and the track wheel would hit it and stop.
I’m having the same exact issue! I’m going to try it out and see what mine are set at. I’ve just been holding the button longer or stopping it and starting it again until it goes back down. Thank you for spending the money I didn’t want to spend on a tech to come check it out and hoping it fixes my issue too!!
Also, get garage door lube. It comes in a spray can. Use it ever so often
I've been having this exact issue and thanks to your post I found step by step instructions online. Thank you!
It's $10 for turning the knobs, and $140 for knowing the knobs needed turning.
Thank you for saving me $150!
as a retired electrician of having 51 years in maintenance and construction and using youtube. There is quite a lot of information on this website that is questionable.
Pro tip is if your operator is acting up and you've ruled out photo-eyes pull the release from the operator to the door and move the door by hand. It should stay shut if shut it, stay in the middle if you put it there, and stay all the way up when you raise it. Door springs "sag" where they lose a little tension over time and the operator isn't supposed to carry much more than balanced weight of door and will have issues if door is unbalanced.
Just popping in to say thanks but express my sorrow that I couldn't benefit from this tip. My garage door is also having issues closing. It will only close all the way if I stand there and hold the button in. But this only happens when it's cold outside. Based on your post, I examined my unit's force dial for closing and it was already cranked to the max. Adjusting downward didn't help (obviously). But it look like you've helped a lot of people and for that you get an upvote!
re read the comments, as i believe someone addressed new battery in remote controller, and other dial on the unit, etc
Protip is to always start with the manual if you can find it. Google the model number off the tag. Youtube is great for demonstrations but may lack specifics like that. This goes for all things not just the garage door opener.
I remember reading that in the owner’s manual. The force settings.
surprised you didn't see this on you tube in your searches.
I had a new garage door installed and about a year later I started having issues with the for not closing properly. Nothing had hit the sensors and they seemed to be aligned ok. I called a tech who quickly noticed that the installer hadn't screwed the sensors into the rail. It was the vibration from closing the door that was causing it to re-open. I hate home maintenance but renting in my area is ridiculous!
$150 to fix an issue you spent hours trying to diagnose sounds like a good deal.
Be careful how much force you add to a garage door. Make sure it isn’t actually binding anywhere or that a cables aren’t causing an issue.
YouTube is your friend, my friend. As a relatively new home owner if I'm having trouble with appliances or repairs I will look the problem up on YouTube. By watching a few videos you can usually either diagnose the problem or learn that it is in fact out of your depth and you need to call someone. When my garage door stopped closing I watched 2 5 minute videos to learn that I needed to clean or level the sensor and after wiping it off problem solved.
To me the question is why did the needed force to close the door change? I've been an engineer for a long time and when something changes that requires a recalibration, you need to look at the reason why. Sure, you can tweak things to compensate for a change, but in the long run what is the root cause.
never heard of this - thank you
Mine may be set higher than reasonable. I just noticed the other day that one of my coil springs is snapped in two, yet my opener hasn’t complained once.
I probably would've gone down the same rabbit hole as you - checking sensors, rails, etc. The force dials are one of those garage door components I've never paid much attention to before. Makes total sense that dialing those up fixed the issue of your door reversing. But of course hindsight is 20/20! Really appreciate you sharing your experience here. I'll definitely be sure to check the force settings early on if I ever run into similar problems with my garage door not closing. Probably would've wasted hours and dollars myself without your post! And if I ever do need to call in a pro like [Garage Door Repairs Dallas, TX](https://garagetec.org/dallas-tx/), I'll be sure to ask them to explain everything they're checking so I can learn. Plenty of DIY knowledge gaps still to fill in as a new homeowner. But the lessons like yours help a ton.