Random Thursday
Yesterday I didn't get much fibery stuff done. I cleaned out the garage. Yes, you read that right. I hate cleaning out the garage because most of the stuff out there is lawn equipment and Mickael stuff, but I had an ulterior motive. For quite a while now, our garage door hasn't really been working properly. Actually, it's the IR sensors that keep it from going down when someone is standing under it that aren't working properly. For some reason, the garage door will only go down by remote when its overcast or the sun is behind a cloud. If it's sunny, I can't get the garage door down unless I stand in the garage and hold the button on the wall down. This is a problem because my car lives in the garage. When I need to go somewhere if it's sunny, I have to back my car out of the garage, get out, go into the garage and stand there holding the button until it's all the way down, then go through the house and go out the front door, lock it, and hop in the car and go. If there are clouds out, I can sit in the car until the sun goes behind a cloud, hit the remote button and hope the cloud is big enough to hide the sun until the door is all the way down. On a day like today (overcast and rainy) I can come and go as I please and I don't have any trouble at all. This is why I really don't want to hire someone to come out and fix it. First of all, I'm going to have to pay $100 just to get them out here, then it will be overcast when they come, so the garage door will work perfectly, they won't find anything wrong with it, and they'll think I'm crazy. Second of all, do you have any idea how long it would take to explain what's going on - again, with the crazy thing. My theory is that something is reflecting light into one of the sensors on sunny days, so Phase I of Fix The Garage Door was to clean out the garage, organize stuff and get it farther back from the sensors. The garage is now MUCH neater, cleaner, and there is a big pile of junk that will be hauled off tomorrow! Unfortunately, the garage door still doesn't work in the sunshine. Phase II of Fix the Garage Door will be to rewire the sensors. I don't think this is going to fix them, but the wiring looks funny, so it won't hurt to redo it and make it better. I don't know what Phase III of Fix the Garage Door will be yet, I haven't come up with that one yet.
posted by Melanie at 7:44 AM
7 Comments:
That is crazy! And I can see why you don't want to try to explain it to a repair man. Good luck finding the answer, it's a real mystery. At least the garage got cleaned out. Mine is a complete mess on DH's side (he parks in the driveway). I'm trying to hold out and let him clean it up but that may be a pipe dream. :)
We had a similar problem, but only in the morning. The garage door faces west! My hubby fixed it by mounting the sensors up high (where it's always shady). Even though that circumvents the saftey feature of the little IR "eyes" that reverse the doors direction when they "see" something, it also prevents them from being blinded by the sunlight and reversing the door just to be on the safe side. Good luck!
How fortunate that you HAVE a garage door opener and how fortunate that you HAVE a garage to park your car!
We have a garage - full of Norm stuff as he needs a workshop and doesn't have one. We have a garage door opener but it needs electricity and Norm has not rewired the garage, so all the electric stuff comes off one plug-in. And if I did have room for the car, the garage door will not even close, because OUR sensors think there is something in the way and the door re-opens when it gets down to about 12" from the floor.
However, I understand your frustration - if I DID have what you have, I would want it to WORK properly. Hope you can get it fixed without calling a repair man who most certainly will think "dumb woman!" and not get it fixed!!!
Blessings
Good luck with your garage door! We had to replace our unit a couple of years ago around the holidays - not a fun present.
Have you tried shielding the sensors from the sun? Maybe a little cardboard and duct tape experiment. The two sensors need to "see" each other, but that's all they need to see. You might be able to box them in so the sensors don't pick up the sunlight.
Lynn said what I was going to say.
I used to have a light, supposed to turn on when dark only, but I had to shade the photoelectric eye so that it wouldn't see the sun - it would constantly flicker, otherwise!
Good luck!
Same exact problem as mine! How frustrating. I already tried to build a cardboard (and then I tried with wood) box around it, so it would hide the sun; did not work. If you have any idea, please share!!! We are having a baby soon and this garage door situation will be a real hassle!
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