Craftsman Opener Does Not Work When Cold

[70Chevy]

I have a 1/2 hp Craftsman chain drive opener that works fine all summer, but when we got a cold day, like the past couple, it does not want to close without me holding the button. I forgot about this happening last winter - I figured it was the photo-eyes needing some maintenance. The warm weather came and I forgot all about. I've tried the adjustments and it didn't help. I'm sure it has to do with the temperature - this evening was a little warmer and it works fine. it's dated 1996 - is it time to replace?

 

[nehog]

Perhaps time to replace, but not working when cold is a classic symptom of a bad connection or solder joint. I'd reseat all the connectors (unplug it first!) and if you have the skills touch up the solder joints on the PC board(s). Mine did something similar and it was a bad solder joint.

 

[dadsEH]

the grease is too heavy

 

[upndown]

Hmm.. trying to think in Reverse as cold isn't a real problem for us haha. Have you tried putting it on manual to see if the opener will cycle and check the doors manual operation? If it doesn't cycle it's definately A sensor issue. stick your hand in front of each sensor find the one where the light goes out, should come back on when hand removed! Move it around some.. if light goes out that's your problem, just bend it back till light is on.. worth a try..

 

[StevePgh]

Yeah, watch the lights on the sensors when the problem is happening to see if the sensor is the problem. I had two openers from that era, one of them had plugs that went into the sensor, the other was direct wire. The one with the sensor plugs was a pain in the ***. Like nehog, I ended up disassembling and soldering the wires direct to the board of the two sensors.

If it retracts only when the door gets to what looks like the completely closed position, you may need to readjust the travel (differs per model). Not sure why cold would break this.

 

[danarn17]

Have you tried increasing the opening and closing pressure?

 

[70Chevy]

I've tried adjusting the force - no help.
The green lights on both sensors stay solid the entire time.
I don't think the grease thickening is it - its the same grease that's been there before.
I will hunt for bad connections.
It's not to big a problem - the car only comes out during nice weather, read warm and dry. But I'd like to know it's not a security issue.

 

[Herb67SS]

Most of those Craftsman openers were made by Chamberlain. Had two of those I installed in 97. And they acted differently in cold weather than hot. Every fall and spring I had to tweak the settings. I just recently replaced them with Chamberlain whisper drives. If I had torsion spring opening mechanisms I would have gone with the lift master 3800's. Would have been cheaper and better. If u can, I recommend considering one. Eliminates the opener hanging over your nice car, dropping **** on it, etc etc

Cheapest source I've found is www.direct2ugaragedoors.com

Just ordered 2 for my new garage. They shipped me the same day.

 

[70Chevy]

I adjusted the photo eye alignment the other night....might have fixed it. I can't be sure until it gets cold again. It was 40-ish when I adjusted. 70 today. I'm not in a hurry to need to try...warm is better.