Garage Door Opener Troubleshooting?

[lbperry]

My garage door has a Sears Craftsman opener on it. The garage and the opener are 20 years old.
We was out of town last week and my neighbor called and said when he drove into his drive next door he noticed that the garage door was up. As he walked to my garage, he said the door closed and went right back up. He said he checked out my garage to see if anyone was in there and if anything looked like it was missing. Everything was OK. He said he made sure the door was closed, the entrance door was locked securely, and we agreed if it happened again he would kill the power at the breaker box. He called the next day and said he found the door up again so he closed up everything again and killed the power at the box.
I'm just not sure how to troubleshoot this problem. I can cut the power to the opener back on and keep an eye on it to see if it opens on its own. But what does that tell me if it does? I just don't know how to approach troubleshooting a random problem like this.
Have any of you had a similar and what did you do? Or what kind of troubleshooting ideas do you have?
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks,

 

[Smoky14]

I hope this helps; mine did the same thing and it was caused by the furnace coming on. Every time the furnace blower started the door opened.
I re-programed all the openers and it went away.
Good luck

Smoky

 

[LEVE]

I have the same era opener. It's been doing the same thing for a couple of years. I've never been able to find the problem. Sometimes it seems that it's prone to open when a vibration is detected, other times.. not. I'm determined to find the problem this month. First, I'm unhooking the open button to see if it makes a difference. I'm not convinced that's the problem. But, it can live without the button. That eliminates shorting button wiring and the button and takes the problem back into the opener.

 

[upndown]

Do you have an extra transmitter you are not using, Maybe laying in a drawer somewhere? If so check to make sure no one set something in that drawer on top of the remote!

As crazy as it may sound.. that happened to a good friend I used to work with, After he passed away his wife called me because the door was going up & down on its own. I went there and checked it out, replaced some obvious parts, checked everything else, still kept doing it. Drove me effn nuts!! Out of ideas and parts to replace, I finally asked about the extra remote..Bigger than **** there it was in a drawer with something setting on the button!!

 

[AndyL]

My first double check on phantom operation, is to disconnect the wire pairs to the wall station (at the opener, the red/white)... 99% of the time, its vermin chewing on wiring (at least around here) if it doesnt act up for a week re-run a new pair of wires to the wall station.

 

[yuk]

maybe try to adjust the door to where it is about a quarter inch from the floor and see is it keeps mysteriously opening.
if the problem goes away, maybe there is a safety pressure switch built in that is triggering the open function "thinking" something is caught in the door because the door is adjusted too tight.

 

[lbperry]

Don't think it's a stray signal from somewhere, Smokey. Don't think there are any new garage door openers in the neighborhood either.
Will try unwiring the wall station switch at the door, reprogramming the remotes, and resetting the up/down pressure one at a time over the next few weeks to see what fixes it.
Thanks for all the suggestions. I'll let you know what fixes it.

 

[BD1]

20 years old ? Replace it and be done. New chamberlain is $180.00, whisper drive, 3/4 hp , and battery back up.

 

[lbperry]

Yeah, you're probably right BD1. My biggest fault is not being willing to give up on something when I should. Always feels like a personal failure.
Thanks

 

[imnutz]

Chamberlain transmitters of that era used a foam pad as the return pressure on the button - open the remote and you will see the small 1/4" foam pad - pull it off the pin and rotate it 180 - I have seen alot of phantom operations due to that silly little pad