Lightning strike garage door openers

[NCMUSTANG]

Lightning ran in on my garage and tripped several breakers ,now two of the three garage doors do not work.
on one the lights come on.. nothing on the other..no results with reset button..where to start to diagnose?
brand is Chamberlain Liftmaster.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Is this an attached or detached garage?

I would make sure your grounding electrode system is up to snuff. Do you have ground rods or ufer?

If lightening is a problem in your area i would install an SPD on your main and subpanels

Where did the lightening strike?

Unfortunately the openers are probably fried.

But tripping breakers is a bit odd.

 

[SGKent]

do they not work from the wall switch, the remote, or both. If the wall switch fails to work, and you have 120V at the outlet time to call Insurance company. Personally after a lightning strike where there is enough spark to have damage, I would want an electrician to go thru the house wiring. If it was a strike 100 yards away and you got a little arcing that is different. My folks lived in the panhandle of FL for years and it is a very common occurrence there. If it was a direct strike it is unlikely the electronics survived. That said by the time you buy boards, replace relays etc., you are into the cost of a new one. I might talk with my insurance company first.

 

[DC73]

Lightning ran in on my garage and tripped several breakers ,now two of the three garage doors do not work.
on one the lights come on.. nothing on the other..no results with reset button..where to start to diagnose?
brand is Chamberlain Liftmaster.

You might get lucky and find a fuse on the circuit board inside the openers. If not, the circuit boards are likely fried. It might be easy enough to test by moving the circuit board from the one good opener to the others.

DC

 

[vavet]

I had this happen about 8 years ago. The door would open, but not close. It did not matter if I tried the remote or the wall mounted switch. I narrowed it down to a relay on the board, but I couldn’t find an identical relay through the major retailers (Digi-Key, mouser, etc). I finally just bought a new opener.

 

[MFolks]

Any other house circuits affected? TV works? All lights also? Refrig, microwave,and freezer? Dish or cable works?

 

[NCMUSTANG]

its a detached garage.. power comes from house..
tripped breaker in panel box in detached garage. Don't know exactly where the strike hit but sounded very close ti main house. does not work from wall buttons or remote. all other circuits appear ok.

 

[MFolks]

Very lucky,could have done major damage in the house....

 

[LB-1911]

its a detached garage.. power comes from house..
tripped breaker in panel box in detached garage. Don't know exactly where the strike hit but sounded very close ti main house. does not work from wall buttons or remote. all other circuits appear ok.

As noted above - boards are likely damaged.

New boards or new openers and consider a garage door surge protector as well.

One option - Chamberlain CLSS1 Surge Protector

Good Luck

 

[wyliesdiesels]

its a detached garage.. power comes from house..
tripped breaker in panel box in detached garage. Don't know exactly where the strike hit but sounded very close ti main house. does not work from wall buttons or remote. all other circuits appear ok.

You should have your GES checked out by a competent electrician.

Its possible it hit the poco lines then traveled to your service.

Does the garage have a metal roof?

 

[SGKent]

You should have your GES checked out by a competent electrician.

Its possible it hit the poco lines then traveled to your service.

Does the garage have a metal roof?

GES? definition? General Electric Service? Garage Electric System/Service?

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Sorry

Grounding electrode system

Comprised of the GEC/groundig electrode conductor and the grounding electrodes

The primary purpose of a GES is to shunt lightening strikes to earth and away from your electrical systems

 

[Showkey]

Lightening can be odd when it comes to damage. The damage can be very random. 40’ Pine tree outside my home was hit with a direct strike. Tree was blown completely apart top to bottom. Blew everyone’s well pump within 2000’ but mine was fine. The tree was 20’ from the home and 15’ from my well head. My home, 6 light bulbs, dryer control board, garage door opener, two or three breakers tripped and several other electrical devices were fried. No smoke, no fire and Others in the neighborhood had similar damage to devices besides the well pumps.

Different home, indirect hit, on neighbors property, my cable modem, router and several randon devices were toasted ( no smoke) just failed. More than likely in this case in came in through the cable service ? TVs were not damaged.

 

[wyliesdiesels]

Time to put lightening arrestors on electrical panels, cable and phone lines and point of use surge suppressors for all the electronics.

Make sure GES is up to snuff as well

 

[SGKent]

Lightning strikes can vary in size too. One May we were passing thru Cape Girardeau, Missouri during a storm at night - cloud base was maybe 10'000 feet up, and the strikes to some smoke stacks there were huge. From 15 miles away we could see a cloud of debris being knocked off the tops of the stacks every time a bolt hit. Putting my thumb in front of my face at arms length I could cover the stacks but not the width of the main lightning strike. Since that night the thought of the potential of lightning scares the pee out of me.

 

[Mr_fixit]

circuit boards are fried. Take the good board out and swap in the other two, that will convince you that you need 2 new circuit boards.