Question:
I bought a house a little over a year ago that has two Allister garage door
openers. Before we bought the house one of the openers didn't work and they
replaced the receiver and the remote with an Overhead Door unit. The other
opener has worked without any problem until recently. I though the battery
on the remote needed replacing (9-volt) but have replaced it with two
different new Duracell alkalines. The light on the remote is very bright
but the door will only open if you hold the remote within a few inches of
the antenna.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Answer:
-1. If the reciever (the thing hanging form the 3 screw contacts
at the back of the opener) is a black case allister, it's around 10
years old and is probably dying. I see this a lot in older allister
recievers, and the symtom you describe is indicative of this
occurence.
2. Before you go out & buy a new radio control set, put a new, plain
non-alkaline 9 volt battery (ray-o vac, radio shack red label) in the
transmitters. Older transmitters do not like duracell batteries--they
have too much current in them.
Hope this helps.
-I have little experience with garage door opener remotes, but what I do
have seems to relate to your problem. I had the exact same symptoms.
I opened the remote unit and found an adjustable pod on the circuit board.
It looked just like the ones in my CB radio used for adjusting the
transmitter power so I figured I'd give it a try. Sure enough, I was able
to turn up the transmitter power to where it would operate the door from
100 yards down the street. apparently the transisters weaken over time and
need to be turned up to maintain the output power needed to reach the
receiver.
After I put the transmitter back together, I saw that there is a small
access hole in the back of the casing to allow adjusting with a small flat
blade screwdriver without opening the case. Check and see if yours has the
access hole. If so, start adjusting it while standing just out of range
until it responds. Then move out of range again and turn it up some more.
Keep moving farther and turning up the power until you have reached the
point where you want to operate the door from. I suggest this proceedure
because you don't want to turn it up too far and start operating some
neighbor's door who just happens to have the same set-up as yours.
-Either your receiver or transmitter is simply dieing. I too had an Allister
that died and since your other one did too (and was replaced with something
non-Allister) I think that says they must be poorly designed or something.
You can get a new transmitter/reciever kit from Home Depot (probably
elsewhere too). It is made by Genie but ties into the door switch so it
will work with any brand. Replacement couldn't be easier. Remove your
reciever box from the opener (the box on the back) and attach the new
receiver to the same screws the remote switch attaches too. Plug the
reciever into the wall and secure it to the ceiling and voila!
If you're so inclined, the Allister does put out 24VAC on the terminal strip
so you can draw power from it rather than a separate wall outlet.
