Question:
I have a Craftsman 1/2 HP garage door opener (model #139.53615SR).
I've owned my house for 4 years now and the garage door opener was
here when we moved in.
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It'll work fine for a couple
months at a time, and then I'll pull up in the driveway and push the
button and nothing happens. Sometimes I have to walk inside the house
and push the button to open the door, then go back outside to put the
car in the garage. Sometimes I'll sit in the car in my driveway for a
minute or two pushing the button over and over again and the door will
finally open. It's just very unreliable.
This happens with the standard remotes and also with a keypad remote
that I have installed outside the garage door. I have of course
replaced batteries and I've even bought brand new opener remotes.
Nothing solves the problem. I have no problem at all with the hard
wired push button in the garage.
Does anyone have any idea how I can fix this without spending a lot of
money?
Answer:
we have a sears garage door opener, it came with one opener, we now need
two, the codes have changed, they use a different frequency, the FCC
made them stop manufacturing on the old frequency, so to get another
remote we bought a new reciever(the box in the garage that is wired to
the wall and then to the opener via door bell wire. well i could not
get the thing to work, was 10 feet away from the receiver with the new
remotes through a glass window in the garage door. new receiver with
two remotes cost $80 at sears, ten minutes later we returned this junk
as it did not work, that might be your problem, it could be that the
remotes are off and need to be reset as the opener will work off the
push button switch(live metal to metal contact). if you dont have the
papers for the gar they want a few bucks for it, its only
printeed paper, cant be that much, then call sears via toll free
1-800 number and order the part(manuals) via credit card and you will
have it in a few days and you can then check to see how to set up the
remotes, and will also have the diagrams for future needs............
I had a similar problem years ago, the metal antenna sticking out the
top of the receiver box on the wall had broken off and fell into the
plastic box. i took it off the wall and observed that the foil pc board
inside had come off and the thing that was holding the antenna(piece of
silver wire bendt over) was not attached to the pc board. i took and
drilled a hole in the bottom of the plastic box, about the size of a
nail(you can always heat a nail over the stove while holding it with a
pair of pliers and then insert it into the plastic to get the same
results) and took a piece of 18 inch long plastic coated wire, like a
piece of a lamp cord, and soldered it to the pc board where the antenna
should have been attached. i then let the 18 inch long wire hand out the
hole and curled it like a pig tail in a small curl and it fell to about
8 inches. it worked great, picked up the signal from the remotes about
100 feet away outside the garage.
