Garage door randomly quits for months, then stops completely. "Why don't you just call someone?" wife says. Saw your video. "That's nice, but I'm not that lucky" I say. Took out the circuit board and saw a little corroded solder crack and say "That's would be nice if it was the problem, but I'm not that lucky." Soldered it as you showed and said "Even if that was the problem, my blobby mess of a solder fix won't work; I'm not that lucky." Put it all back together, lights came on, and it worked. Lucky me. Many thanks!
Thank You!! I had the circuit board off yesterday and visually inspected it, but not real sure what I was looking for, but there was nothing obvious. Put it all back together, adjusted raising and lowering heights, door force, cleaned sensor glass, lights seemed to work, no error signals, then TODAY I saw this video. I thought let me look at the connections again on the board. I didn’t have a magnifying glass so took a picture with the cell phone and zoomed in and found one connector (opposite end of where you soldered) cracked all the way around. It didn’t seem to be loose or move, but needed to be re-soldered. Then put an extra dab of solder on it and voila!!! FIXED. My wife was shopping for a new opener on Amazon. Thank YOU!!!
This was super helpful. I wasn't able to see a specific crack or bad solder joint in mine, but like some of the other commenters, I just resoldered each of the connection pins around the transformer on both sides and now it's working great again. Thank you for taking the time to do this video. So many perfectly good electronic items get dumped in a landfill each year - thanks to you, we can keep some of these older garage door openers in service a while longer. Thanks for the terrific video.
This is an old post but after watching it I just found and fixed a cracked solder joint on the same board shown here. Saved a sh** load of money Thanks a ton!!!!!
About a year ago my CRAFTSMAN® [1/2-HP] Belt drive garage door opener would intermittently 'not' work in extreme weather changes. Around (6) months ago I totally re-soldered the (10) locations you indicated. To this day I have never had a problem... - Thank You -
Having the same issue for over 4 years when the weather turns colder! I guess I need to look for someone to repair it and show them your video. I’m 70 and not savvy about soldering, etc. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you so much for this video. My garage door opener was having intermittent problems in hot weather. I followed your instructions and found a cold solder joint on the circuit board. I re-solder the joint and it is working fine now.
I changed my incandescent light bulb out for a led bulb. I just so happened to have changed the gear assembly at the same time. So when I put it all back together I couldn't figure out why it spins a few revolutions and then stops. It was the led bulb! I had no idea those bulbs emit a radio frequency. Which also explains why my garage door remote is so temperamental now. I changed all the bulbs over my washroom and my workbench with LEDs. My remote has acted weird ever since. I just thought the remote was going bad. Anyway,thank you so much for taking the time to explain things. The best trouble shooting video on yt for garage doors!
The cold solder joint was exactly my problem, same spot too, easy fix, thank you so much! I knew something was up considering one of the light bulbs wasn't working and the door would randomly stop, happy this did the trick.
Saved me some $$. I could not see any cracks on any solder joints with my old eyes, but I went ahead and reflowed all the pins to the transformer. World like new again. Thanks for the tips.
Why I did not think about this is beyond me... it's always hot here so it always mis-behaved. I have an older opener but I found multiple suspicious solder joints, I just went around and touched each joint with my fine tip iron and a little fine solder and bingo! Now my opener works again and saved me $300.00, thank you!!!
I can't believe it. I'm a field engineer (although not for garage door openers) so troubleshooting is my daily fare. I've played with my GDO off and on for weeks with confusing results. Opened it up and looked at the circuit board, which looks completely different, but what did I find? A cracked solder joint where the transformer connects to the circuit board!! Problem fixed within minutes!! Thank you so much Andrew!
This is a very common problem with the Craftsman or Liftmaster garage door openers of the same vintage shown in the repair youtube video.. This intermittent electrical problem does appear especially during weather changes. Vibrations from the operation of the door opener can also cause the same problems. Symptoms include no response from the door button or remote, moving partially up or down before stopping, etc. The most noticeable is when the door moves and stops midway and you will note that the lights go out indicating the power supply board is the culprit. Many times by unplugging and plugging the door opener back in will temporally fix (reboot) this but is only the quick fix when you need to get the dam thing open or closed to move the car!. Removing this power supply board as instructed and visually inspecting the solder joints with a magnifying glass (unless your eyes are real good) will show what we call a cold solder joint. Reflowing the solder and adding some electrical 60/40% rosin core solder will definitely fix the problem using any solder gun or iron. These boards are manufactured using a wave soldering technique which if not properly performed at the factory will eventually cause future failures at the joints were the components connect to the board. My repair was at the electrical connection pins between the transmitter board and the smaller power board. Total repair time including moving the car out of the garage, getting a step ladder, etc. took about 50 minutes. Purchasing a new receiver logic board assembly with the plastic end panel is an option and runs about $75 from Amazon. You can't just buy the power supply section of the assembly. Try fixing it first or call a friend with experience. I seem to be called all the time on garage door opener problems.
@@p14buk I have had to resolder most of the solder joints on the control board on my Craftsman opener, as well as re-cap it. Recapping the radio board made all the difference in the world.
@@PyroRob69 Bad capacitors are usually deformed out of their original case. The top case will look like the innards pushed upward - might even look like they exploded.
I can’t believe it was my bulb causing this. I put a new bulb in about a year ago. Thought the remotes were getting old so I bought new ones. Still the same. Lived with it during the winter.Googled extending garage door antenna and your video popped up. Thanks a ton!!
Thank you! Just did mine tonight and it worked. Spent about $10 for my soldering iron and solder. I didnt have to hunt for my bad area. It was brown. Can't thank you enough!
Andrew - You are the master!! My Genie garage door opener started stopping 1-2 feet from the ground each time it opened. I checked everything in the manual and some quick You Tube videos. I was ready to buy a new opener. I watched this video and you solved it. I had one LED light bulb on the opener flickering. I removed the bulb and there you go. It worked. Thanks!!
I checked the one you had crack. No issues there. Found a wire going to the light socket that had a bare spot. Taped it up. Worked great 10 times then started again. Found out board is obsolete, so, I ordered a used one. Then gave it the old college try. Found it was the pin on the other board that the 4 and 1 plugs on the other board. It was the one opposite end of the single pin side. Works perfect now and I have spare parts. Thanks!
Thank gosh I listened to the complete video. Near the end of your video you mentioned an antenna wire. Noone else had me toned that part. I ran out to the garage, looked at mine and it was coated with DECADES of dirt and grime. I cleaned it, straightened it so it pointed at the floor, ran to my car, and my car remote worked 5 times in a row!!!! I am thrilled and hope it continues to work! Just sharing in case others have the same problem.
My GDoor symptoms were identical to this video. Took the GDoor controller apart, found a loose soldered connection on the power circuit board, soldered it, put it all back together and PRESPTO... works like a charm. Thank you.
Thank you so much for the light bulb tip! We were ready to call a garage opener repair person until we tried removing the LED light bulbs we had just replaced. Both the keypad and the garage door opener in the car worked perfectly even from a distance! Also ordered some LEDs specifically for garage door openers and we'll try them. The LEDs are brighter so I hope this works. Thanks again - no other video I watched mentioned this problem and none of their "fixes" worked.
Thank You!! - I found your video while researching my intermittently failing garage door. I had already checked for loose wires and was very close to replacing the 13 year old unit. After watching your video I decided to take your advice and check for bad solder connections on the power board and sure enough I found and repaired the problem. It was a different location but same idea. I can't thank you enough...
This video is a life saver! I've had this exact garage door opener for like 7 years. Mostly been fine but recently started having some glitches. Long story short, I had LED lights installed the whole time, switched them out to some old school standard bulbs. It's been three weeks and have not had a single glitch. Thank you!
Thank you Andrew! Spot on. I wasn't sure that I could see the hairline cold solder joint (but maybe). While I had it disassembled I just touched up all of the solder joints on the power supply board, and on the logic board on the connector between the two boards. Voila. Problem solved! Really appreciate you taking the effort to make this video. Made my day.
I watched the video and could not find any issues with the soldering. After reading the comments I re-solder all contacts at the element in the video and the problem was solved. Thank you so much for the great guide!
All I can is thank you, thank you, thank you! I was going to call a repairman in to change my Liftmaster gargae door opener but your video saved me and it turned out to be the Feit Led light bulbs I had installed. The issue with the light bulbs did not start until after a 2 day power outage for some reason but after removing them my issue was solved.
I also had an intermittently working garage door. Found this video. Followed his instructions for pulling the circuit board. I found a bad solder joint. Re-soldered it and everything works properly. Thanks for posting this helpful video.
It worked! Longest part was warming up the soldering iron! 20 minutes and boom back in business. Repair guy quoted $550 to install a new Liftmaster. Glad I came across this video!
@@AndrewDIY My garage door motor would run when I pushed the button on the wall but the door didn't go up. I pulled on the rope with the red handle then it started taking the door up and down like normal. Why did I have to do that when I have never touched that cord before?
I had a circuit board that burnt out, so after replacing it, I let the bulb hang out Of its holding place just hanging there as soon as I heard filament I didn't even have to finish this video I k ew that was my problem. When I tested it without a light bulb the unit worked perfectly after I put the light bulb in and reprogrammed the opener sure enough it went bezurk. I secured the light bulb and viola back in bus. Thank You, I found your video the second hit. Thanks again!!!!!
Almost 4 years after you posted this video and it’s still helping people. Well made video. Excellent, clear instructions. Thank you very much for showing the soldering. The crack in my board was right where yours was. Now i can enjoy my long 4th of july weekend! I hope you enjoy yours as well
Our opener started to experience the same issue you identified. It would start opening then stop. I had to hit the unit to get it to work and close before I looked at it. The issue was a fracture in the solder as you exactly described! Hard to see a first but it was there. Resoldered the spot and it is now operating fine. Now I have to return the new craftsman opener I bought just in case the fix didn’t work 😅. The wifey willl never know!!! Thanks again for this video!
I can't thank you enough Andrew. By replacing my light bulbs with the special garage door opener light bulbs, that fixed my problem totally. It's been 3 weeks now and my garage door hasn't malfunctioned since changing those bulbs. I never paid $24 for 2 bulbs but it was well worth it for eliminating my problem. Many thanks again Andrew
Thank you. Had a lightning strike to the house and it blew out the builds and control board. Replaced the board and added LED bulbs. It would work only about 20 pct of the time. Was ready to call an expert. Put in incandescent bulbs they now work 100 pct of the time. Gave me fits.. thanks..
Thank you for this video! The broken solder on my unit was at the connector that joins the two boards together. I did not notice at initial inspection, had to use a very strong magnifying glass and wiggle the pins to see the crack. Re-soldered and all good.
This was a life (money) saving video! Thank you. I was having trouble with the door, watched several videos and happened on this one. Never thought I'd be so lucky to have something this simple work. Then I remembered I had recently changed the light bulb to an LED. It took a week or two before I had an issue with the door. It started sporadically and continued to get worse. I changed back to regular light bulb and tried the door. Nothing. Ugh! I ran my errand and when I came back I tried the garage door opener and presto it opened. I tried it a few more times just to make sure it really works. This has saved me a lot of money I could ill afford to spend on a service call. Thank you!
This was the perfect video. I had an overhead door legacy that was flickering and stopping intermittently and then eventually died altogether. It seemed worse as the weather got hot. I took out the logic board and found a completely cracked solder joint. I was able to re-solder it and put the whole thing back together and it works! Thank you!
Easy fix - thanks so much! I have opened this up once before and replaced the 10-inch 'antenna' with a 20-foot run of heave gauge wire. Can open a block away now! I have previously done almost the same thing replacing barrel capacitors in 3 of our Bosch appliances - each time about $3.50 in parts. They wanted $600 for the whole circuit board for the dishwasher.
This video shows a small crack as you can see in this video , I took my out and take a look, at first it looks normal and I did not see anything wrong and still doing inspection finely found very mall crack around square post , using a small file file around the post re solder the post , and now working like brand new, This was a life (money) saving video! Thank you. Andrew,
Thanks so much for this! My opener would travel 5 or 6 inches, reverse back to where it started and then nothing. It even did this with the door not connected to the pulley. Gotta admit I didn't watch this all the way through. After the first few minutes I went and replaced the LED bulbs with regular bulbs, and presto, bingo...it started working fine again!!!!
Been running LED bulbs then started having issues last week. Did start noticing the flicker on the bulb. Changed out 3 led bulbs in the garage, cleaned up the area and it worked better but not 100%. Worked 75% of the time. So I popped everything out, checked out the circuit board and it ended up being the little one. Didn't notice the cold joint on this video but some at the bottom didn't look as strong as the others. So I soldered 4 points at the bottom. Then went ahead and did the one you did on this video just to give it a little extra protection. Now it works like a charm. You sir got a like, comment, subscribe and my props for this video. As a Mercedes Benz and bmw tech I really didn't want to fork over 300 bucks to the garage man if I didn't need to! Thanks!
Thank you so much for your video! I watched several TH-cam videos and tried lots of things before watching your video but nothing really worked. The problem with my garage door was just like how you described - intermittent - and although I could not see any cracks in the welds, I took a leap of faith and re did the welds of the pins. Then I put everything back and it worked! Great tip! Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
Wow. Was having this problem ....... remotes would work sometimes, others not. Usually only worked when "in" the garage close to the unit antenna. Removed the light bulb on the antenna side and all good now. Works every time, even from street distance. I bet I reprogrammed my remotes at least 25 times over the past week trying to get it to work. I'm sure I must have recently replaced that bulb and didn't think anything about it. Headed to store tomorrow to pickup the special garage door bulbs you mentioned. Never knew there was such a thing. Thanks Andrew DIY. I may post a short video on my channel to "check your bulbs first" and will definitely give you a shout out.
Thank you for posting this video. I had been fighting a problem of the door not going down without holding the main control down. All safety sensors were clean, aligned, and powered properly. Voltage was good at the sensors and the source. Boards were all good. I was about to give up and replace it all until I watched this video. I unscrewed the light bulbs and it worked perfectly. Thank you!!!
Thank you for the video. My Liftmaster just quick working one day. Only thing it did was click twice when either the wall switch or the remote were pushed. I thought it must be the capacitor or the circuit board. I opened up the unit and the capacitor appeared ok so I considered the circuit board. Upon first look all seemed fine. I was looking for something obvious. I decided to disconnect the board and examine it more closely. I found taking close pictures of each section of the board to be very helpful. I was able to zoom into each solder point and see if there was an issue. Soon enough I found a couple of suspect solders. I added a small amount of solder to the problem points. I reinstalled the board and the opener works again! Great solution. Thanks for the advice.
Thank you SO MUCH for this video! Could not find ANY info online about this. Every forum post I read mentioned the sensors but I knew mine had to be electrical/circuit board related the way my lights were flickering. The exact same joint on mine was cracked. Re soldered and we are back in business. Thank you again, this video saved me.
Mine was working intermittently and I found the capacitor leaking and so ordered a new one on Amazon. Cost was about $7. I put the info on Nextdoor so others could save money and I got pushback as to why I didn't just call a garage door repairman. (In my area that's between $60!-$90 just to show up) SMH!!! People think everything needs a 'specialist' to fix. Glad you were able to fix yours!
Can't thank you enough. It's been months if not a year with our garage door not working right. It would open with the remote from around the corner but wouldn't close even when we were right outside the door. It was the freaking lights! I pulled both LED lights out and the remotes work like they were brand new. I literally had a whole new opener in my Amazon cart and then found your video. Thank you so much, definitely earned a sub!
THANK-YOU! This video along with another one on TH-cam allowed me to fix my opener! On that same board, there were visible cracks on one of the solder joints. I never soldered before but I bought a kit and was able to re-solder the joint. It FIXED my garage opener that would intermittently stop while opening or closing. This video helped so much on my FIX!!! AMAZING!
After watching other videos about why my garage door kept reversing when closing and not being able to resolve my issue, I decided to watch all 12 plus minutes of this video. My first thought was that this video could have been allot shorter and that I really doubted this could be my issue but after cleaning the optical sensor lenses and making sure they were aligned, I was out of options and still had the same intermitent problem. Also, we had noticed that our door always seemed to be worse when the weather was cold. Long story short, I followed the instructions in the video and lo and behold, I found a loose componenet on the board with a cracked solder joint. After resoldering the part, everything worked like a champ and was not a difficult fix at all. If you've exhausted all the easy fixes, I would highly recommend following this advice. Thanks
SECOND potential SOLUTION BELOW...... For anybody who has a similar problem and not quite the answer... Shout out for this VIDEO and information in it (Great job Andrew!!!!!). I opened mine and had an issue with the power pins from the "back" board on the right ... as they connected... to the "top" board on the left... the power would come and go (Start and stop with a little pressure on the external plastic panel). Stopping the door mid opening and loosing power to the unit and lights. SOLUTION: A rubber washer (bottom left screw)behind the bottom board (on the right)... the added 1/16th inch pressure tightened up the power pins by adding a tiny amount of twist between the boards and now there is a good connection ALL the time. Thanks again Andrew!
Wowwww Hahaha, Andrew thank you very much. 1min19sec into your video I corrected an issue with all my openers not working suddenly. Yess it was an incandescent light 💡 bulb
A very big thank you for posting this video!! I have a similar 1/2HP Craftsman door opener that has worked very well for many years. The other day it started acting up. Would randomly stop midway through closing, seemed to open fine but closing was a problem. Same symptoms as you described in the video where the light would flicker when the door stopped so looked like a lack of power issue to me. Watched your video and took the boards out as you suggested. On the very same row of pins but the other end from what you had in the video was a cold solder joint! WOW!! easy fix and back together and working well now. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
You are very observant. I would not have known the crack in the soldering led to my garage opener works intermittently. I thought it was the capacitor issue at first, but after replacing it, it still didn't work right. Now, with your video, I fixed it and it saves me a lot of money!!
Excellent video. My old Chamberlain chain drive opener began reversing on the way down in cold Cleveland weather. It was no fun manually operating the door for a couple of months. I eventually inspected the control board carefully and found no bad solder connections or blown capacitors. Instead, I found that holding the hard-wired control switch the entire ride down for about a week of comings and goings fixed the problem. I've operated it without trouble for two months in moderately cold and bitterly cold weather. Why or how is beyond me, but it's a welcome result for sure.
My garage door has been working intermittently for the past almost 2 weeks. Sometimes it works from the wall panel, sometimes not, sometimes it works from my car, sometimes not. I was trying to figure out what to tell the tech I planned to call tomorrow to come fix it. Two minutes into your video, I went to the garage and removed the 2 new incandescent bulbs I’d installed before the problems started. I’ve tested it a few times and now the garage seems to be working just fine. My son thought I was crazy and said I needed to watch the rest of the video, which I will, but so far changing the lightbulbs has it working!! Who’d have thought??? THANK YOU!! I will look for those garage-specific bulbs. I replaced them because one was out, and that one it still out. But at least the garage is working properly!!
This video really helped! Thanks! Let me explain I took the circuit board apart and looked at the soldering and visibly didn’t see a break in the soldering but I did apply heat new solder to it and Wala it worked! See my garage door was intermittently working which makes you believe you need a new unit but obviously this isn’t the case. It was simply a micro crack in the welds. Once it was reconnected I never had an issue again.
For years, one of the lights would sometimes work, but mostly not. Lately, the opener has been flaky, just as you describe. I pulled the boards and found a bad solder joint. The vexing intermittent opener problem is now resolved and both lights work fine. Thanks very much for this video. It's refreshing that you went to the trouble of investigating the cause instead of just replacing boards like most of the other "experts". Thanks again.
LED bulbs were messing up my Garage door opener change them out and the problem went away. Very surprised but it worked and very easy to check to see if that is the cause of a misbehaving door! Thanks for your insight!
Seriously, the best garage door view ever. After an hour and a new garage door opener later....I took out the new light bulb and boom, it worked. Thanks a ton man!!
Fantastic video with spot on information! I discovered a crack in the soldering-just as you described! My garage door opener is now functioning as it should. Thank you very much!
Recently acquired a new, Genie Wall Mount Universal remote to replace a Liftmaster "clicker" we kept inside our front door to use from the house. This arrangement has worked for more then ten years. Flawlessly no less! But suddenly, door would open but, would not close. Despite checking the sensors, replacing remote batteries, etc. However, the wired wall switch worked first time, every time. Thus, I figured it had to be the remote operator. The new Genie remote was easy to program and worked right away, as long as I had it with me in the garage. But, once I brought it inside and mounted on wall, it too would open but not close the door. Intermittently of course. Just like the old one I replaced. I've been reprogramming, testing, retesting, researching and racking my brains out trying to figure out what the problem was. I finally just stopped working on it and just used the hard wired wall operator switch. Then, just this morning, my wife left and called me immediately from the car to tell me the door wouldn't close. So, back at it I went. I discovered that, when using the new wall remote, the learning light was flashing after the door opened to full height. But, not with the old remote and not with the hardwired switch. Really puzzling now. And I ended up here seeking more information. In watching the first two minutes of your video, I had a new clue. I have cheap, FEIT brand led lights in both my garage door openers. And, when the door opens, the lights go on. Of course, I assumed that the answer couldn't be this simple. But apparently, it is. I went downstairs, unscrewed the light bulbs and came back inside and operated the door via the new, Genie Wall Mount Remote. Walla! It worked perfectly. I don't know why it worked with those lights up until a week ago. But it seems they are some how interferring with the close command on our remotes and now
Thank you for this. I had the same cracked solder joints so I re-sweated the entire power board and some of the control board. My 2007 door opener is working great again..
Thank you! My symptoms were that it acted up when it was real hot. Sometimes the controller light would go off and you could tap the opener and the controller light would turn back on. But after seeing the video I spotted a solder joint that didn't have enough solder on it. Added solder and all is well. Great job!
Thank you so much!!! I had exactly this failure on that exact solder connection. Completely crazy behavior from the opener. It was like it was possessed. Re-soldering it made it run flawlessly again!
This video helped me pinpoint a similar problem on my power board. I was not able to see any problem with the solder under a magnifying glass, but a continuity tester located the problem pin at the corner. I am guessing it is a power or ground pin. Thanks for a great explanation and step by step debugging strategy.
fabulous video, I found crack in the solder connection I used a super magnifier glass and found it right away. I simply re soldererd the connection and Wala fixed. Didn't even take the panel completely off, did it from my ladder with the side panel hanging, I would never had attempted this with this video. The crack was in the green panel board. I had been trying to fix it for months Many Thanks
Excellent video, thanks! I have a 1/2hp Craftsman just like this one which was going up fine but randomly stopping going down. This started right after one of the door cables broke, which had shaken the whole system pretty good. My power board didn’t have any obviously broken joints like yours did, so I just re-flowed all of the larger solder joints anyway. Fixed the issue immediately. This is the third time I’ve been plagued by broken PCB solder joints; twice in very expensive modules in my cars, and now once on a garage door opener. I bet issues like these are responsible for many openers being tossed into landfill.
Watched this video, noticed my sensor light was off. Unscrewed it and it fell and hit the ground and the light came back on haha. BUT it works again! Thank you!
GOOD POINT TO MAKE HERE, AND THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT I WILL BE LOOKING AT MINE. BUT ID LIKE TO ADD TO THIS when using a soldering iron you want to keep the tip clean, befor you use the soldering iron on any connections what ill do is take a paper towel get it wet then squeeze off most the water untill its just moisture on it, most professional soldering stations come with a sponge for this after the tip is clean put just a little bit of fresh solder on the tip and wipe it off on the damp sponge or paper towel a good toilet paper can work or even a tissue or just use a wash cloth or rag. Then you can use the soldering iron. Dirt on your soldering iron can make poor joints. Most circuit boards move down an assembly line components are placed on the board by robots, then it runs over a flowing river of solder and then its washed in water bath. This is comon in manufacturing electronics. Few are done by hand now days. This is why mass production can turn out electronics And keep prices low most the cost in manufacturing is labor cost its one way to bring down cost without lowering qulity. After the parts finished it runs over a camra system to inspect the parts. My guess is vibration caused the joint to open up You can try using a silicone to make the part more stable or just make sure the door and all its bolts are tight they loosen up over time. If you ever find a 1950s style opener they almost never have problems do anything you can to keep it. I belive you can still buy parts for them. They are almost bullet proof.
Mate! The broken solder connection... had the Exact same problem exact same post. Super simple 5 min fix and I wouldnt have even thought to look that closely. Saved me some coin for real. Brilliant tip. Cheers mate!
Thanks for the video! I resoldered a few joints and my garage is finally working again! I’ve put this off for over two years, manually opening and closing my garage door. $20 Iron and $7 Solder was better than a few hundred dollars for a new opener.
Thank you so much! I never connected the LED bulb to my problem. I should have considered it could serve as a jamming device as I spent a few years as an electronics tech in the Navy
Holy heck. My dollar general led bulb was causing interference when the light was on making the remotes and keypad work poorly. I had no idea what the problem was. I bought a new opener. When leaving we would have to close the door with the wall pad and step over the eye beam because the light was still on. I removed the led bulb and back to normal. I guess I can take back the new opener I had bought and thankfully didn’t open. Thanks for the video!
Thanks for the video. We have a 1/2 HP Craftsman manufactured 11/00. The hardwired remote works 100% of the time. Our 3 wireless remotes are intermittent. Oftentimes my remote won't close the door, but will open it when I come back home. I've removed the LED bulb and left it off. I pulled the logic board and don't see any issues. Do you think it's time to replace the whole unit?
I only listened to the first 1:41 of the video. Why? a couple of weeks ago I replaced my fluorescent tubes with LED tubes rather than replace a presumably bad ballast. ever since the door opener works VERY erratically from the car and remote signalers. I'm sure I looked at 20 videos, mostly the first minute or two because it was clear they did not apply. Then I came across yours. After you mentioned the possible LED signal interference I checked and that was it. the title of your video is exactly correct; temperamental is the word.
Hans Gruber I had the same thing. I thought the safety sensors were misaligned because I had to replace them awhile back. But it was the led lightbulbs!
Had the same problem with our craftsman opener. Pulled the power board an sure enough the exact same connection was broken. Thank you for this tutorial saved me a lot of head ache trying to diagnose my shitty 50 year old garage door. Made me question if company’s even bother doing field testing to update there designs to fix things like this when so many people are willing to just go out and buy a new one. Little rubber stand offs will hopefully fix this for longer then just re-soldering the connection.
Amazingly clear explanations! Best 13 minutes I've spent in quite a while. Consider me subscribed! Update: I was going to replace my garage door opener. But with the information obtained in this video I was able to get it working fine again.
Had exact same symptoms usually during temp and humidity swings. My door would open OK, but sometimes had a problem closing. I would tap gently on the front of motor housing with a small hammer and would usually clear the problem, which immediately told me good chance of a microscopic control board solder joint fracture, like yours. Yup, that what it was, and your fix is all that's needed. One guess of cause is years of on-off operation torque and temp expansion-contraction on the board.
Garage door randomly quits for months, then stops completely. "Why don't you just call someone?" wife says. Saw your video. "That's nice, but I'm not that lucky" I say. Took out the circuit board and saw a little corroded solder crack and say "That's would be nice if it was the problem, but I'm not that lucky." Soldered it as you showed and said "Even if that was the problem, my blobby mess of a solder fix won't work; I'm not that lucky." Put it all back together, lights came on, and it worked. Lucky me. Many thanks!
Thank You!! I had the circuit board off yesterday and visually inspected it, but not real sure what I was looking for, but there was nothing obvious. Put it all back together, adjusted raising and lowering heights, door force, cleaned sensor glass, lights seemed to work, no error signals, then TODAY I saw this video. I thought let me look at the connections again on the board. I didn’t have a magnifying glass so took a picture with the cell phone and zoomed in and found one connector (opposite end of where you soldered) cracked all the way around. It didn’t seem to be loose or move, but needed to be re-soldered. Then put an extra dab of solder on it and voila!!! FIXED. My wife was shopping for a new opener on Amazon.
Thank YOU!!!
This was super helpful. I wasn't able to see a specific crack or bad solder joint in mine, but like some of the other commenters, I just resoldered each of the connection pins around the transformer on both sides and now it's working great again. Thank you for taking the time to do this video. So many perfectly good electronic items get dumped in a landfill each year - thanks to you, we can keep some of these older garage door openers in service a while longer. Thanks for the terrific video.
Soldering was clumsy, yet effective. Glad people take time to share their knowledge.
This is an old post but after watching it I just found and fixed a cracked solder joint on the same board shown here. Saved a sh** load of money Thanks a ton!!!!!
About a year ago my CRAFTSMAN® [1/2-HP] Belt drive garage door opener
would intermittently 'not' work in extreme weather changes.
Around (6) months ago I totally re-soldered the (10) locations you indicated.
To this day I have never had a problem...
- Thank You -
Having the same issue for over 4 years when the weather turns colder! I guess I need to look for someone to repair it and show them your video. I’m 70 and not savvy about soldering, etc. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you so much for this video. My garage door opener was having intermittent problems in hot weather. I followed your instructions and found a cold solder joint on the circuit board. I re-solder the joint and it is working fine now.
Followed your instructions and found the left solder joint was cracked. Resoldered it and now works perfectly. Unbelievable. Yhank you for the post.
I changed my incandescent light bulb out for a led bulb. I just so happened to have changed the gear assembly at the same time. So when I put it all back together I couldn't figure out why it spins a few revolutions and then stops. It was the led bulb! I had no idea those bulbs emit a radio frequency. Which also explains why my garage door remote is so temperamental now. I changed all the bulbs over my washroom and my workbench with LEDs. My remote has acted weird ever since. I just thought the remote was going bad. Anyway,thank you so much for taking the time to explain things. The best trouble shooting video on yt for garage doors!
The cold solder joint was exactly my problem, same spot too, easy fix, thank you so much! I knew something was up considering one of the light bulbs wasn't working and the door would randomly stop, happy this did the trick.
Saved me some $$. I could not see any cracks on any solder joints with my old eyes, but I went ahead and reflowed all the pins to the transformer. World like new again. Thanks for the tips.
Why I did not think about this is beyond me... it's always hot here so it always mis-behaved. I have an older opener but I found multiple suspicious solder joints, I just went around and touched each joint with my fine tip iron and a little fine solder and bingo! Now my opener works again and saved me $300.00, thank you!!!
I can't believe it. I'm a field engineer (although not for garage door openers) so troubleshooting is my daily fare. I've played with my GDO off and on for weeks with confusing results. Opened it up and looked at the circuit board, which looks completely different, but what did I find? A cracked solder joint where the transformer connects to the circuit board!! Problem fixed within minutes!! Thank you so much Andrew!
This is a very common problem with the Craftsman or Liftmaster garage door openers of the same vintage shown in the repair youtube video.. This intermittent electrical problem does appear especially during weather changes. Vibrations from the operation of the door opener can also cause the same problems. Symptoms include no response from the door button or remote, moving partially up or down before stopping, etc. The most noticeable is when the door moves and stops midway and you will note that the lights go out indicating the power supply board is the culprit. Many times by unplugging and plugging the door opener back in will temporally fix (reboot) this but is only the quick fix when you need to get the dam thing open or closed to move the car!. Removing this power supply board as instructed and visually inspecting the solder joints with a magnifying glass (unless your eyes are real good) will show what we call a cold solder joint. Reflowing the solder and adding some electrical 60/40% rosin core solder will definitely fix the problem using any solder gun or iron. These boards are manufactured using a wave soldering technique which if not properly performed at the factory will eventually cause future failures at the joints were the components connect to the board. My repair was at the electrical connection pins between the transmitter board and the smaller power board. Total repair time including moving the car out of the garage, getting a step ladder, etc. took about 50 minutes. Purchasing a new receiver logic board assembly with the plastic end panel is an option and runs about $75 from Amazon. You can't just buy the power supply section of the assembly. Try fixing it first or call a friend with experience. I seem to be called all the time on garage door opener problems.
@@p14buk I have had to resolder most of the solder joints on the control board on my Craftsman opener, as well as re-cap it. Recapping the radio board made all the difference in the world.
@@PyroRob69 Bad capacitors are usually deformed out of their original case. The top case will look like the innards pushed upward - might even look like they exploded.
I can’t believe it was my bulb causing this. I put a new bulb in about a year ago. Thought the remotes were getting old so I bought new ones. Still the same. Lived with it during the winter.Googled extending garage door antenna and your video popped up. Thanks a ton!!
Thank you! Just did mine tonight and it worked. Spent about $10 for my soldering iron and solder. I didnt have to hunt for my bad area. It was brown. Can't thank you enough!
Can't thank you enough, I put led bulbs in my opener and never even considered that could be my problem. Thanks again.
Andrew - You are the master!! My Genie garage door opener started stopping 1-2 feet from the ground each time it opened. I checked everything in the manual and some quick You Tube videos. I was ready to buy a new opener. I watched this video and you solved it. I had one LED light bulb on the opener flickering. I removed the bulb and there you go. It worked. Thanks!!
I checked the one you had crack. No issues there. Found a wire going to the light socket that had a bare spot. Taped it up. Worked great 10 times then started again. Found out board is obsolete, so, I ordered a used one. Then gave it the old college try. Found it was the pin on the other board that the 4 and 1 plugs on the other board. It was the one opposite end of the single pin side. Works perfect now and I have spare parts. Thanks!
This just saved me from forking over hundreds for a new opener. Thanks so much! $11 Soldering tool fixed the issue.
Thank gosh I listened to the complete video. Near the end of your video you mentioned an antenna wire. Noone else had me toned that part. I ran out to the garage, looked at mine and it was coated with DECADES of dirt and grime. I cleaned it, straightened it so it pointed at the floor, ran to my car, and my car remote worked 5 times in a row!!!! I am thrilled and hope it continues to work! Just sharing in case others have the same problem.
My GDoor symptoms were identical to this video. Took the GDoor controller apart, found a loose soldered connection on the power circuit board, soldered it, put it all back together and PRESPTO... works like a charm. Thank you.
This video saved my bacon!!!! I had the same exact cold shunt took me 15 minutes to fix after this video. Thank you
Thank you so much for the light bulb tip! We were ready to call a garage opener repair person until we tried removing the LED light bulbs we had just replaced. Both the keypad and the garage door opener in the car worked perfectly even from a distance! Also ordered some LEDs specifically for garage door openers and we'll try them. The LEDs are brighter so I hope this works. Thanks again - no other video I watched mentioned this problem and none of their "fixes" worked.
Thank You!! - I found your video while researching my intermittently failing garage door. I had already checked for loose wires and was very close to replacing the 13 year old unit. After watching your video I decided to take your advice and check for bad solder connections on the power board and sure enough I found and repaired the problem. It was a different location but same idea. I can't thank you enough...
This video saved me hundreds of dollars. No other video out there covers this particular problem and it's such an easy fix. THANKS!
Light bulbs!! I would have Never thought of it! New bulbs and voila! Thank you so much for the heads up, you are a lifesaver.
This video is a life saver! I've had this exact garage door opener for like 7 years. Mostly been fine but recently started having some glitches. Long story short, I had LED lights installed the whole time, switched them out to some old school standard bulbs. It's been three weeks and have not had a single glitch. Thank you!
Thank you Andrew! Spot on. I wasn't sure that I could see the hairline cold solder joint (but maybe). While I had it disassembled I just touched up all of the solder joints on the power supply board, and on the logic board on the connector between the two boards. Voila. Problem solved! Really appreciate you taking the effort to make this video. Made my day.
Glad to hear it! And thanks for the generous tip, it made my day too! Have a good one!
I watched the video and could not find any issues with the soldering. After reading the comments I re-solder all contacts at the element in the video and the problem was solved. Thank you so much for the great guide!
All I can is thank you, thank you, thank you! I was going to call a repairman in to change my Liftmaster gargae door opener but your video saved me and it turned out to be the Feit Led light bulbs I had installed. The issue with the light bulbs did not start until after a 2 day power outage for some reason but after removing them my issue was solved.
I also had an intermittently working garage door. Found this video. Followed his instructions for pulling the circuit board. I found a bad solder joint. Re-soldered it and everything works properly. Thanks for posting this helpful video.
It worked! Longest part was warming up the soldering iron! 20 minutes and boom back in business. Repair guy quoted $550 to install a new Liftmaster. Glad I came across this video!
So glad to hear it!
@@AndrewDIY My garage door motor would run when I pushed the button on the wall but the door didn't go up. I pulled on the rope with the red handle then it started taking the door up and down like normal. Why did I have to do that when I have never touched that cord before?
Thanks! Never in a million years would have thought the light bulbs would be affecting the receiver, but unscrewing them made it work!
I had a circuit board that burnt out, so after replacing it, I let the bulb hang out
Of its holding place just hanging there as soon as I heard filament I didn't even have to finish this video I k ew that was my problem. When I tested it without a light bulb the unit worked perfectly after I put the light bulb in and reprogrammed the opener sure enough it went bezurk.
I secured the light bulb and viola back in bus. Thank You, I found your video the second hit. Thanks again!!!!!
Almost 4 years after you posted this video and it’s still helping people. Well made video. Excellent, clear instructions. Thank you very much for showing the soldering. The crack in my board was right where yours was. Now i can enjoy my long 4th of july weekend! I hope you enjoy yours as well
Our opener started to experience the same issue you identified. It would start opening then stop. I had to hit the unit to get it to work and close before I looked at it. The issue was a fracture in the solder as you exactly described! Hard to see a first but it was there. Resoldered the spot and it is now operating fine. Now I have to return the new craftsman opener I bought just in case the fix didn’t work 😅. The wifey willl never know!!! Thanks again for this video!
I can't thank you enough Andrew. By replacing my light bulbs with the special garage door opener light bulbs, that fixed my problem totally. It's been 3 weeks now and my garage door hasn't malfunctioned since changing those bulbs. I never paid $24 for 2 bulbs but it was well worth it for eliminating my problem. Many thanks again Andrew
Thank you. Had a lightning strike to the house and it blew out the builds and control board. Replaced the board and added LED bulbs. It would work only about 20 pct of the time. Was ready to call an expert. Put in incandescent bulbs they now work 100 pct of the time.
Gave me fits.. thanks..
I know this video is 4 years old, but, thank you so much for this video, it saved me. Especially the 8 min mark!
Thank you for this video! The broken solder on my unit was at the connector that joins the two boards together. I did not notice at initial inspection, had to use a very strong magnifying glass and wiggle the pins to see the crack. Re-soldered and all good.
This was a life (money) saving video! Thank you. I was having trouble with the door, watched several videos and happened on this one. Never thought I'd be so lucky to have something this simple work. Then I remembered I had recently changed the light bulb to an LED. It took a week or two before I had an issue with the door. It started sporadically and continued to get worse. I changed back to regular light bulb and tried the door. Nothing. Ugh! I ran my errand and when I came back I tried the garage door opener and presto it opened. I tried it a few more times just to make sure it really works. This has saved me a lot of money I could ill afford to spend on a service call. Thank you!
First video I’ve commented on because it was an amazing needle in a haystack find and right on point!! Saved me hundreds of dollars and time!!
This was the perfect video. I had an overhead door legacy that was flickering and stopping intermittently and then eventually died altogether. It seemed worse as the weather got hot. I took out the logic board and found a completely cracked solder joint. I was able to re-solder it and put the whole thing back together and it works! Thank you!
Easy fix - thanks so much! I have opened this up once before and replaced the 10-inch 'antenna' with a 20-foot run of heave gauge wire. Can open a block away now! I have previously done almost the same thing replacing barrel capacitors in 3 of our Bosch appliances - each time about $3.50 in parts. They wanted $600 for the whole circuit board for the dishwasher.
This video shows a small crack as you can see in this video , I took my out and take a look, at first it looks normal and I did not see anything wrong and still doing inspection finely found very mall crack around square post , using a small file file around the post re solder the post , and now working like brand new, This was a life (money) saving video! Thank you. Andrew,
Thanks so much for this! My opener would travel 5 or 6 inches, reverse back to where it started and then nothing. It even did this with the door not connected to the pulley. Gotta admit I didn't watch this all the way through. After the first few minutes I went and replaced the LED bulbs with regular bulbs, and presto, bingo...it started working fine again!!!!
Been running LED bulbs then started having issues last week. Did start noticing the flicker on the bulb. Changed out 3 led bulbs in the garage, cleaned up the area and it worked better but not 100%. Worked 75% of the time. So I popped everything out, checked out the circuit board and it ended up being the little one. Didn't notice the cold joint on this video but some at the bottom didn't look as strong as the others. So I soldered 4 points at the bottom. Then went ahead and did the one you did on this video just to give it a little extra protection. Now it works like a charm. You sir got a like, comment, subscribe and my props for this video. As a Mercedes Benz and bmw tech I really didn't want to fork over 300 bucks to the garage man if I didn't need to! Thanks!
Went ahead and just left the halogen bulbs after finding out the health dangers of led. Much more easier on the eyes too
Thank you so much for your video! I watched several TH-cam videos and tried lots of things before watching your video but nothing really worked. The problem with my garage door was just like how you described - intermittent - and although I could not see any cracks in the welds, I took a leap of faith and re did the welds of the pins. Then I put everything back and it worked! Great tip! Thank you for sharing your knowledge!
Wow. Was having this problem ....... remotes would work sometimes, others not. Usually only worked when "in" the garage close to the unit antenna. Removed the light bulb on the antenna side and all good now. Works every time, even from street distance. I bet I reprogrammed my remotes at least 25 times over the past week trying to get it to work. I'm sure I must have recently replaced that bulb and didn't think anything about it. Headed to store tomorrow to pickup the special garage door bulbs you mentioned. Never knew there was such a thing. Thanks Andrew DIY. I may post a short video on my channel to "check your bulbs first" and will definitely give you a shout out.
Thank you for posting this video. I had been fighting a problem of the door not going down without holding the main control down. All safety sensors were clean, aligned, and powered properly. Voltage was good at the sensors and the source. Boards were all good. I was about to give up and replace it all until I watched this video. I unscrewed the light bulbs and it worked perfectly. Thank you!!!
Thank you for the video. My Liftmaster just quick working one day. Only thing it did was click twice when either the wall switch or the remote were pushed. I thought it must be the capacitor or the circuit board. I opened up the unit and the capacitor appeared ok so I considered the circuit board. Upon first look all seemed fine. I was looking for something obvious. I decided to disconnect the board and examine it more closely. I found taking close pictures of each section of the board to be very helpful. I was able to zoom into each solder point and see if there was an issue. Soon enough I found a couple of suspect solders. I added a small amount of solder to the problem points. I reinstalled the board and the opener works again! Great solution. Thanks for the advice.
The damn lightbulbs! Changed them back to incandescent, problem solved! Thanks for the insight.
It saved me a service call and $$$.
very good repair video. A lot of times those little problems can turn into big ones
Thank you SO MUCH for this video! Could not find ANY info online about this. Every forum post I read mentioned the sensors but I knew mine had to be electrical/circuit board related the way my lights were flickering. The exact same joint on mine was cracked. Re soldered and we are back in business. Thank you again, this video saved me.
I soldered the part also and now it works great. Bunch of cash stayed in my pocket. Thank You
Mine was working intermittently and I found the capacitor leaking and so ordered a new one on Amazon. Cost was about $7. I put the info on Nextdoor so others could save money and I got pushback as to why I didn't just call a garage door repairman. (In my area that's between $60!-$90 just to show up) SMH!!! People think everything needs a 'specialist' to fix. Glad you were able to fix yours!
Can't thank you enough. It's been months if not a year with our garage door not working right. It would open with the remote from around the corner but wouldn't close even when we were right outside the door. It was the freaking lights! I pulled both LED lights out and the remotes work like they were brand new. I literally had a whole new opener in my Amazon cart and then found your video. Thank you so much, definitely earned a sub!
Lifesaver....solder on one of the pins connecting the two boards was cracked. Just reflowed and added more solder and done!
THANK-YOU! This video along with another one on TH-cam allowed me to fix my opener! On that same board, there were visible cracks on one of the solder joints. I never soldered before but I bought a kit and was able to re-solder the joint.
It FIXED my garage opener that would intermittently stop while opening or closing. This video helped so much on my FIX!!! AMAZING!
After watching other videos about why my garage door kept reversing when closing and not being able to resolve my issue, I decided to watch all 12 plus minutes of this video. My first thought was that this video could have been allot shorter and that I really doubted this could be my issue but after cleaning the optical sensor lenses and making sure they were aligned, I was out of options and still had the same intermitent problem. Also, we had noticed that our door always seemed to be worse when the weather was cold. Long story short, I followed the instructions in the video and lo and behold, I found a loose componenet on the board with a cracked solder joint. After resoldering the part, everything worked like a champ and was not a difficult fix at all. If you've exhausted all the easy fixes, I would highly recommend following this advice. Thanks
SECOND potential SOLUTION BELOW...... For anybody who has a similar problem and not quite the answer... Shout out for this VIDEO and information in it (Great job Andrew!!!!!).
I opened mine and had an issue with the power pins from the "back" board on the right ... as they connected... to the "top" board on the left... the power would come and go (Start and stop with a little pressure on the external plastic panel). Stopping the door mid opening and loosing power to the unit and lights.
SOLUTION: A rubber washer (bottom left screw)behind the bottom board (on the right)... the added 1/16th inch pressure tightened up the power pins by adding a tiny amount of twist between the boards and now there is a good connection ALL the time.
Thanks again Andrew!
Wowwww Hahaha, Andrew thank you very much. 1min19sec into your video I corrected an issue with all my openers not working suddenly. Yess it was an incandescent light 💡 bulb
A very big thank you for posting this video!! I have a similar 1/2HP Craftsman door opener that has worked very well for many years. The other day it started acting up. Would randomly stop midway through closing, seemed to open fine but closing was a problem. Same symptoms as you described in the video where the light would flicker when the door stopped so looked like a lack of power issue to me. Watched your video and took the boards out as you suggested. On the very same row of pins but the other end from what you had in the video was a cold solder joint! WOW!! easy fix and back together and working well now. Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
Unbelievable! Problem was the new bulbs. So glad I found your video. Thank you!
You are very observant. I would not have known the crack in the soldering led to my garage opener works intermittently. I thought it was the capacitor issue at first, but after replacing it, it still didn't work right. Now, with your video, I fixed it and it saves me a lot of money!!
Excellent video. My old Chamberlain chain drive opener began reversing on the way down in cold Cleveland weather. It was no fun manually operating the door for a couple of months. I eventually inspected the control board carefully and found no bad solder connections or blown capacitors. Instead, I found that holding the hard-wired control switch the entire ride down for about a week of comings and goings fixed the problem. I've operated it without trouble for two months in moderately cold and bitterly cold weather. Why or how is beyond me, but it's a welcome result for sure.
Have you checked your safety eyes at the bottom of your side tracks? Mine did that and the eyes were a little off.
My garage door has been working intermittently for the past almost 2 weeks. Sometimes it works from the wall panel, sometimes not, sometimes it works from my car, sometimes not. I was trying to figure out what to tell the tech I planned to call tomorrow to come fix it. Two minutes into your video, I went to the garage and removed the 2 new incandescent bulbs I’d installed before the problems started. I’ve tested it a few times and now the garage seems to be working just fine. My son thought I was crazy and said I needed to watch the rest of the video, which I will, but so far changing the lightbulbs has it working!! Who’d have thought??? THANK YOU!! I will look for those garage-specific bulbs. I replaced them because one was out, and that one it still out. But at least the garage is working properly!!
This video really helped! Thanks!
Let me explain
I took the circuit board apart and looked at the soldering and visibly didn’t see a break in the soldering but I did apply heat new solder to it and Wala it worked! See my garage door was intermittently working which makes you believe you need a new unit but obviously this isn’t the case. It was simply a micro crack in the welds. Once it was reconnected I never had an issue again.
For years, one of the lights would sometimes work, but mostly not. Lately, the opener has been flaky, just as you describe. I pulled the boards and found a bad solder joint. The vexing intermittent opener problem is now resolved and both lights work fine. Thanks very much for this video. It's refreshing that you went to the trouble of investigating the cause instead of just replacing boards like most of the other "experts". Thanks again.
LED bulbs were messing up my Garage door opener change them out and the problem went away. Very surprised but it worked and very easy to check to see if that is the cause of a misbehaving door! Thanks for your insight!
Seriously, the best garage door view ever. After an hour and a new garage door opener later....I took out the new light bulb and boom, it worked. Thanks a ton man!!
Thank you for making this video! You just saved me about $85 with $0.01 worth of electricity and solder.
Glad to save you some coin!
thank you for saving me a lot of money on a new system that i obviously didn't need, it was the lightbulb
Thank you! The light bulbs did the trick! Even the professional garage door guy couldn't believe it.
Fantastic video with spot on information! I discovered a crack in the soldering-just as you described! My garage door opener is now functioning as it should. Thank you very much!
Recently acquired a new, Genie Wall Mount Universal remote to replace a Liftmaster "clicker" we kept inside our front door to use from the house. This arrangement has worked for more then ten years. Flawlessly no less! But suddenly, door would open but, would not close. Despite checking the sensors, replacing remote batteries, etc. However, the wired wall switch worked first time, every time. Thus, I figured it had to be the remote operator.
The new Genie remote was easy to program and worked right away, as long as I had it with me in the garage. But, once I brought it inside and mounted on wall, it too would open but not close the door. Intermittently of course. Just like the old one I replaced.
I've been reprogramming, testing, retesting, researching and racking my brains out trying to figure out what the problem was. I finally just stopped working on it and just used the hard wired wall operator switch. Then, just this morning, my wife left and called me immediately from the car to tell me the door wouldn't close. So, back at it I went. I discovered that, when using the new wall remote, the learning light was flashing after the door opened to full height. But, not with the old remote and not with the hardwired switch.
Really puzzling now. And I ended up here seeking more information.
In watching the first two minutes of your video, I had a new clue. I have cheap, FEIT brand led lights in both my garage door openers. And, when the door opens, the lights go on. Of course, I assumed that the answer couldn't be this simple. But apparently, it is. I went downstairs, unscrewed the light bulbs and came back inside and operated the door via the new, Genie Wall Mount Remote. Walla! It worked perfectly.
I don't know why it worked with those lights up until a week ago. But it seems they are some how interferring with the close command on our remotes and now
Thank you for this. I had the same cracked solder joints so I re-sweated the entire power board and some of the control board. My 2007 door opener is working great again..
Thank you! My symptoms were that it acted up when it was real hot. Sometimes the controller light would go off and you could tap the opener and the controller light would turn back on. But after seeing the video I spotted a solder joint that didn't have enough solder on it. Added solder and all is well. Great job!
Thank you so much!!! I had exactly this failure on that exact solder connection. Completely crazy behavior from the opener. It was like it was possessed. Re-soldering it made it run flawlessly again!
Thank you so much, my issue was the light bulb. Can't believe it, had that bulb in for 5 years....
This video helped me pinpoint a similar problem on my power board. I was not able to see any problem with the solder under a magnifying glass, but a continuity tester located the problem pin at the corner. I am guessing it is a power or ground pin. Thanks for a great explanation and step by step debugging strategy.
fabulous video, I found crack in the solder connection
I used a super magnifier glass and found it right away.
I simply re soldererd the connection and Wala fixed.
Didn't even take the panel completely off, did it from
my ladder with the side panel hanging, I would never had
attempted this with this video. The crack was in the green
panel board. I had been trying to fix it for months
Many Thanks
Excellent video, thanks! I have a 1/2hp Craftsman just like this one which was going up fine but randomly stopping going down. This started right after one of the door cables broke, which had shaken the whole system pretty good.
My power board didn’t have any obviously broken joints like yours did, so I just re-flowed all of the larger solder joints anyway. Fixed the issue immediately.
This is the third time I’ve been plagued by broken PCB solder joints; twice in very expensive modules in my cars, and now once on a garage door opener.
I bet issues like these are responsible for many openers being tossed into landfill.
Watched this video, noticed my sensor light was off. Unscrewed it and it fell and hit the ground and the light came back on haha. BUT it works again! Thank you!
I had just installed LED bulbs in my opener and couldn’t figure out why i had such difficulty with the door. Thanks for helping me solve this!
You just saved me 150 bucks. Works perfectly now!
Thanks!
GOOD POINT TO MAKE HERE, AND THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT I WILL BE LOOKING AT MINE.
BUT ID LIKE TO ADD TO THIS when using a soldering iron you want to keep the tip clean, befor you use the soldering iron on any connections what ill do is take a paper towel get it wet then squeeze off most the water untill its just moisture on it, most professional soldering stations come with a sponge for this after the tip is clean put just a little bit of fresh solder on the tip and wipe it off on the damp sponge or paper towel a good toilet paper can work or even a tissue or just use a wash cloth or rag. Then you can use the soldering iron.
Dirt on your soldering iron can make poor joints.
Most circuit boards move down an assembly line components are placed on the board by robots, then it runs over a flowing river of solder and then its washed in water bath. This is comon in manufacturing electronics. Few are done by hand now days. This is why mass production can turn out electronics
And keep prices low most the cost in manufacturing is labor cost its one way to bring down cost without lowering qulity. After the parts finished it runs over a camra system to inspect the parts.
My guess is vibration caused the joint to open up
You can try using a silicone to make the part more stable or just make sure the door and all its bolts are tight they loosen up over time.
If you ever find a 1950s style opener they almost never have problems do anything you can to keep it. I belive you can still buy parts for them. They are almost bullet proof.
Mate! The broken solder connection... had the Exact same problem exact same post. Super simple 5 min fix and I wouldnt have even thought to look that closely. Saved me some coin for real. Brilliant tip. Cheers mate!
Thank you.
My issue was just as you diagnosed.
A pretty easy fix... couldn't have done it without your wisdom and guidance.
My best, John
Thanks for the video! I resoldered a few joints and my garage is finally working again! I’ve put this off for over two years, manually opening and closing my garage door. $20 Iron and $7 Solder was better than a few hundred dollars for a new opener.
Thank you so much! I never connected the LED bulb to my problem. I should have considered it could serve as a jamming device as I spent a few years as an electronics tech in the Navy
Holy heck. My dollar general led bulb was causing interference when the light was on making the remotes and keypad work poorly. I had no idea what the problem was. I bought a new opener. When leaving we would have to close the door with the wall pad and step over the eye beam because the light was still on. I removed the led bulb and back to normal. I guess I can take back the new opener I had bought and thankfully didn’t open. Thanks for the video!
Thanks for the video. We have a 1/2 HP Craftsman manufactured 11/00. The hardwired remote works 100% of the time. Our 3 wireless remotes are intermittent. Oftentimes my remote won't close the door, but will open it when I come back home. I've removed the LED bulb and left it off. I pulled the logic board and don't see any issues. Do you think it's time to replace the whole unit?
Had the same symptoms but solder joints were good. Just cleaning and re-seating all the connectors did the trick. Thanks so much!
I only listened to the first 1:41 of the video. Why? a couple of weeks ago I replaced my fluorescent tubes with LED tubes rather than replace a presumably bad ballast. ever since the door opener works VERY erratically from the car and remote signalers. I'm sure I looked at 20 videos, mostly the first minute or two because it was clear they did not apply. Then I came across yours. After you mentioned the possible LED signal interference I checked and that was it.
the title of your video is exactly correct; temperamental is the word.
Thank you for this video, solved issue with remote signal. Did not realize LED bulbs were the cause.
Hans Gruber I had the same thing. I thought the safety sensors were misaligned because I had to replace them awhile back. But it was the led lightbulbs!
thank you - no longer pulling my hair out trying to figure this old bugger out! Thanks!!
Had the same problem with our craftsman opener. Pulled the power board an sure enough the exact same connection was broken. Thank you for this tutorial saved me a lot of head ache trying to diagnose my shitty 50 year old garage door. Made me question if company’s even bother doing field testing to update there designs to fix things like this when so many people are willing to just go out and buy a new one. Little rubber stand offs will hopefully fix this for longer then just re-soldering the connection.
Amazingly clear explanations! Best 13 minutes I've spent in quite a while. Consider me subscribed!
Update: I was going to replace my garage door opener. But with the information obtained in this video I was able to get it working fine again.
Had exact same symptoms usually during temp and humidity swings. My door would open OK, but sometimes had a problem closing. I would tap gently on the front of motor housing with a small hammer and would usually clear the problem, which immediately told me good chance of a microscopic control board solder joint fracture, like yours. Yup, that what it was, and your fix is all that's needed. One guess of cause is years of on-off operation torque and temp expansion-contraction on the board.