I have a Genie brand electric garage door opener that was installed by the builder of my house in 2004. Recently, it has begun to fail, and I could use some help troubleshooting it. The problem is that the door will not open fully, but stops at random points along the way. It will close all the way without issue, it is just opening. Here are the things i have already tried/noted:

- lubricated track for both the wheels on the door, and the track/carriage and screw of the opening mechanism
- verified all the bolts were installed and tightened (initially there was a missing bolt, but replacing it hasn't helped)
- when the manual over ride is released the door easily raises and lowers
- the coil springs have been lubricated, and cable assembly from springs to door inspected
- alignment looks fine

A few years ago, the cable from the spring to door came off, so I released the springs, fixed it, and re-tightened the springs. The door still raises pretty easily, so I do not suspect that the springs need to be re-tightened, but that is a possibility.

Are there any suggestions on something else to check?

Is there an up force adjustment. If so turn it so it takes a little more force before the unit stops.

This may do nothing but worth a try.

It's most likely junk. 15+ years on an electric garage door opener is a long time if used often. Try what comet said, but your symptoms are exactly what my garage door opener did, it had broken drive gear sprockets in it and would skip a tooth here and there.

Jimmy sounds like he has it. Open up the gearbox and check the gears. Had a similar problem with mine and was able to order the ones I needed (Sears opener, parts from them as well. Guess that won’t happen again).

The gears in mine were plastic. Replacements were plastic as well, with a special grease.

You might be able to order the parts you need. The job isn’t a hard one.

If you have to replace it get one with the myQ built in so you can have access from your phone

You have mail.

You got your moneys worth out of it. Replace it with a new Q wifi unit, so you can open/close it from your smart phone. Garage door guy will likely adjust the spring tension too and service all the rollers and tracks. Just a couple hundreds bucks, not a big deal.

quote:

Originally posted by bubbatime:
You got your moneys worth out of it. Replace it with a new Q wifi unit, so you can open/close it from your smart phone. Garage door guy will likely adjust the spring tension too and service all the rollers and tracks. Just a couple hundreds bucks, not a big deal.

With battery backup so you're not opening your garage by hand everytime the power goes out.

When unhooked from the opener and opened by hand the door should stay at half open and not go back down. If not the springs probably need tightening.

Does your door have the laser safety eye sensors? Are they aligned properly?

I had a similar issue on a much newer door. I had to manually hold the opener button for the door to fully open. Garage door company came out and found wire to the laser safety eye was damaged. They ran new wire and all was fine.

I agree that it sounds like a gear issue. I had similar problems. Removed the cover and found a pile of plastic shavings on the bottom.

Ordered a new set of gears and replaced all of them. It worked for a few more years and then a spring broke.

Probably would have been just as easy to replace the whole unit once I saw the gears were bad.

I had this problem a couple of times.

Once it was the stop travel sensor, it had moved.

I moved it back and tightened it. Worked after that.

The second time plastic gear was slowly turning to dust.

I replaced the unit with a MYQ.