Craftsman Garage Door opener closes/opens partway. No obstuction. Balanced, lubed, eye OK??

Question

2 year old Craftsman Garage Door opener and door intermitantly opens and closes partway. Was fine for 1.5+ years. No obstuction. Balanced, Oiled, eye seems OK since the green light is constantly on on the sending side. I am going to play with some settings next such as up and down force. Will do reversal safety check afterwards. Track style, chain driven. It is a light door with newer style internal springs and seems balanced in any position. It does not roll effortlessly, but not too difficult to pull/push.
Door seams to reverse only when it should and is not too sensitive. The door just stops and does not move, until you push a button again, and then it either continues on or occasionally reverses. It seemed to work great for a dozen tries after oiling the hinges, but is up to its old tricks. Do you have other ideas or am I stuck calling a pro when it seems like only an adjustment is needed. Any advice from a handy person.

Thanks men. The door seems better, but will have to keep an eye on it. Chain was just a little loose and the jar each time the button was pushed could have been part of the problem. It still needed plenty of tweaking to get all the travel and force settings to where it is now with the safety reverse in proper working order. So far so good. Do it yourself usually takes awhile for me, but it was good time with my son.

Answer 1

Craftsman openers handle the "force" settings differently depending on which direction the opener is moving. During the "close" phase, if the resistance gets too high, the opener will reverse the door to the fully open position if possible. During the opening phase, if the resistance gets too high, the opener simply stops and does not reverse.

To test if your "force" settings are the problem, send the door up or down and "help" it along by hand, if the opener stops even when you are pulling or pushing on the door, then the forces are probably not the issue.

If your opener is acutally stopping on it's way down, it is usually a symptom of a defect in the circuit board of the opener.

BTW - chain drive and belt drive openers are actually LESS susceptible to temperature related issues than screw driven openers.

Answer 2

I agree. Check the instructions on the force controls. Perhaps a change in the weather (it's pretty hot where I live) is effecting the unit. Chain drives require a bit more attention than belt or screw drives. I usually had to adjust the chain tension every couple of years when I had a Craftsman.

I would sure try to do it myself before calling a tech. You have little to lose.

Answer 3

Read the setup instructions. You may have to reset the force adjustment.