Electric garage door opener hums briefly when closing the door?

Question

Hi, I had two Chamberlains with belts installed on my new builders single garage doors. The opening is pretty silent. However, when closing, in the beginning, the units make humming like noise which can be heard in the room above. The opener installer guy blamed it on cheap builders doors but my neighbors' doors are just fine-I cannot hear much.

Is it the opener or the door, and what can be done to fix it. My expectation is to have closing as silent as opening.

Thanks in advance for your detailed answer!

Answer 1

The humming sunds like a motor that is overloaded/jammed. To see if it is the door binding, pull the disengage rope and slowly run the door up and down by hand. If it runs smothly with no binding, sticking, getting wedged ******** in the tracks the door is OK. Also are you saying both of them do this? If so, it is unlikely both of your doors are messed up at the same time. Has this problem been occurring with both, ever since they were new? One other thing; see if the setting of the "door up" controll is OK, maybe when opening it is trying to go too far ,causing something to stick, hindering movement at the begining of closing cycle.

Answer 2

It's highly unlikely the motor is bad. My first guess would be the capacitor. It gives the motor the power to start from a dead stop from the logic board. The logic board puts power to one side of the capacitor to turn in one direction & puts power to the other side of the capacitor to turn it in the other direction threw the relays on the logic board. CAUTION!!! Do not touch across the two terminals on the capacitor until you have discharged it. It may still have a stored charge even after all the wires are disconnected. With all wires disconnected put the metal part of a screwdriver across the two terminals to discharge. It appears that there are four terminals but it is really two sets of two. Like colors are on the same terminal. Second guess is the logic board. There are three relays, one for open, one for close, and one for the light. One of the open or close relays may be stuck down so when you try to run the opener it is actually sending power to both sides of the capacitor at the same time. With the opener unplugged a light tap on the relay covers w/ the handle of a screwdriver may unstick the relay (at least temporarily). I would suspect the capacitor is most likely the problem. If there is a small motor shop near you they could probably test it or you can simply buy a new one & change it. The capacitor is a lot less than the logic board. There is a way to test the capacitor on the motor head but it involves taking part of it apart (like removing the gears) to where you can spin the motor by hand while it is under load without shocking yourself. If it starts when you spin it, the capacitor is bad. If it still won't start it's probably the logic board. FYI, the sensors will only stop a door from closing. They have no affect on a door whatsoever when it is opening.

Answer 3

Not a lot we can do without staring at it and running it a thousand times. You might take your remote, and check for slightly bent parts here and there on the door and machine. Sometimes the door installers get a little excited about tying their doors down tight on the truck. You might also try lubricating the moving parts to see if that helps. Lastly, you could consider calling in another garage door and opener repair dude to check things over.

Answer 4

I agree with Dan. It sounds like there is too much load (work) on the motor. If you feel confident with fixing and adjusting a garage door do it. Otherwise call a pro. Garage doors are not for the inexperienced.

Answer 5

Best bet is to just get over it. How often is the door opened and closed? And how long does the humming last?, maybe a few seconds?
Man,,, all lifes problems should be so simple.

Answer 6

Sounds like the rails or rollers are bent, which will cause the motor to briefly lock up