Garage door gets "stuck" (Fixed It)

I was trying to leave the house this morning but when I tried to open the garage door; the light just lit for a second and went out without anything else happening. I still had my garage door opener manual somewhere and after looking through it, I finally decided to call The Genie Company for more help. A guy answers my call almost immediately and talked me through the the troubleshooting process. We tried unplugging the unit for 15 seconds, checking the wiring going to the wall button, checking the sensors, and finally having me read a "code" from a blinking green LED on the back of the unit.

His Conclusion; the controller board probably failed (I had though of that as well) and they were shipping me a new one in 4 days. Looks like I have another project on hand next week.

Anyone ever had a garage door opener problem ? The garage door opener in question is a Genie "Excelerator" model ISD-1000 that is roughly about 5 years old.

Re: Garage door gets "stuck"

You can probably bypass the receiver/switch circuit and wire a momentary switch directly into the motor relay but for 4 or 5 days I'd just open and close it manually. Sounds like Genie CS is on the ball.

Re: Garage door gets "stuck"

I used to do service work for a garage door company, and main board failures were not an uncommon problem. We usually kept several on our trucks to replace or diaganose problems. There is some fairly complex circuitry in the newer models, and they are susceptible to damage by power surges. It seemed like we always had a few to replace after bad thunderstorms in the area, as power spikes due to lightning hits would take a few out.

Re: Garage door gets "stuck"

only problem i had was the plastic gears were misaligned and the teeth were being shaved off.

had to order a replenish kit (just to get the two plastic gears) $30.

i was worried that i had to buy a new system.

Re: Garage door gets "stuck"

About a month ago, our opener went from opening the door to making grinding sounds. The lift spring on our main door either wasn't ever tensioned properly, or the spring slipped. In either case, our main door opener's lift force knob was set to maximum (it was this way when we moved in). That setting was probably the only way the opener would actually lift the door. The added strain slowly wore down the gears to the point they slipped and just started grinding. The geartrain in our opener (a cheap Wayne Dalton) is entirely nylon gears. The motor and controller were perfectly fine, so I opted to just replace the geartrain.

It cost about $100 to have the gears replaced and the lift spring tensioned properly. The guy that answered the phone didn't seem surprised at all that the gears eventually stripped out - seems like a pretty common repair operation they did, even if the lift spring is adjusted properly.

So in conclusion:
Cheap door opener + nylon gears = eventual gear train failure.
Cheap door opener + nylon gears + improperly adjusted lift spring = much faster failure

Re: Garage door gets "stuck"

evan9162 said:

So in conclusion:
Cheap door opener + nylon gears = eventual gear train failure.
Cheap door opener + nylon gears + improperly adjusted lift spring = much faster failure

Click to expand...

Actually this isn't entirely true. I've replaced my share of those nylon gear kits too, and they are designed to be the "weak link" in the system. You want a weak link in your garage door opener, trust me. Some of the older Genie screw drive openers were all metal and could lift a garage door with one or both of the springs broken. If one of the safety mechanisms failed and/or the force adjustments were set too high, they could do serious damage to the door or something/someone trapped underneath.

Under normal use with properly tensioned springs, those nylon gears will not fail. In every case where I've replaced them, there was somethig else wrong, either a broken spring, or a spring who's tension wasn't suitable to lift the door. A garage door opener isn't really supposed to lift the door, that is the job of the springs. If the spring tension is set properly, you should be able to lift the door with one or two fingers. IIRC the cost of the gear kit is only $30-35, and it really isn't terribly difficult for the average DIYer to replace. You can buy just the gears themselves for a little less, but it takes a lot longer to install, buying the whole assembly isn't much more money and it goes in much quicker.

Every homeowner should really check their garage door and opener several times a year to make sure they are working properly. They should check to make sure the springs are balanced and tensioned properly so the door goes up by hand with very little effort, and doesn't fall down on its own. They should also check the force adjustments on the opener, the safety reverse (most use an infrared beam), and the contact reverse, to do that, just set a 2x4 on edge and bring the door down on it, it should reverse and go back up when it makes contact with it. The up force adjustment should be set light enough that the opener won't try and lift the door if a spring is broken, and the down force adjustment should be set light enough that it will reverse if it contacts your foot on the ground.

Re: Garage door gets "stuck"

Thanks for tips.

Well, I left it unplugged for the weekend but decided to try plugging it back in and found out it started working normally again. Oh Well.

I'll save the controller board as a spare just in case.

Re: Garage door gets "stuck"

We specify Marantec units these days. Solid field reputation with a great support staff.

Re: Garage door gets "stuck"

Well, about my last post where I left it unplugged for the weekend, it worked again for two days then started doing the same thing again. I had the controller board arrive later that same day so I tried changing it out only to find out it still did the same thing

Another phone call to Genie which was answered by a lady this time and she placed an order for a motor drive board to be sent to me after discussing the problem some more. Unlike many older garage door openers, the Genie Excelerator uses a high speed DC motor (brushless ?) vs an AC induction motor; hence the "DC motor drive board". The new motor drive board arrived from FedEx around noon today and I got it installed in about an hour. Other than a mis-wired limit switch at first, everything worked correctly after. Finally my mom can park in the garage again. I also noticed the garage door opener is also lot quieter; with the older motor drive board, it seemed to make a high pitched squeal when operating. The loudest sound is now the door itself rattling when opened quickly.


I talked to "Uncle" in South Pasadena last weekend about garage door openers and he mentioned that one of his neighbors had gotten a new one that started with an "M" and was belt driven. Supposedly, it was a European brand. Could it be one of the "Marantec" units that adamlau mentioned ?