Garage door opener working intermittently

Hi folks,

I have an old garage door opener that is working intermittently. It is a Liftmaster from the mid 1990s. It is about 25 years old. I have a 2 car detached garage with one large door. There is a touch pad outside the garage. There is a button inside the garage that you push to lower the door. The remote hasn't worked in about 20 years.

Recently, the opener started working intermittently. It won't go up or down. However, I noticed a pattern. It only does this (fails to work) on days when it rained the night before, especially if it is raining and windy (a driving rain). On days that it didn't rain the night before, it works perfectly.

Today (Thanksgiving Day) was one of those days. I live in Staten Island, NY. It rained very hard last night, and it was windy too. It was a driving rain. When I tried to open my garage door today, it wouldn't open. I had to enter the code 5 times before it finally opened. Then, I couldn't get it closed. When I push the button to lower it, the door moves about 2 inches. Then, it stops and reverses and goes back. It did this about 20 times. Finally, I pulled the cord to disengage it, and I lowered the door manually.

Obviously, it is an issue related to water, specifically wind-blown water (a driving rain). But what?

I was thinking that maybe something is wrong with the touch pad because that is the only portion of the system that is outside. But that only explains the opening problem. It doesn't explain the closing problem. As I mentioned above, the button that you push to lower the door is located inside the garage, not outside.

Does anyone have any ideas? Has anyone ever encountered a similar problem?

Thank you in advance for any help. Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

Do you have any roof issues where water might be dripping on the opener, on the push button or on the photo-eyes mounted at the bottom of the garage door?

Hi Brian,

Thank you for the reply.

To my knowledge, I don't have any roof issues. How would I go about figuring that out?

Also, how do I determine which component of the system is the source of the problem? How do I go about figuring out which part is getting wet?

I could be wrong, but I don't think that the problem is in the lifter itself (the motor). As I mentioned in my previous post, it works perfectly on days that it didn't rain the night before. Also, even on days when it isn't working properly, when I push the button to lower the door, the door moves about 2 inches and then stops and reverses. And the light in the lifter flashes on and off. If the problem is in the lifter, I would suspect that the door wouldn't move at all. Something is preventing the door from travelling more than 2 inches on days when it is not working properly.

The problem could be in the touch pad and/or the photo eyes. It could be in more than one part. I could understand the touch pad getting wet, because it is located outside. If the touch pad is the only part that is getting wet, would it also cause the lowering problem? The touch pad has nothing to do with lowering the door.

If water is getting in the photo eyes, would it cause the issues I am experiencing? Or maybe water is getting in the wires that connect the photo eyes to the lifter. How do I figure it out?

Just check around the sensors to see if they are wet. Another thing I thought of - the rain could be causing the header or jambs to swell a little. So when the opener goes to push the door closed it may be sensing a little resistance causing the opener not to close. You can easily test this. Next time the opener refuses to close the door pull the emergency release and then run the opener. If the opener can move the trolley the whole way to the front without reversing while it's disconnected from the door then there's definitely an issue with the door jambs, header or door. 

You can try increasing the down force on the opener and decreasing the sensitivity and see if that overrides the problem but that's really not solving the problem. It would just be a temporary fix until you can figure out what the real issue is and dealing with it properly.

Hi Brian,

Thank you for the reply.

The last time I had this problem, I checked the sensors. They didn't appear to be visibly wet.

Thank you for the suggestion that my header or jambs may be swelling due to rain. I didn't think of that. It is an excellent suggestion. It would explain all of the issues I am experiencing.

I don't know when I can test it though. We are currently in the middle of a major storm here in New York City. It is expected to last 48 hours or more. We are supposed to get about 3 inches of snow today, possibly more. My garage is located in my back yard. In the Winter, we rarely need to go in our garage, usually once or twice a month. With snow expected today, I don't even know when I can get to my garage.