My Garage Door Opens on its Own?

Question

We have a 30year old Stanley garage door opener. It has recently started opening on its own. We thought it might be on the same frequency as something else close by, but it never closes on its own. We also changed the frequency, but it still opens randomly on its own.. Any ideas on why it is now doing this, and what can be done to fix it, short of getting a new one?

Answer 1

there could be short circuit in the wire that goes from the opener the the switch on the wall, try disconnecting it at the unit itself, the part with the motor and chain... and see if still happens

Answer 2

If someone else were opening it, they probably wouldn't close it.  Maybe they are checking to see if you are home.  Stanley makes a good unit.  Check out Stanley with your product number for their advice.  Use Yahoo Web search

Answer 3

if this unit is 30 years old its a chain drive, watch the tube/rail to see how bad it bends when down, you may just have to set limits or tighten chain. limits should be on the bottom of the unit. to adjust the chain you ll need a 7/16 socket, and bolt is located on top of unit near sprocket. i do agree you invest in something updated, with the rolling code as stated above.

Answer 4

Maybe it's like that commercial where the man's unknown switch opens his neighbor's garage door. IDK. LOL. Good Luck.

Answer 5

First take the two wires loose at the opener  coming from the pushbutton. If it still self operates look at your remotes. If the button on them is broken they can self actuate. Below the plastic button is probably a switch with a metal lever. Those cases are still available for a few dollars. If problem stops when you take the two wires loose put them back on and take the wires loose at the wall pushbutton. If problem starts there is a short in the wire. If problem stops your pushbutton is bad.    edit: PS I am getting senile. If you take both pushbutton wires off and take ALL batteries out of every remote and it still goes up your radio receiver in the unit might be bad(rare). To find this out unplug motor and take a remote around the neighborhood to try to open other doors. (long shot) Remember your opener cannot be stopped part way in either direction and because it is closed most of the time that is why you are seeing it opening by itself but not closing. PLEASE post what you find or do. Thanks!

Answer 6

OK,YOU GOT 30YRS. OUT OF IT,GIVE IT A BREAK,EVEN THESE THINGS NEEDS A BREAK TO.GET RID OF IT ,ITS MORE THAN PAID FORIT SELF. BAH--HUMBUG,DOES THIS RING A BELL.?????

Answer 7

It's possible you have someone in your area who's doing a "garage door opener survey" in prepartion to burglarize your garage or house.

What these characters do is to take an old garage door opener of the early vintage that had fixed encodings (new ones often have an automatically changing code that's much harder to crack), and set them up so they can transmit in succession, ALL the codes that opener is capable of generating.    They park somewhere in your neighborhood, step through all the codes (if they're an electronics whiz, they can do this automatically in a few minutes), then drive around and look for doors that are open that weren't open prior to their actions.    That tells them they can open your door almost at will, by coming back later and repeating the sequence.  

If i were you, I'd upgrade to a better opener - one that has some protections against that practice.  

Answer 8

   try changing the freqency of the remote.

Answer 9

If your garage door control system is shorting out and opening at random,

Or if thieves are opening your door,

you can stop this problem by cutting the power to the garage.  There are three ways you can do this.  There might be a switch that controls something in the garage and you can plug your opener into this. You might be able to do this, you may have to turn off a circuit breaker and hope that here is nothing else of importance on the circuit, or there are remote control plug in outlets that are available from Radio Shack that you can insert between the present garage door opener line and its recepticle.

Before you replace the system you might do a visual inspection of the control wiring.  Look for anyplace that it has been smashed or damaged.

For the most satisfying and trouble free repair, install a new system.  It is 30 years old.  The security is old as are moving parts.  If you have lived with it this long you might also want a trouble free future.  It might be time.