New & Improved!

Shortly after I moved into my house, the remote to the garage door opener quit working. Cruising Sears' website, I found out the opener that came with the garage is at least 25-30 years old! I drove 90 miles (round trip) to the nearest Sears repair center (as recommended by the 800-Line) only to find out the repair center ceased existence "a long time ago". Hmmm... Maybe the 800-line needs to be informed? The friendly store clerk suggested I get a $40 universal remote. I can still hear his words now... "It'll work. This works with everything." Uh huh... I bet you can guess it didn't work! So another 90-mile trip to return it.



Over the past year and a half, I've been using the wall-mounted control units to open and close the garage door. Yes, it involves getting out of the car to close the garage door... Kinda defeats the purpose of having a garage door opener, doesn't it? LOL



Last fall, Farm & Fleet had a grand opening and one of the featured specials was garage door openers. I bought one and it's sat in my garage all winter. I finally opened the box and looked at the instruction manual. Thought to myself: "This doesn't look too hard!" (You know where this is going, right?)




All the little parts came in a bag. I dumped them all out and set to work!




Work in Progress
Getting ready to attach the chain
Attaching the motor
I was so proud of myself when I had the entire thing together! All I needed to do was disconnect the old one and install the new. I ran out to my Dad's to get a 2x4, which was supposed to be used to hold the motor up while I bolted it to the supports. While there, he offered to come into town and help me get it installed. Four hours later....

A New Opener! A New Wall Control Unit! A New Remote for the Car! And even Safety “eyes” to prevent the door from closing on small children and animals (didn’t have that with the old unit).

It shouldn't have taken us 4 hours to get the thing up there, but we had technical difficulties due to (what I think) an overheated motor (as mentioned in the instruction book). Men use some "colorful" language when things don't work they way they're supposed to... and my Dad is no exception. LOL!

Revised: See the lightbulb in the first photo? My Dad was unscrewing it as he was doing so, I was saying "That's a new bulb. It's still...." My eyes went from looking above where the bulb was and traveled to the concrete where it shattered into a billion pieces. I then said, "Well, it *was* still good. Not anymore."

Later, after we got the new opener up, Dad says to me, "Gotta bulb?" I said, "I *did* have a bulb. You broke it." LOL Then I went in the house to get another one.
Amazing how many little pieces a bulb can create when it meets concrete!