garage door issues. Solutions??? - Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community

killer_carlson · 10-09-2009, 05:57 PM

Someone in our neighbourhood is messing with our garage. More than once per week we will come home and our garage will be open. The only thing that has ever gone missing has been empty bottles. We live in the inner city, but there will come a point when my wife will go into the garage with our two kids and there will be a handful of junkies standing there. Or there will come a point in time where we will go in and my golf clubs, power tools, camping stuff will be gone.

The garage door is electric and we have a programmable opener for it.

We have re-programed the garage door mechanisms several times. When we re-program, we confirm that the old openers do not work. I have walked up and down the entire neighbourhood at each garage trying to open it with our openers (in case there is a duplicate in the neighbourhood) and that is not the case. but the door was open today and there were no footprints in the snow and the lock was on the gate, meaning the only way it was opened was from the alley side. Not only was the door open today, our remote control was "unprogrammed" and did not work.

I have installed security lights. I have hung an ADT sign on the outside of the garage (we have ADT for the house but not the garage).

I do not know if there is such a thing as a scanner that can pick up garage door codes, (i've heard rumours of such a device). If there is, I do not know if there is a way I can block or disrupt the scanner.

I do not want to have to install an entirely new garage door but if there is no other options, then I will have to do it.

What would the CP collective braintrust do?

CaptainCrunch · 10-09-2009, 06:00 PM

security camera in the garage, thats about all you can do right now, unless ADT will expand to your garage.

Dion · 10-09-2009, 06:13 PM

I found this post while googling for answers.....

Quote:

I recall reading about certain brand(s) of garage door openers can be fooled with a crowbar. When the door is down, enough well placed leverage from a crowbar under the lower door edge can trip the safety mechanism that causes a garage door to go back up when someone or something is about to get pinned by a closing garage door.

The opener should know when it's traveled completely to the down position and disable that safety mechanism. Apparently, some models had problems. I don't know what brands/models they are. Just something to keep in mind.

http://exchange.ydr.com/index.php?showtopic=4111

Mad Mel · 10-09-2009, 06:13 PM

Get it fixed, dude. We came home to Calgary after 2 weeks vacation to find two junkies camped out in the g/f's garage. Actually, we didn't find them... she found them by herself when she arrived at her house and the electric door opener wouldn't work. So she walked in the side door. Not a good situation. Naturally, some stuff was gone. The piss bottle in the corner was a nice touch. They had been there a while.

Honestly, it's a pain in the ass, but I would consider putting on a lock that you have to open before the door can roll up.

Dion · 10-09-2009, 06:19 PM

I know it's a pain in the arse. In the last place I lived in I drilled a hole in the rails the door runs up and down in and placed a pad lock in that hole. It wasn't a nice neighbourhood and it was my way of adding extra secuirty to the garage. It prevented anyone who somehow found my code from opening the door.

ken0042 · 10-09-2009, 09:07 PM

The one thing I did when I wired my garage was I ran a light switch to be able to turn off the plug that the garage door opener plugs into. When I go away for a vacation I switch it off.

Along that line of thinking, can you get a secondary remote? Like I was thinking I had seen something designed for a block heater so you could plug the car in overnight, and then from inside your house it would open the circuit and turn on the heater. If you used something like that- you could press the one button to turn on the power, then the next button to open the door.

Edit- like these guys:
http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/brows...s%2BRemote.jsp
http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/brows...52C%2B3-Pk.jsp
http://www.canadiantire.ca/AST/brows...%2BControl.jsp

I-Hate-Hulse · 10-09-2009, 09:37 PM

The Fire Department was out investigating the neighbor's false alarm a week ago. They had this slim jim thing that reached up and snagged the emergency release so that they could just lift the door. Didn't even know that was possible.

I'd call a dedicated garage/overhead door company to come in and see if there's something wrong. I'm sure their expertise can spot something wrong if that's the case.

Rathji · 10-09-2009, 09:42 PM

We did work on a house a few year back where the garage door would always open randomly. We were there for a couple weeks, and helped him reset his remote codes etc but nothing seemed to work.

He ended up calling a repair guy who changed some setting and it never happened again.

Nage Waza · 10-09-2009, 10:00 PM

I bet the cause is not another opener, but something with the system itself. There is usually a sensitivity setting and a power setting. I would leave the power setting and lower the sensitivity setting. See if that solves the problem. If it keeps happening, I hate to say it but get a new mechanism.

Some garage doors need both tweaked when it gets cold out, then reverted to when it gets warmer out. Just a tip.

Bagor · 10-09-2009, 11:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rathji

We did work on a house a few year back where the garage door would always open randomly. We were there for a couple weeks, and helped him reset his remote codes etc but nothing seemed to work.

Same thing happens with the house opposite us. Just randomly opens by itself.
He's never managed to get it figured out either.

wooohooo · 10-10-2009, 01:45 AM

I know how to fix it. Just tell me the exact location of your house and when you will be home.

Phanuthier · 10-10-2009, 02:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by killer_carlson

We have re-programed the garage door mechanisms several times. When we re-program, we confirm that the old openers do not work. I have walked up and down the entire neighbourhood at each garage trying to open it with our openers (in case there is a duplicate in the neighbourhood) and that is not the case.

i could be wrong in describing this, so i hope no one spazzes if i describe this incorrectly.

even though its not a duplicate frequency (or however its coded) an RF signal has power in its signal at other frequencies, so a neighbors garage door might be opening your door as well as their own.

i've seen 2 cases of this happening before

if your neighbors are willing, ask them if you can try their garage door opener and see if it opens your too

in graph description, what you desire, where the 1 spike is the signal to open your garage door:

but this is what you get

killer_carlson · 10-11-2009, 07:21 PM

thanks guys.

I'll try calling a company and see what they have to say...

Gobsgraham · 10-11-2009, 08:56 PM

I had the same problem at my last house. I had a Sears Craftsman or whatever theirs was. I thought that it must have been a nighbour aswell but one day when I pressed the big plastic button on the wall I noticed that it stuck a bit. I pried it off and left it off and it never happened again.

It could have been a coincidence but I figure that it was keeping the button partially depressed and then some time throughout the day it would release and open the door.

I like Ken's idea to disable it. If you have homelink in your vehicle you can program 3 different devices so you should be able to use that to switch a relay on and off disabling the garage door opener.