# Weak Garage door



## Windows on Wash (Aug 30, 2011)

80lbs is a bit on the heavy side.

Are you sure that is the lifting load?

If you overestimated a bit, it could be the resistance switch on the garage opener itself.


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## firehawkmph (Dec 12, 2009)

Did you try increasing the lifting force on the opener? There should be two plastic slotted screw adjusters, one for opening force, one for closing force. If they are set too light, the door may do as you described. The wayne dulton doors are very light doors. If yours feels heavy, you could try adjusting the spring tension. Not sure if there is one or two springs in your torque tube. If there are two and one is broken, that would make the door feel heavy also. One other thing, if the opening force is turned up all the way already, the opener could be getting ready to kick the bucket. Craftsmen openers are not designed to be long life. Some do last longer, depends on the amount of use. If you got twelve years out of it, that's pretty good. Let us know what you find.
Mike Hawkins


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## Drizzt (Apr 6, 2011)

80lbs was just an estimate on my behalf when I heaved the door open while disconnected from the tracks. I should add in a +/- 20 lbs probably, since it's tough to estimate.
And I bought the house last year, so the opener could be anywhere between 2 to 12 years. I just assumed it came with the house.

As for the lift/close force on the craftsmen opener... good idea. I didn't even think about looking at that. It was set to 3/9, and I turned it up to 5/9. It opened fine! But since this doesn't happen every time, I'll keep you up to date on if the lift force dial is all it took.

thanks!


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## Windows on Wash (Aug 30, 2011)

Drizzt said:


> 80lbs was just an estimate on my behalf when I heaved the door open while disconnected from the tracks. I should add in a +/- 20 lbs probably, since it's tough to estimate.
> And I bought the house last year, so the opener could be anywhere between 2 to 12 years. I just assumed it came with the house.
> 
> As for the lift/close force on the craftsmen opener... good idea. I didn't even think about looking at that. It was set to 3/9, and I turned it up to 5/9. It opened fine! But since this doesn't happen every time, I'll keep you up to date on if the lift force dial is all it took.
> ...


We are going to have to start charging for Mike's fixes here in a little bit.

He is batting 1000% (or a hat-trick for our Canadian brother to the North) right now.


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## firehawkmph (Dec 12, 2009)

There should be a date of manufacture code on the opener. It's on the label where the serial number is. I forget how many numbers are in the code, but the last two are the year it was made. Glad to hear everything's working again.
Mike Hawkins


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