Garage door open by itself at 2 am...

What could cause a garage door to open by itself at 2 am? It was the door on my wife's side of the garage. It has the original opener I put in when we built the house. You have to have the bumper of the car almost against the door for it to work. I've replaced mine and I can get it to open when I'm a hundred yards away or so.

Anyway, my wife and I cannot hear the garage doors open from our end of the house. However, my son's room is over the garage, so he can. So, here we are at 2 am searching the property; I have a pistol grip 12 gauge with 8 rounds and the SureFire flashlight system under it's barrel. My son's following me with my Glock 29 in his pocket and my 5 million candle power NightLight spot light. When I walk back into the house I find Mrs. Dargo waiting at the kitchen table with this big 8" "Survival Knife"! Where'd she get that?!

I'm not too concerned about finding anyone because Dargo and Bruno are laying on the front porch and do not seem the least bit disturbed. Anyway, after lighting up this whole area like a Christmas Tree, we searched every place and found nothing; as I expected.

The nearest road is about 1/4 mile away and it doesn't have much traffic; especially at 2am. Any ideas what could have caused the door to open? My wife and I leave later today for Grand Cayman and my son is concerned. Ideas? The door from the garage to the house was locked, so the house would have still been secure. Since only my wife and I park in the house garage I'm considering unplugging both openers while we are gone...should I?

Dargo said:

What could cause a garage door to open by itself at 2 am?

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I don't have an answer for this.

Dargo said:

You have to have the bumper of the car almost against the
door for it to work.

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Time to replace the battery in your garage door opener.

If you are concerned, you are doing the right thing. Unplug the openers and turn the lock on the garage door (if you have them on the doors)

The newer garage door openers use a code key so that whatever transmits to it has to be on the same key, and the key changes each time it is used. Much like computer certificates.

However, still a random transmission can cause your door to open if it has the same key (a per chance occurrence). The transmission can be from a plane, another car or anything that transmits on the same frequency. Most likely it was a freak accidental occurrence.

Knowing no one else uses the garage doors I would unplug them while your away. Better safe than sorry.

I've heard that the computer boards on these become flaky after a while and the door starts opening intermittently and sometimes doesn't open or close for a brief period. You can swap out the board or replace the whole unit.

About ten years ago Carrier Corporation made a furnace called the "Infinity". This furnace operated on DC technology. This was a common complaint by many people after installing this furnace. Carrier did find that their furnace could be doing this and made some magnetic donuts to wrap around your thermostat wiring going up to the thermostat. And, this solved the problem. Another thing that happened with this furnace was wireless phones would ring just once every so often. The donuts stopped that also.

Don't know but you could have some interference from an appliance or even a neighbor if close has something causing it. If only once who knows, if it keeps up get one of the newer garage door openers.


murph

I have one door where the downward closing stop was set too low. The door hit bottom hard before stopping. That partially set off the auto-reverse and any vibration later would open the door. Resetting the down stop so it gently stopped fixed the problem.

The other door started randomly opening and the remotes sometimes didn't work. I reset it and reprogrammed the remotes and fixed it.

At our last house had the same problem and the above didn't fix it. I bought the same brand opener (so all the holes and rails fit) and replaced it. This one was a Sears, the first two were Genies.

Jim

thcri said:

About ten years ago Carrier Corporation made a furnace called the "Infinity". This furnace operated on DC technology. This was a common complaint by many people after installing this furnace. Carrier did find that their furnace could be doing this and made some magnetic donuts to wrap around your thermostat wiring going up to the thermostat. And, this solved the problem. Another thing that happened with this furnace was wireless phones would ring just once every so often. The donuts stopped that also.

Don't know but you could have some interference from an appliance or even a neighbor if close has something causing it. If only once who knows, if it keeps up get one of the newer garage door openers.


murph

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If it is external RF interference it usually gets in on the wire between the drive unit and the control button at your back door. the donuts Murph mentioned are ferrite cores available at Radio Shack. Get a couple and put one at each end of the wire with a couple of turns of wire around each.

Jim

thcri said:

Don't know but you could have some interference from an appliance or even a neighbor if close has something causing it. If only once who knows, if it keeps up get one of the newer garage door openers.


murph

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The opener is 13 years old. I don't have any close neighbors; I don't really have any neighbors. I totally agree so far with what everyone has said. I'll unplug them just to be safe while I'm gone. Otherwise I think I'll do nothing unless it happens again. If so, I'll change "her" opener like I did mine last summer. I did read on my new opener where it has something like 20,000 "rolling" security numbers to prevent false openings.

I can't really complain if hers is out. Thirteen years of constant use, you know with 5 kids, on her side. If it's worn out, it's worn out. Hers is a Genie screw drive type where mine is a Chamberlain belt drive. I've never been impressed with the Genie. It cost more but I could never tell any difference and even with new batteries in the remote she always had to be right on the door to open it.

Thanks for the replies!! They make me feel better about what I was thinking.

One more thing you might check. I assume you have a wall switch.
Mine occasionally gets full of the dust and crud generated in the garage and does not fully spring back to its normal resting position. It sticks right at the "harry edge" of activation; and I have had instances where vibrations, such as opening the entry door to the kitchen, will activate the opener.

Dargo said:

I can't really complain if hers is out. Thirteen years of constant use, you know with 5 kids, on her side. If it's worn out, it's worn out. Hers is a Genie screw drive type where mine is a Chamberlain belt drive. I've never been impressed with the Genie. It cost more but I could never tell any difference and even with new batteries in the remote she always had to be right on the door to open it.

Thanks for the replies!! They make me feel better about what I was thinking.

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best thing is to just change it out with another Chamberlain. You should have an extra button on the remotes so one opener can open both doors.

If you keep the Genie, look for a wire about 8 to 10 inches long hanging out of the back of the unit under the light cover. This is the receiving antenna for the remotes. It should be straight down or straight sideways and as much exposed to the incoming vehicle as possible for maximum range.

Jim

Gremlins

I would also recommend replacing it.

A similar thing happened to Frank_F15 last year. About 2 weeks later, it quit completely.

Unless you've replaced your door spring(s), I would probably replace those as well. Just be careful. A little trick I found is to open the door fully to loosen or adjust the springs. When it's all the way up, there's no pressure on them.

also make sure that you install a safety cable inside the springs. HD & Lowe's both sell the safety cables. If you have a torsion spring door NEVER try to adjust them. Leave them to a professional that has the proper tools. Worse than pointing a loaded gun at yourself and pulling the trigger. The bullet will do less damage and hurt less!!!!! Junk.

Dargo said:

The opener is 13 years old.

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Stop being so cheap and go get a new one.

I only ran it up to mess with you!

My fourteen foot shop door has done that twice in the last two years, both times I was gone. Turned out to be a problem with the wires, has not done it since. Still turn the power off when I am gone.

I remember a military pilot who flew C130's telling me once that one of their altimeters could do just that, randomly open garage doors. He said that they were forbidden to use it over populated areas but of course they did anyway knowing that they were going to be messing with the civilians down below.

the fact that the dogs, Dargo and Bruno were laying on the porch, utterly complacent and entirely undisturbed was a sure indication that nothing was amiss. It had to be some kind of electrical fault or disturbance.

I put a lot of trust in my three Dogs abilities to alert me to human danger.

It's 5 years later, I wonder if this mystery was ever solved?

I have to start reading the dates on this stuff.

Did it refresh your memory?

Bout time to bump this!

The unwritten rules require this thread to be bumped every now-n-then...

Gatorboy said:

It's 5 years later, I wonder if this mystery was ever solved?

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It is the government planes........

muleman said:

It is the government planes........

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Black helicopters?

It's a neighbor with an old model who's set on the same frequency. Used to happen to my dad all the time. Wen to on for over a year. but then he saw 'em do it as they drove by.
So once he knew who it was, he followed them. As they went into their garage, he closed their door.

Never had an issue after that.