Garage door opener won't operate on afci/gfci receptacle

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jaylectricity

jaylectricity

Senior Member
Location
Massachusetts
Occupation
licensed journeyman electrician
The light blinks and it clicks but won't open.

I had to install a garage door opener receptacle in a garage and also refeed a receptacle just inside the door to the house from the garage because it was fed by an extension cord plugged into an extension cord plugged into a receptacle in a garage.

So to satisfy the gfci requirement for the garage (and have it readily accessible) and to satisfy the afci requirement for inside the house (replacement receptacle on modified circuit less than 6') I decided to install the dual-purpose receptacle just inside the house and feed out to the receptacle for the opener. Less than 30' of total wiring.

The garage door opener will not work. The light blinks and it clicks, but nothing else. I plugged it back in to the string of extension cords it used to be plugged into and it works fine.

There's 120v to each receptacle, I can't understand what the opener is detecting that's not allowing it to operate.

Any ideas? I shouldn't have even been forced to do this based on the scope of the work, but I agree it really needed to be done. Now I'm looking at yet another trip over here to separate the garage door opener to just a gfci protected receptacle.
 
My first though would be a loose connection. The light pulls very little current and the loose connection allows enough current to flow to the light but on the heavier motor load is connected there is not enough current to allow it to run.
 
augie47 said:
My first though would be a loose connection. The light pulls very little current and the loose connection allows enough current to flow to the light but on the heavier motor load is connected there is not enough current to allow it to run.
Click to expand...

:thumbsup:
The voltage drop as the motor tried to start would then cause the relay to drop out, and possibly the rest of the control electronics to reset.
At that point the light might or might not come back on once the motor load had disconnected.
 
The receptacle is not tripping. It trips when I test hot to ground. I can repeatedly push the opener button and it will click and blink each time.

I can't think of where there would be a loose connection, certainly not on anything I installed.
 
jaylectricity said:
The receptacle is not tripping. It trips when I test hot to ground. I can repeatedly push the opener button and it will click and blink each time.

I can't think of where there would be a loose connection, certainly not on anything I installed.
Click to expand...
Go ahead and put a simple but large load on the AFCI receptacle and see what happens.
The only other thing I can think of is humungous RF interference from the AFCI that is simulating a remote button push or limit sensor hit.
 
jaylectricity said:
The receptacle is not tripping. It trips when I test hot to ground. I can repeatedly push the opener button and it will click and blink each time.

I can't think of where there would be a loose connection, certainly not on anything I installed.
Click to expand...


of course not :D Likewise I have NEVER failed to make all my connection secure
 
jaylectricity said:
The light blinks and it clicks but won't open.

I had to install a garage door opener receptacle in a garage and also refeed a receptacle just inside the door to the house from the garage because it was fed by an extension cord plugged into an extension cord plugged into a receptacle in a garage.

So to satisfy the gfci requirement for the garage (and have it readily accessible) and to satisfy the afci requirement for inside the house (replacement receptacle on modified circuit less than 6') I decided to install the dual-purpose receptacle just inside the house and feed out to the receptacle for the opener. Less than 30' of total wiring.

The garage door opener will not work. The light blinks and it clicks, but nothing else. I plugged it back in to the string of extension cords it used to be plugged into and it works fine.

There's 120v to each receptacle, I can't understand what the opener is detecting that's not allowing it to operate.

Any ideas? I shouldn't have even been forced to do this based on the scope of the work, but I agree it really needed to be done. Now I'm looking at yet another trip over here to separate the garage door opener to just a gfci protected receptacle.
Click to expand...

Setting aside your technical issue for a moment, the way I read your post I'm not understanding how you are complying with 210.12 with this setup. Can you clarify?
 
texie said:
Setting aside your technical issue for a moment, the way I read your post I'm not understanding how you are complying with 210.12 with this setup. Can you clarify?
Click to expand...

I'm technically not. It's a long story about why this will be ok, but you are correct in thinking that I should have to install an AFCI breaker at the origin of the entire circuit.
 
jaylectricity said:
Ok, so what should I expect to happen if I do that? The saw or blow dryer will struggle to operate?
Click to expand...

If you get lucky it will blow the bad connection open then it should be easy to find.:cool:

GoldDigger said:
The only other thing I can think of is humungous RF interference from the AFCI that is simulating a remote button push or limit sensor hit.
Click to expand...

Ahh, another piece of equipment whose instructions say not to use with an AFCI breaker?:roll:

-Hal
 
The light blinking and clicking is the normal indicator for something blocking the the safety beam or the beam is not correctly aligned. I don't know why it would only do this when connected to AFCI though.
 
curt swartz said:
The light blinking and clicking is the normal indicator for something blocking the the safety beam or the beam is not correctly aligned. I don't know why it would only do this when connected to AFCI though.
Click to expand...
It is also an indication that the door is jammed. If there was a loose connection that allowed enough current for the electronics to operate but not enough to allow the motor to start it would look the same as jammed door to the brain in the opener.

By the way, put me down as one who thinks there is a loose connection too.
 
The door works fine. If I plug it into another receptacle it works. The problem is where I got the feed. I tried just tying the wires through to bypass the receptacle and that doesn't work. I even plugged it into a receptacle earlier in the same circuit and it works.

Looks like something hokey going on in the circuit having to do with the 3-way light part.
 
Hmmm...Maybe something in here.

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The wires in that light were a mess. They had both the red and black from a 14-3 tied to the feed, which is the feed in the switch box I was using. They both had nicks in them. But white wire was not the neutral, it was the switch leg. I was getting power because the light bulbs were completing the circuit.

Luckily there are enough wires to rewire a neutral to my switch. Thanks for the help guys.
 
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