Garage door opens on surge

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jim3394

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A friend of mine that is doing side work has come across a garage door opener that will open when another load is put on the circuit. (circ. saw) I told him I thought it may be a loose connection in the circuit somewhere causing the board to do funky things. Anyone have any other thoughts.
 
Check the Neutrals (branch circuit and service).
And don't turn on the flat screen tv while running the saw until problem is fixed.

We just did a similar job.
GC was at older house doing crownmolding. carpenter had saw set up in front yard.
garage door did same thing, then stopped working.
In total, there was garage door circuit board, a/c circuit board, 2 lcd tv's, and some other items, all had their smoke left out.

Culprit was corroded neutral in outside main disconnect.
I think I have pics.
 
480sparky said:
My folks just went through this.

It's a bad control board in the unit.
Click to expand...
I have a touch lamp that cycles when the garage door opens. Don't know why. The lamp is 30-40 ft from the opener. Different circuit but same panel, same leg.
 
100119-1626 EST

jim3394:

I suspect it is a sag rather than a surge.

The garage door opener is poorly designed. Try a battery powered separate power supply for the control electronics and see if the problem still exists.

.
 
That would be a real bad design if garage door openers opened their doors on a voltage sag?

How about an electrical transient generated by the saw causing the triac to breakdown and conduct, thus opening the door?

Does the door open when the saw is first turned on or when it is turned off? Does the door open all the way or just jog?
 
mivey said:
I have a touch lamp that cycles when the garage door opens. Don't know why. The lamp is 30-40 ft from the opener. Different circuit but same panel, same leg.
Click to expand...

A touch lamp in my living room came on when a plug-in humidifier in the same room cycled. A small plug-in surge protector on the lamp fixed it. The surge protector did have noise filtering as well. I don't know if a non-filtered protector would have worked or not. The humidifier has a very small fan motor actuated by a snap-switch/float device. I think the snap-switch was creating a little spike when it operated. Better filtering in the touch switch would have prevented it I'm sure, but what do you expect for a $3.99 part. I'll bet the same thing would work on the garage opener.
 
dbchamblee said:
A touch lamp in my living room came on when a plug-in humidifier in the same room cycled. A small plug-in surge protector on the lamp fixed it. The surge protector did have noise filtering as well. I don't know if a non-filtered protector would have worked or not. The humidifier has a very small fan motor actuated by a snap-switch/float device. I think the snap-switch was creating a little spike when it operated. Better filtering in the touch switch would have prevented it I'm sure, but what do you expect for a $3.99 part. I'll bet the same thing would work on the garage opener.
Click to expand...
That's interesting. I'll give it a shot. Thanks.
 
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