If you and several of your neighbors have suddenly had problems getting your garage door to open with the remote, you could be experiencing wireless interference. One street in Sun City has seven houses with this problem. Some would only work when the remote was held very close to the door, but some would not open at all.
The problem occurs as more and more wireless devices are added to the now crowded bands that carry the signals and they start to interfere with each other. The fix is not easy. The first thing to do is check with all homes affected to see who might have purchased a wireless device recently. You can check by turning that device off to see if the garage remotes begin to work again. Chances are this will not be the magic fix.
You can then check with neighbors outside the ones with the problem to see if new wireless devices were added recently.
The garage door openers installed by Del Webb are Liftmaster brand. A spokesman for Liftmaster has said that they deal with outages of this size about a dozen times a year across the United States.
The problem with the seven homes in Sun City was resolved recently when one of the homeowners had a problem with his computer internet router. He rebooted the router, which fixed his router problem, and now his garage door works with the remote. When he checked with his neighbors their garage doors are now working again.
The computer router is a wireless device and when it is working properly it does not interfere with the garage door wireless remote. When it is not functioning properly you and your neighbors may be parking your cars outside the garage.
If the offending wireless device can’t be discovered, the only fix is to replace the opener with one that operates on a different frequency.
Possible solution for mysterious ceiling noise
A reader has written in with a possible solution to a problem asked a couple of issues ago.
The party in NH3 with the mysterious cracking noise located near the ceiling fan in the hall bath of a Petoskey model 2-4 times per day may have a problem with straw in the fan from nesting birds. I have found this condition in several homes in Del Webb. The Petoskey model hall bath fan is usually operated by a timer, which might explain the timing of the noise. Usually if there is straw from nesting, it can be seen by removing the light fixture lens on the fan/light unit in the bathroom. The fan timer can also be turned to either on or off, vs. auto, to prove the source of the noise is or is not the fan/light assembly.
If you have suggestions for future tips or have questions about maintenance around your home submit them to ask.the.woodchucks@gmail.com.
