Jackshaft Garage Door Opener Unspools Lift Cable - Remedy

#GarageDoor #opener #Jackshaft #JackshaftGarageDoor #cable #GarageDoorOpener #CableComesOff

I recently purchased and installed a new jackshaft style garage door opener. This was by far the easiest garage door opener that I have ever installed. The opener also has many nice features like: very bright LED light that can be set to come one when you walk through the open garage door, or can come on when you walk past the control box, by the door to the house, can be opened from my phone from anywhere I have a wi-fi signal or data access on my phone, had battery back-up, does not have a chain/belt/screw track on the ceiling or down the middle of your garage and for me best of all is very quiet in the house. My old opener from day one would vibrate the house when it was in use.
Once I installed the opener I opened the door to the full open position, in my case 9' 11.5" Then following the programing instructions I attempted to move the door, setting the position of the downward travel. The door did not move. I noticed that the opener was turning the shaft that the spring were on and thus was unspooling the lift cables off of the cable drum. To keep the cables from unspooling I could only have the door open to a height of 7' 3".
At this height, gravity takes over and keeps tension on the lift cables.
I looked up on internet and I see that this is a common problem. So common in fact that there is a thing being made called, "Garage door pusher springs". I thought GREAT!!!! These garage door pusher spring will solve the problem with this system. The pusher springs are relatively inexpensive and would be really easy to mount. I focused on pusher springs that were 27" long. I figured that I needed 33" more movement in my garage door and 27" was close enough. WAIT!!!! This particular 27" spring only pushes 15". All of the sudden, I was not thrilled with these pusher springs. I kept reading and again these particular pusher springs apply 10 pounds of force for every one inch of compression. If I were to use all 15" of compression, the springs would apply 150 pounds of force, not only on the garage door panels, but also on the garage door opener. I looked up on internet and the video that I watched stated that this will damage the garage door opener over time. I would guess that it would also damage my door over time. The people in this video were only going to use 5" of the travel, which would apply 50 pounds of force. WOW, a 27" pusher spring giving a WHOPPING 5" of travel!!! YIKES!!!
This coerced me to design my own system. The video is about this system. In my system my garage door require 40 pounds to get the door moving. As a safety factor, I wanted a little extra weight to push the door. I figured that over time the door would require a little bit more force to start the initial movement. So, I used 50 pounds of weight.
I do have a correction to what I said in the video. I stated that you could use any sized rod for the pusher rod. I should have stated any sized rod that will fit into the pulley.
Your system would need to be designed to fit your door, your required pushing weight etc. One could use 3 gallons of water for weight if they had the room. I used old window weight.
The compression springs that I used were sold both on Ebay and Amazon. The price on Amazon at the time was 1/2 of that of what I found on Ebay.
The are sold by Century Spring # C - 856.
The extension springs that I used were simply taken off of two different old dishwashers. They were the door springs.
Please leave comments and we can all help each other with these style of door openers. Please let us all know how this can be improved!
It is funny to me. I called the manufacterer of this opener. I told them my problem of the lift cables. They simply told me to call a garage door opener installer. So, they know of the problem, but the do not tell you of the problem before they sell you the opener. I would bet that they could sell a lot more openers, as they are really fantastic, if they would address this problem and they could commercially make a system similar to mine or they should be able to vastly improve my system.
Some garage doors have tracks that follow the gable roof line. On these type of tracks, this opener should work SWELL!.
I do have an error in my design. On the two left hand pulley wheels, I would stagger them the opposite way. I would have the lower left wheel all the way to the left and the upper left pulley wheel staggered just to the right, as the weight on the front of the pusher rod is in the down direction.

Thanks,

Wes

[rustyshackleford]

As a pofessional installer that has installed 100s, there is no problem with the motor, you are just using it in an incorrect application. I’m sure it went over it in the fine print in the instructions, but that’s what installing, professional dealers are for.

[richardanderson]

I have installed 25 of these motors. The cable tension sensor is the problem here. SO to fix to allow drums to hold cables tight and roll door downward without loosening cable off drum. Try installing a Strut across bottom section helps with heavier bottom section. I have had several cable off because of these 2 issues. To fix correctly adjust by overtorsion spring a few 1/4 turns until cables are tight but motor can down turn door. But now with this system seems like to much wieght added to door. Torsion springs are incorrect now. The pusher spring idea is good but recommend the pushrod one for $ 35-60

[arnoldjohnson]

Oh My God. What a contraption you created. Did your grandfather create the game mouse trap?

[Bigtommyshuffield]

Raise the back of your horizontal tracks 3 inches. ( I'm an installer)