Subject: [Shop-talk] Craftsman Garage door opener Failure

From: "Jack Brooks" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 5 Jun 2013 21:13:14 -0700

Heads up on surprising repair.

My garage door stopped working a day or so ago.  I checked everything out
that would normally lead to a failure and found nothing.  Eventually I
pulled the printed circuit board.  I found an overheated section on the
circuit board, right next to one leg of a relay.  The track was blown.  I
figured the relay was shot, so I unsoldered it, then pulled the cover off
the relay to take a look.  The relay looked fine, so I cleaned up that
terminal leg, which was corroded and soldered the relay back on the board.
I added a jumper to a good part of the circuit board track and it's working
again.  I suspect one of the original solder joints was marginal and it took
15 years to finally overheat and burn through.

Craftsman is made by Chamberlain.  They also make Lift-master, so this same
issue could affect any of these brands or another brand.  It was just so
weird I had to write it up.  

The really odd thing this week was about relays.  Relays are pretty solid
and rarely fail, at least in my world.  A few days before the garage door
opener issue one of the girls at work was having an issue with her car's
A/C.  That was a blown compressor clutch relay.  Watch your relays folks.
They are failing fast now.  Must be sunspots or something.

Jack
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