What would cause my garage door to open on its own?

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - What would cause my garage door to open on its own? (Page 1 of 2)

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:17:49 PM EDT

At 2:45 this morning my garage door opener was activated somehow. My clicker and my wifes clicker were both locked in our cars. I live in the woods, no other houses within 300 yards of my house. This has never happened before and it freaked me out!

What would cause this to happen?

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:18:39 PM EDT

[#1]

Black helicopters.

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:19:07 PM EDT

[#2]

Manbearpig

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:19:15 PM EDT

[#3]

aliens

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:19:24 PM EDT

[#4]

A malfunction?

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:19:38 PM EDT

[#5]

A Ghost!!!

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:19:48 PM EDT

[#6]

It's a radio signal chirping on a particular frequency that opens the doors. Something hit that frequency.

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:20:25 PM EDT

[#7]

opossum

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:20:36 PM EDT

[#8]

At our old house a person a couple blocks over had a garage door opener on the same frequency as us. This was in the early 90's, I think it's much less common now but still possible.

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:21:00 PM EDT

[#9]

Intermittent short in the wire going to the push button in the garage or a malfunction of the electronics for the radio control. Most like the wiring. Look for spots where it was stapled to the ceiling or wall

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:22:01 PM EDT

[#10]

Quoted:
Black helicopters.

It was pretty quiet outside, I don't think it was black helocopters

manbearpig

I checked for him too, he's pretty fast to outrun my Fenix TK10.. don't think it was manbearpig this time..

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:22:38 PM EDT

[#11]

Quoted:
opossum

this.

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:22:54 PM EDT

[#12]

It's not hard to make a device that will open garage doors. Or steal one out of a car and drive around, trying to open garage doors until one opens. Then steal stuff.

Garage doors are not secure.

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:23:04 PM EDT

[#13]

obama

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:24:23 PM EDT

[#14]

Button sticking, or corrosion inside one of the remotes.

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:26:53 PM EDT

[#15]

Quoted:
Intermittent short in the wire going to the push button in the garage or a malfunction of the electronics for the radio control. Most like the wiring. Look for spots where it was stapled to the ceiling or wall

This sounds more like it, the only thing that makes me leary is that the garage door opener and wires have been up for over 20 years; to have this happen only once is weird , no? I'll take a look at everything tomorrow, thanks for the info––-

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:29:38 PM EDT

[#16]

Quoted:
obama

I did get a wiff of some fresh shit in the early morning air, so it may have been him..

That guy is a douche.

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:31:56 PM EDT

[#17]

Did a passenger jet fly over your house?

That's what happened on Bewitched.

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:33:32 PM EDT

[#18]

EC-130H Compass Call

Link:
EC-130H

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:33:49 PM EDT

[#19]

Probabaly a sniper in the tree line drawing your ass out.

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:34:28 PM EDT

[#20]

A thief in the area. You getting up and turning on lights likely made him change his mind.

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:35:00 PM EDT

[#21]

Quoted:
EC-130H Compass Call

Link:
EC-130H

Aww hell!

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:36:13 PM EDT

[#22]

Quoted:
Probabaly a sniper in the tree line drawing your ass out.

I sent my dog out the garage and I followed up from behind. No sniper (this time).

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:39:13 PM EDT

[#23]

Quoted:
A thief in the area. You getting up and turning on lights likely made him change his mind.

I was up when this happened, front lights and first floor lights were on, motion detectors on the side of the house never came on and I heard and saw nothing. I was out of my chair and outside in less than 20 seconds.

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:39:20 PM EDT

[#24]

Rivet Joint

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:39:32 PM EDT

[#25]

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:39:50 PM EDT

[#26]

Any RF emission on the right frequency = door open....

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:40:11 PM EDT

[#27]

Quoted:
It's a radio signal chirping on a particular frequency that opens the doors. Something hit that frequency.

+1

The Police radio in my former patrol car used to open and close a garage door in a certain neighborhood.

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:43:31 PM EDT

[#28]

In 20+ years I had one incident with my garage door opener, it apparently opened by itself during a thunderstorm, while its apparently mostly clear record does give me some confidence it was a one time event, when I'm going to be out of town the garage door opener is disconnected and the door locked from the inside.

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:48:44 PM EDT

[#29]

Do you have a really old opener? I don't think stray emissions will open the newer, code-hopping openers, but I may be wrong.

ECM aircraft were rumored to open entire neighborhoods of doors back in the day. This may be an urban legend.

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:52:17 PM EDT

[#30]

A newer opener will have whats called rolling code which when you push the button on the remote to open the door it sends a new code to it so it cant be picked up. Also the newer ones operate on a different frequency than the old ones making random openings even rarer and you can get a wall button with a lock out feature so if you go out of town the only way it can be opened is from inside the garage.

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:52:22 PM EDT

[#31]

You have a nice car?

Could be this guy...

Posted: 11/15/2009 7:57:27 PM EDT

[#32]

One time when my wife and MIL went out of town, I was tasked to feed and water the MIL's dog.

They left me the garage door opener to enter the house. Well' I know I closed the door when I left, but about 10 pm my wife calls me and says that the alarm had gone off at the MIL's house and cops were enroute.

When I got there the cops had already cleared the house. It seems the neighbor across the street had noticed the door open and entered the garage to close it. She then was going to go out through the front door and set off the alarm.
Cops said it was kids with an opener driving up and down streets trying to pop garage doors.

Posted: 11/15/2009 8:04:02 PM EDT

[#33]

Adjust the sensor that controls the "bump" reopen. (when the door hits an object on closing, and reopens)

Did you have wind or heavy storms last night?

This could have caused the sensor to open the door if it is set too sensitive.

Could also be a short in your transmitter or opener.

At 20 years old, I would think a short would be more likely.

Posted: 11/15/2009 8:04:33 PM EDT

[#34]

Paranormal Activity

Posted: 11/15/2009 8:13:53 PM EDT

[#35]

Besides changing the code regularly or locking the deadbolt bar, is there any way to make an older garage door unit more secure? TIA

Posted: 11/15/2009 8:16:13 PM EDT

[#36]

Gremlins.

Posted: 11/15/2009 8:18:32 PM EDT

[#37]

Quoted:
Besides changing the code regularly or locking the deadbolt bar, is there any way to make an older garage door unit more secure? TIA

Unplug it.

ETA:

On newer "rolling code" models you can "reset" the codes, effectively blinding any remotes that are on the current code scheme.

I lost an opener and had to do this.

Then reprogram JUST the remotes you want to use.

This probably won't work on a 20 yo unit?

Posted: 11/15/2009 8:18:38 PM EDT

[#38]

Quoted:
EC-130H Compass Call

Link:
EC-130H

this. My boss used to come home from work to his remote opening gate and his garage door wide open. didn't realize what was happening until he was working in his yard one day and one of the planes flew over. low and behold his garage door opens up. he lives in a direct line with the runway at a local AFB.

Posted: 11/15/2009 8:20:03 PM EDT

[#39]

tag for later reading...

mine does it on occasion, we are 1/4 mile from a small airport, the planes go a few hundred feet over my garage

Posted: 11/15/2009 8:20:18 PM EDT

[#40]

Peoples garage doors used to open up in the Chicago area when AF1 came to town.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9_F2g50WCc

Posted: 11/15/2009 8:23:53 PM EDT

[#41]

justsayin- I always dump the plug when away for a while. I was kind hoping to find a way to blind the coders. Guess I'll buy a new unit...

Posted: 11/15/2009 8:24:39 PM EDT

[#42]

I have heard of kids driving around, trying to open doors. Unless you had some hacked version, I can't see how successful you would be as there are too many frequencies now used.

I have heard that planes have emitted signals that can trip a door opener.

Posted: 11/15/2009 8:34:42 PM EDT

[#43]

Had the same problem, several times. Turns out that male cats were "marking their territory" on the wall-mounted button inside the garage. A few spritzes of WD-40 cleaned up the switch contacts pretty good, and a plastic "splash cover" stapled over the switch prevented it from happening again...

Posted: 11/15/2009 8:48:56 PM EDT

[#44]

Quoted:

Any RF emission on the right frequency = door open....

It doesn't even have to be on the right freq. to activate the system. It can be a radio (ham,cb,etc) with close proximity pushing some significant power, a transmitter with high swr can cause it as well, neighbor on the same power line using high power transmitters... not saying this is the likely scenario but it sounds about right.

Posted: 11/15/2009 8:50:55 PM EDT

[#45]

My button in the garage was sticking and it was causing mine to do that.

Posted: 11/15/2009 9:14:39 PM EDT

[#46]

Bad motherboard. Do a Google search on your model and malfunction and see what turns up.

Posted: 11/15/2009 9:15:55 PM EDT

[#47]

Rodent chewing on a wire from the garage door button switch?

Posted: 11/15/2009 10:15:13 PM EDT

[#48]

Quoted:

Quoted:
Any RF emission on the right frequency = door open....

It doesn't even have to be on the right freq. to activate the system. It can be a radio (ham,cb,etc) with close proximity pushing some significant power, a transmitter with high swr can cause it as well, neighbor on the same power line using high power transmitters... not saying this is the likely scenario but it sounds about right.

Interesting... what about wireless equipment in the house?

Posted: 11/15/2009 10:19:49 PM EDT

[#49]

I used to have a lazer tag gun that would open the garage door and also turn on some tv componets.... Good times, good times.

Posted: 11/15/2009 10:29:42 PM EDT

[#50]

Quoted:

Quoted:

EC-130H Compass Call

Link:

EC-130H

this. My boss used to come home from work to his remote opening gate and his garage door wide open. didn't realize what was happening until he was working in his yard one day and one of the planes flew over. low and behold his garage door opens up. he lives in a direct line with the runway at a local AFB.

When a Hercules flies over, I've got bigger concerns than my garage door coming open!

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - What would cause my garage door to open on its own? (Page 1 of 2)

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