Hi, Wayne here with Sears PartsDirect. Today
we're going to talk about what to do when your wall control doesn't work on your garage
door opener. First, check the LED light or electronic display on the wall control. If
the light or display is off, check the garage door opener motor unit for power. Press the
Learn button on the motor unit and see if the light on the motor unit comes on. If the
motor unit doesn’t have power, reset the house circuit breaker for the garage door
opener electrical outlet. If that doesn’t work, you can test the outlet with a lamp
or small appliance. You’ll need an electrician to repair a bad electrical outlet. If the
electrical outlet works and you’ve ruled out all other power issues, but the motor
unit won't power up, then you’ll need to replace the logic board. Here’s a link to
a video that shows you how. Now, if the motor unit has power but the wall control unit is
dead, then you’ll need to check the wiring between those two components.
First, make
sure that the wall control wires securely connect to the motor unit. The white wire
connects to the white terminal and the white wire with the red stripe connects to the red
terminal. Then, check the wires connected to the wall control. Reconnect any loose wires
that you find. If you can see the path of wires between the motor unit and wall control,
take a look for any visible damage. Repair any damage that you might find. Here’s a
link for some replacement wiring. If you don't find any wiring problems check the LED light
on the motor unit for a diagnostic code. Three flashes on this older chain drive motor unit
indicate a wall control wiring failure or a defective wall control.
If you have a belt
drive or a newer chain drive garage door opener, the up-arrow flashes once before 3 down-arrow
flashes to indicate the same problem. Even if you didn’t find a wiring failure before,
you still might have damage in a hard-to-spot location. Let’s run a few more checks. The
following test will work on this particular type of wall control with a single LED light.
If you have one of these types, click here to skip to the next section. To test this
wall control, remove it from the wall and disconnect the wires from the back. Touch
the bare ends of the wall control wire together to see if the garage door opener moves.
Touching
these wires together simulates pushing the activation button on the wall control. This
will tell us whether we have a break in the wires between the wall control and the motor
unit. If the door moves, then you know that the wiring is okay because the motor unit
sensed the wiring connection. That means that the problem lies with the wall control and
you’ll need to replace it. Here’s a link to a video that will show you how. Now, if
the door didn't move when you touched the bare ends of the wall control wires together,
then you likely still have a wiring problem. To confirm, we’ll use a jumper wire to bypass
the existing wall control wires.
Disconnect the wires from the motor unit. Cut a 3-inch
strand of insulated wire to use as a jumper wire. Strip 1/2-inch of insulation off each
end of the jumper wire. Insert the jumper wire into the wall control terminals on the
motor unit to see if the garage door moves. We know there’s no break in this wire. If
the garage door works with the jumper wire, then you know there’s a break somewhere
in the wall control wiring.
Replace the wires because they're definitely defective. Now,
if the jumper wire didn’t work for you, then you’ve ruled out everything but the
Logic board. It will need to be replaced. Now we'll show you how to test these other
types of wall controls. You'll need a short piece of 2-strand test wire to connect the
wall unit directly to the motor unit, bypassing the existing wall control wires. Pull the
wall control off the wall and disconnect the wires from the back.
Then, disconnect the
wall control wires from the motor unit. Strip 1/2-inch of insulation from the ends of each
strand of the test wire. Use the 2-strand wire to connect the red and white terminals
on the wall control to the corresponding terminals on the motor unit, white/red to red and white
to white. If the wall control lights up and works using the test wire, then you know that
the wall control is okay. Replace the existing wiring between the motor unit and the wall
control. You’ve confirmed that it's defective. If the wall control doesn't light up and work
properly, then the wall control or the logic board in the garage door opener is defective.
Diagnosing this type of wall control is more complicated than the single LED type. To know
for sure what the problem is, you may want to have a service technician check the garage
door opener.
I hope that this video helped you out. You can find links to the parts we
talked about in the video description. Be sure to check out our other videos here on
the Sears PartsDirect YouTube channel. Subscribe and I’ll let you know when we post new ones..
