Garage door opener - motor capacitor bad?
I have an older Automatic Doorman Model 455 garage door opener with a 1/3 HP motor. It was unknowingly caught on an object for about 1/2 hour; when discovered, motor was hot humming. Allowed 2 days for thermal protector to re-set. Motor now hums, but won't run until I give it a manual start by turning the drive pulley. Then it works fine, up or down, for that one time. I'm thinking that it might be the starting motor capacitor, which the manual lists as a possible cause. Since I have a second identical opener that works fine, I want to exchange the capacitors to see if that's the problem. My question is, do I have to discharge the capacitors (220VAC) before I handle them? I've read that certain capacitors are dangerous if not discharged. (A couple of repair books talk about discharging with a 20K ohm resistor - hard to find; local Radio Shack has nothing even close). Thanks for any help. CWA More than likely it is the capacitor, If you want to try one from the other opener, you should discharge it first, I usually use a well insulated screw driver accrost the terminals. the right way to do it is with a resistor as you stated. I would just go and buy a new capacitor, they don't cost much, probably under twenty bucks. Doorman, Thanks for the advice. I discharged both old capacitors per your instructions; neither had any electric charge left in them. Problem was in fact the one capacitor, as you had suspected; when I replaced the suspect one with the one from the working garage door opener, the opener worked fine. No luck finding an identical replacement at the local electric supply houses or home centers; I found the exact match online at Drillspot.com. They had it to me the next day, total cost $14.62, which included standard shipping. Put it in, and the garage door opener works fine. Good deal since it's bitter cold. Thanks for your help CWA911 Glad I could help a fellow New Yorker, Ever now and then I get one right I have the same problem with my Automatic Doorman (455). However I can not find a readable part number for the capacitor . Does anyone know the part number ? Thank You, Ed I have the same problem, do you have the part number for the capacitor? Thanks in advance. Dan In residential operators the capacitor discharges through the motor as soon as it turns off. You should be able to find a replacement from the numbers on the cap. Probably in the 50mfd range at 220vac. You can vary the MFD by 10 percent and not notice a problem. With the voltage rating you can always go up, but never down. So if you have a 220vac cap. you can replace it with a 330vac no problem though it may be larger and have to be mounted different.
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