[tvisnaw]

I have a 1/2 HP Craftsman garage door. When it is cold out, the door will not go down using the remote. I have to hold the button in the garage until the door is all the way down. It is an older opener and does not have the sensors (since most people assume that is my problem).

[PS Staff - Sheila]

If your remote is kept in the car and it is cold the battery may not be stronge enough to send the signal to the opener.

Check the voltage of the battery when it is cold it should be 9 volts.

[tvisnaw]

Sheila,

My remote is kept in the house. Plus, if I just press the button in the garage it will go maybe a half inch and then stop. I have to keep holding that button to get the door to go all the way down. I unhooked the door from the opener to see if there was tension on the track, but it still wouldn't work. It did this last winter to me also and when spring came around it worked fine again.

[wreker]

The same thing happened to me today.
I noticed that the green light on one of the "eyes" at the bottom of the door was not on. the green light was lit on the opposite side.

The door worked fine off the opener track. No binding or anything.

So I presume that the door thinks something is in the way because the beam between the 2 eyes is "broken" and wont close for safety.

So perhaps I need a new eye or a warmer day.

Temp is about 10 degrees Fahrenheit.

Or someone banged one of the eyes and it is out of alignment.
Remedy there would be to bend it back into alignment.

[AmpDraw]

tvisnaw, no sensors and does the same when the door is detached then check the sensitivity setting on the door opener. There will be two white plastic looking screws to adjust this with an arrow going around each one (one is for up travel sensitivity the other for down). Try increasing these, cold weather will make this happen, its normal if the door opener was properly adjusted during warm weather. Don't over adjust these, they are there to protect your door and any thing that ever may get in its way while going up or down. Once adjusted the way I like to test them to make sure they are still safe is to run the door down, at half way on the way down grab the bottom of the door, with a little force you should be able to cause the door to reverse and go back up. If you feel like you are fighting it to get it to reverse its over adjusted, back if off some. Under adjusted and you have this problem.

If this happened to you all the time then I'd say the brass bushings (bearings) and the RPM sensor on this opener are bad and need replaced. SInce it only happenes in cold weather though, it just needs to be adjusted.

wreker,
You have a completely different problem, it has nothing to do with cold weather. You just need to adjust your "eyes", bend the brackets on one or the other in and out till both green LEDs are on solid (one will always be on solid, this is the one sending the beam) the other one will be out completely when totaly misaligned, or blinking when close.

If moving around doesn't fix it you aren't trying hard enough. It's possible something could be wrong with the wiring to the side thats out, not likely, but possible. This is easy to test, take the eye off the side that is always on now and plug it into that other side. If it lights over there then its an alignment problem, if it doesn't light on that side your problem is somewhere in that wire, most likely under one of the staples or up at the opener where they connect. My money is on the alignment problem though. As far as these sensors needing to be replaced, not very likely at all.