Electrified Garage door

<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:f20c11a1-1f9a-4fd2-9dea-83c02e35b1b7@2g2000hsn.googlegroups.com...
> Help! My garage door has become electrified. Touching the door is just
> like touching a live wire. I have no idea how this is even possible,
> especially considering the opener still works. The garage door opener
> plugs into an outlet on the cieling of the garage. I have tried
> replacing the outlet but the problem persists. As soon as I turn the
> breaker on and plug the opener into the outlet, the whole door
> immediately becomes hot, just like a live wire.
>
> I'm at a complete loss here and would appreciate anybody that can
> suggest fixes or how this is even possible. Obviously I will call an
> electrician if it comes to that, but I am a bit of a handy man and
> would like to fix it myself if possible. I've just never encountered
> anything as seemingly impossible as this.
>
> Thanks.

Is the outlet ground wire really grounded and does the opener have a 3 wire
plug ?

I would suspect the opener has a short to the case and the AC ground has
opened somewhere or maybe not even connected.

It is probably not a job for an electrician, but just change out the opener.
The opener could probably be fixed but it would probably cost more than you
could replace it for.
If you open the case of the door opener you may find a capacitor or surge
supressor from the AC wire to the case of the opener has shorted out.

"Ralph Mowery" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:76SdnUSrZoMwM-fVnZ2dnUVZ_i2dnZ2d@earthlink.com...
>
> <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:f20c11a1-1f9a-4fd2-9dea-83c02e35b1b7@2g2000hsn.googlegroups.com...
>> Help! My garage door has become electrified. Touching the door is just
>> like touching a live wire. I have no idea how this is even possible,
>> especially considering the opener still works. The garage door opener
>> plugs into an outlet on the cieling of the garage. I have tried
>> replacing the outlet but the problem persists. As soon as I turn the
>> breaker on and plug the opener into the outlet, the whole door
>> immediately becomes hot, just like a live wire.
>>
>> I'm at a complete loss here and would appreciate anybody that can
>> suggest fixes or how this is even possible. Obviously I will call an
>> electrician if it comes to that, but I am a bit of a handy man and
>> would like to fix it myself if possible. I've just never encountered
>> anything as seemingly impossible as this.
>>
>> Thanks.
>
> Is the outlet ground wire really grounded and does the opener have a 3
> wire plug ?
>
> I would suspect the opener has a short to the case and the AC ground has
> opened somewhere or maybe not even connected.
>
> It is probably not a job for an electrician, but just change out the
> opener. The opener could probably be fixed but it would probably cost
> more than you could replace it for.
> If you open the case of the door opener you may find a capacitor or surge
> supressor from the AC wire to the case of the opener has shorted out.


Ralph has some good suggestions. If the problem goes away when the opener
is unplugged I think you have it narrowed down. Check to see if the garage
door opener electrical receptacle is really grounded. You may need to open
the receptacle and all others on that circuit to check the wiring.

It is possible if the electrical receptacle is not grounded and the garage
door develops an internal short to the metal housing. This could happen as
the cord enters the housing or due to a failure of an internal component.
If the grounding was good the circuit breaker should trip. Is the ground
pin still on the plug to the garage door opener?

Of course if the short was to the neutral it would not trip the circuit
breaker, but the metal case could still be carrying current.

On Jul 13, 10:08 pm, "John Grabowski" <[email protected]> wrote:
> "Ralph Mowery" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>
> news:76SdnUSrZoMwM-fVnZ2dnUVZ_i2dnZ2d@earthlink.com...
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > <[email protected]> wrote in message
> >news:f20c11a1-1f9a-4fd2-9dea-83c02e35b1b7@2g2000hsn.googlegroups.com...
> >> Help! My garage door has become electrified. Touching the door is just
> >> like touching a live wire. I have no idea how this is even possible,
> >> especially considering the opener still works. The garage door opener
> >> plugs into an outlet on the cieling of the garage. I have tried
> >> replacing the outlet but the problem persists. As soon as I turn the
> >> breaker on and plug the opener into the outlet, the whole door
> >> immediately becomes hot, just like a live wire.
>
> >> I'm at a complete loss here and would appreciate anybody that can
> >> suggest fixes or how this is even possible. Obviously I will call an
> >> electrician if it comes to that, but I am a bit of a handy man and
> >> would like to fix it myself if possible. I've just never encountered
> >> anything as seemingly impossible as this.
>
> >> Thanks.
>
> > Is the outlet ground wire really grounded and does the opener have a 3
> > wire plug ?
>
> > I would suspect the opener has a short to the case and the AC ground has
> > opened somewhere or maybe not even connected.
>
> > It is probably not a job for an electrician, but just change out the
> > opener. The opener could probably be fixed but it would probably cost
> > more than you could replace it for.
> > If you open the case of the door opener you may find a capacitor or surge
> > supressor from the AC wire to the case of the opener has shorted out.
>
> Ralph has some good suggestions.  If the problem goes away when the opener
> is unplugged I think you have it narrowed down.  Check to see if the garage
> door opener electrical receptacle is really grounded.  You may need to open
> the receptacle and all others on that circuit to check the wiring.
>
> It is possible if the electrical receptacle is not grounded and the garage
> door develops an internal short to the metal housing.  This could happen as
> the cord enters the housing or due to a failure of an internal component.
> If the grounding was good the circuit breaker should trip.  Is the ground
> pin still on the plug to the garage door opener?
>
> Of course if the short was to the neutral it would not trip the circuit
> breaker, but the metal case could still be carrying current.- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Thanks for the suggestions so far guys. The ground wire is connected
in the outlet and I have an outlet tester. When I plug the tester in
the response code says it is wired correctly, so I am assuming my
tester is correct. However, if the ground is not correct in the
outlet, is there a way to ground the outlet, after all, it is in the
ceiling and there are not many metal thigns to ground to in the
ceiling.
Also, I'm pretty sure it isn't the opener because I used a (really
long) extension cord to plug it into an outlet in the kitchen. When I
do that the opener works fine and the door is not hot. The door only
gets hot when the opener is plugged into the outlet in the cieling or
one other outlet in the garage, which is on the same circuit.
If the whole circuit has a bad ground, how can I go about fixing that?

Thanks again.

On Sun, 13 Jul 2008 19:55:59 -0700 (PDT), [email protected] wrote:

>
>Thanks for the suggestions so far guys. The ground wire is connected
>in the outlet and I have an outlet tester. When I plug the tester in
>the response code says it is wired correctly, so I am assuming my
>tester is correct. However, if the ground is not correct in the
>outlet, is there a way to ground the outlet, after all, it is in the
>ceiling and there are not many metal thigns to ground to in the
>ceiling.

I thought those 3 led things worked pretty well, but I would test the
ground with an ohmeter, a volt-ohmmeter or multi-meter, from the screw
holding on the cover plate, with a long wire to screw in the cover
plate on that outlet in the kitchen. After I tested that and got
low resistance (although there might be 5 or 10 ohms while pressing
the probles firmly against the metal) I would then stick the probe in
the round hole in the receptacle, the third prong hole, and measure
that resistance to the center screw of teh same receptacle. The
resistance should be low, close to zero.

It's always a good idea to measure for voltage before measuring for
resistance, because if by some mistake of the wiring or your touching
things, there is voltage, you may burn out part of your meter.

Maybe your whole garage isn't grounded? Do you have any other
electic things in the garage, a circuit breaker box, a light that's
not part of the door opener.

>Also, I'm pretty sure it isn't the opener because I used a (really
>long) extension cord to plug it into an outlet in the kitchen. When I
>do that the opener works fine and the door is not hot. The door only
>gets hot when the opener is plugged into the outlet in the cieling or
>one other outlet in the garage, which is on the same circuit.
>If the whole circuit has a bad ground, how can I go about fixing that?
>
>Thanks again.