Menifee Garage Door & Opener Repair

02/11/2025

I'm confused as to why I don't see any reviews for the last two years. Is it because Facebook has made my site invisible? Somebody please leave me a review. A real review and include the last four digits of your phone number or five digits from your street address so I can verify it is an actual customer. Thanks.

08/25/2022

I rarely log on. The last time, a few years ago, I was hoping to make it a daily or weekly habit. However, it did not work out as I hoped. Something about FB doesn't agree with me. They want me to put in my personal pronouns, my sexual preferences, if I'm a minority of some sort, my views on religion and politics, etc. I'm sure you are all aware of the questions. Maybe if I logged on more I'd get past this shock.

Anyways, I'm still me. I still quickly get to the customers. I still have not had an unhappy customer. Still have the best springs on the market but the prices have indeed gone up. Call me when you want to get things done. I explain your options, show you how to do the work and why it is done the way I'm doing it. Just plain honest service I think would make even Mike Rowe from the show Dirty Jobs happy.

02/15/2018

In the last seven days I've had customers that have called me after having bad experiences with large franchises. These companies both advertise as "local" and have thousands of "5-star" reviews. The companies in question are http://precisiondoor.net/ and https://gdmedics.com/. It becomes obvious their tens of thousands of 5-star reviews are not local but from across the country over many years. And tabulated by them. If instead, you look at Yelp, Google, or Facebook for their local reviews the story changes dramatically. See https://www.yelp.com/biz/precision-door-service-riverside-2?osq=precision+garage+doors and https://www.yelp.com/biz/garage-door-medics-temecula-murrieta-murrieta?sort_by=date_desc and you'll see a much different story. GDM has only 55 reviews and ten in 2018 so far with 3 of those (3/10ths) being "1-star" reviews. PGD has only 64 reviews and three of which are from 2018. Two of those three reviews (2/3rds) are "1-star" reviews. Another franchise, based in San Diego, was rated "the worst garage door company in the nation" but moved their headquarters. One of their managers fessed up to what they were doing. You can read up on this employees perspective at https://www.dallasnews.com/news/watchdog/2015/12/19/watchdog-carrollton-based-garage-door-company-s-ex-manager-fesses-up.
The interesting part of the article is what is considered "fair prices" for many of the jobs a garage door company does. (At the end of the article.) So you don't get ripped off by these franchises. My prices are all substantially lower than what is considered acceptable and fair.

You might also want to check out my google, facebook, and yelp ratings. I compile them all to my website but also supply a link from each review to where the review was left so you can verify I'm not making up anything. I don't leave any reviews out to make me look better. See https://mgdor.com/reviews

11/14/2017

How Do You Open A Garage Door With A Broken Spring?

This is a question on quora: How Do You Open A Garage Door With A Broken Spring? My take on it is naturally a bit different than the five answers there.

What are you dealing with?

I'm assuming it is a normal torsion spring system. Not a wood flipper door with P728 springs and hinges on the side or an old extension style spring system with pulleys and rollers up high on the sides. Have you got a one car garage or a two car garage? If it is a two car garage does it have one spring or two springs? Do you have an opener attached to the door? Is the door metal with no insulation and has places to grab the door? Does it have a metal back, weigh a ton, and has nothing to grab but the hinges? The answers vary based on what you have.

Two car garage with both, all of the, springs broken.

It is better not to lift the door unless you have three or more people. Reason being the cables are likely to get stuck. When the cables get stuck and you are by yourself, or have only one other person to help, then it is likely the door is going to go off track. The windows may break. The door sections may bend. The door may come totally off and hit your vehicle. If you have two people that can hold the door comfortably for minutes while a third or fourth person goes side-to-side minding the cables then it is possible to open the door safely. And do not use the opener to help lift the door in this scenario. (The opener can make things go from bad to extremely bad very quickly.) Instead call a garage door company and have it fixed so nothing gets damaged.

Two car garage with one spring still working

If one of the springs are still functional, and the cables are still properly wrapped around the drums, then you can open the door. Half the weight of the door, about 100 to 150 pounds, will need to be supplied by you. Or you can grab the door with one hand and then push the wireless transmitter with the other and help the door up. Yes it will be very heavy but a healthy strong person can do it this way. Remember you may be lifting close to 150 pounds and you may get winded but it can be done.

One car garage door with no insulation

You can open the door without the opener. Actually always avoid using the opener on a single car garage door. At most the door might weigh 100 pounds. You may have to hold the door and untangle the cables at the same time. I'm strong enough to easily do this. However many people aren't.

One car garage door with insulation

This is a bit sketchy. Use two people for this job. Don't use the opener. Very little that can go bad but with an insulated door it is a bit heavier and harder to hold on to.

Conclusion

If the cables are loose it's best not to attempt to lift the door and certainly don't use the garage door opener! If you have a light non insulated two car garage door and only one of the two springs are broken then it is possible to lift the door. You can in this case even use the opener to help. Best though to call a professional before you get your neighbors to help. Most of the serious door damage, broken windows, door falling down, is due to too many neighbors pushing at the same time. Broken torsion springs need a professional to replace them. And if you hire the right professional you'll get better springs and everything checked and serviced at a good price. See my post about picking a service company.

08/05/2017

My Opener Is Not Working From The Street Any Longer.

It is a simple matter to determine why your opener is no longer working from the street. Follow these steps to determine the problem.
1) Replace your battery.
2) It could be the transmitter itself that has gone bad.
3) Or the receiver in the openers motor head is going bad.
4) Try Extending The Antennae.
5) Use an External Receiver and transmitter that work with it.
6) Interference In The Extreme!

Step 1, Is it your battery?

When you buy batteries at Sun City Hardware they will install them for free in your transmitters. The people working there are seniors from the community and enjoy helping. Furthermore since they do this all the time their batteries are fresh. If you are new to the area Sun City Hardware is on Bradley just south of McCall Blvd. With the new battery in your transmitter can you work the door from the street? If not continue to Step 2.

Step 2, If you are still having problems try another transmitter.

If the second transmitter works from the street then toss your first transmitter. They are not meant to be repaired. Buy a second one. I recommend the Liftmaster 375UT. It is a universal and works with nearly all openers. Not all though. It does not work with Hörmann, Marantec, Wayne-Daltons, and most openers from before the 80s. It does work on 99% of the openers being sold locally. If the second transmitter doesn't work then proceed to step 3.

Step 3, Replace The Receiver Board.

On some openers the receiver is on a separate board. You can replace the board and then test. Some openers the receiver is not separate. So skip this test. If the board does not fix the problem then move to the next step.

Step 4, Try Extending The Antennae.

Usually the antennae consists of a small wire coming out of the motor head. Crimp both ends of some bell wire to the antennae. (Bell wire is what is used to connect the sensors and wall button to the motor head.) Then extend the bell wire to the header and split it like an old fashioned T-Antennae found on TVs. Staple the T to the header. Now test your transmitter from the street. This usually works but if not proceed to the last step.

Step 5, Replace the Receiver and Transmitters.

Probably your existing transmitters are using a frequency between 380 and 400 MHz. See this link for a description of the problem. To get around the interference you need to attach a new external receiver to the opener and also use new transmitters. If you bought the Liftmaster 375UT you don't have to buy a new transmitter. That usually fixes the problem in all but the worst cases.

Step 6, Interference In The Extreme

If the above steps did not work you are experiencing extreme interference. This doesn't happen much around here any longer. It used to happen almost on a monthly basis while Verizon was rolling out their FiOS boxes. They were not properly shielded and leaked RF all over blocking the signals from the car transmitters. Verizon would always deny this. They would say they just had light signals coming in and no electronics. However since the interference started when their box was installed and would vanish if you removed the power and battery it was easy to prove. So if you get to this step look around for anything electronic that has changed in the last week. You might have to also ask your neighbors. If you can't identify the problem then you need to call somebody who knows how to use a product like the "Linear RF Field Tester". This one only helps if you are using Linear products on 318MHz. If you are using some other products then you'll need to buy something similar. Or if you are an Amateur Radio Operator make it a fun test project for the club. Their website is way out of date so call to find when and where they meet each month.

You can find my original post on my website here: https://mgdor.com/my-opener-is-not-working-from-the-street

As the name implies we work on garage doors and openers primarily in Menifee to avoid travel. Before we start we give an estimate. Usually over the phone. If we can not fix the problem then we charge nothing. Not even for gas.