Paging the Liftmaster 8500 garage door owners...

We had a Liftmaster 8500 installed about 2 years back and it worked splendidly for the first 12-18 months. Ever since then, it's become extremely temperature sensitive - it works really well with an outside temperature of 69-71 and basically refuses to close otherwise. OK, slight exaggeration on the temperature range but I'd be very surprised if it was more than +/-5 degrees.

Outside this temperature range, it can take anything between five and fifteen attempts to close the door. I called the authorised installer (only company in this area that installs Liftmasters) and they sent someone out as it "needed a service". Unfortunately I wasn't there, and the service person a) asked my wife for the manual (really?) and then mansplained to her that apparently we're just too stupid to drive a garage door opener and "just need to hold down the button longer to close it". Otherwise, the only difference the service made was to the cash levels in our wallet.

I'm about to give the installer another call to send someone out, explaining reasonably calmly and hopefully without too many swear words that I wasn't happy with the service received the last time and that I want someone out when I'm here. And they either get the damn thing working OK (or at least diagnose the problem *properly*), or they can remove it and I don't ever want to see it again.

I'm also of a mind to call the manufacturer and see if they have any customer support that might be able to help.

Anybody else have this issue with one of these? I love the thing when it's working but it's getting to the point where my wife is anxious about the garage door closing.

And that should obviously read "Liftmaster 8500 garage door opener owners"...

If one of the mods could kindly correct the thread title, I'd appreciate it.

I've had the same issue. I was focusing on cable tension and balance, but I don't think that is the issue. And when I was setting it up, I was really fussy about opening and closing height, but that may have been a mistake.

Look in your manual. I think that the page after closing height talks about closing force. That's what you need to adjust. When the door closes and gets to the floor, let it strain a little, just a second or so. That should take care of the problem. These things seem to be overly sensitive to temperature changes.

I've thought about adding a sleeve to the arm on the cable tension switch to add a little fake tension, but I haven't figured out the best way to do that and make it last.

Thanks Woody, I'll adjust it a little and see if it makes any difference. In our case the door gets lowered until the bottom panel hits the transistion point from the arched part of the channel to the straight down channel. So an issue with closing force is very likely.

I had a similar issue with a different make/model opener and simply bumping up the closing force slightly has resolved it.  I'm surprised the service tech couldn't handle that though...

Mine (not same brand as yours) is persnickety about the cold as well. Adjusting the force fixed the problem.

Yeah, I was a little surprised that the service tech didn't figure this out either.

It's actually not only during cold weather, it also has problems when it's too hot...

That the jackshaft opener?  If so, mine is fine with temperature but sometimes refuses to open using the Homelink button in my Cayenne.  Always responds to the wall button, will always close with the Homelink button.  My other two "regular" Liftmaster openers (traditional) work perfectly at all times...

BoxheadCougarTim said:

Thanks Woody, I'll adjust it a little and see if it makes any difference. In our case the door gets lowered until the bottom panel hits the transistion point from the arched part of the channel to the straight down channel. So an issue with closing force is very likely.

That is exactly what was going on here too. In an emergency, you can just add a tiny bit of downward pressure by hand to get the door to close.

In reply to docwyte :

Yes, it's the jackshaft opener. In our case, it doesn't matter if the wall button or any of the remotes is used.

FWIW, my 2-year-old 8500 has never had any issues, temperature-related or otherwise.

Mine is working fine, too, but it's 2 years old as well. 

Shop furnace set to 5°C minimum; Canadian winters.

Well, this is both embarrassing and infuriating...

It looks like the guy who "serviced" the garage door earlier in the didn't even bother to lube the springs, bearings and rollers. I guess you can see where this is going?

Yeah, I fixed the issue for now, with a $7 can of garage door synthetic lube, and the only reason it cost money at all was that I had used up my can of spray grease recently. Let's see if it stays that way for the next few days.

The garage isn't heated, but usually it keeps just above freezing thanks to the insulated door panels and the residual warmth from the cars.

You're not supposed to grease the rollers in the tracks, that's supposed to stay dry. I have made that mistake though.

Learn everything you ever need to know about garage doors here: DDM Garage Doors

I have two of these and the only problem I have had was just after they were installed (new house, new construction).  One of the remotes didn't work.  The guy they sent was clueless as to this type of opener.  He thought a new remote would fix it and was trying to pair the new remote and absolutely could not get it right.  Another installer came by and just installed new batteries in the original remote and it all worked fine and has done so for 3.5 years.  

The guy who fixed it told me that the Liftmaster 8500 isn't that difficult it was just a completely different.  They had just finished the install about two weeks prior to my call.  I did ask him why they didn't check the remotes on a new install.  He at least owned it and said they clearly missed it.

I'm very hesitant to declare victory on this, but it looks like we finally made some progress.

The door started playing up again a couple of months after me lubricating it and we finally got around getting a garage door company out that, shall we say, is a little more competent than the bunch that installed the opener. The guy who came out is anything but a fan of this type of opener (and apparently the company normally doesn't work on these, which they forgot to tell me), but he set about diagnosing the problem as best as he could.

He noticed pretty quickly that one of the tracks wasn't aligned right (too far in towards the door in one place) and once he corrected that, it became obvious that the door was slightly crooked. After leveling out the door we now appear to have one that goes up and down on the first try. Let's hope is stays that way.

Right now my outside keypad is acting up.  Which is great when you use that to get in/out of the house to walk the dog and you didn't bring your house keys...

I am at 3 years daily (several times daily) use on my 8500 in Wisconsin and it has been the bees knees.  Sounds like you may have a lemon or some underlieing installation issues.

On My 8500W (for Wireless):

• had to replace motherboard barely over 1 year old
• Also does not work with Homelink in 2007 BMW. 
• and the track-mounted deadbolt E36 M3 the bed last week, still less than 2 years old.
   

Liftmaster can go to the Hennessy Honda Buffet.

Update!  7 years later and the circuit board on my liftmaster 8500 fried.  Garage door is now manually operated for another 10-14 days while I wait for a new board to get delivered and installed. 

I lost a motherboard after eight years on my most often used door. The technician said that they are rated for 10,000 cycles. Maybe I was there. 

I think a replacement motherboard was going to be about $300 installed. I told them to hold off. 

I bought a new 8500 off Amazon and installed it myself. That got me a whole new system, including the wall mounted control panel and another remote. I feel that if I get another eight years out of it I will be satisfied. I can’t find a better option.  

Are these failing motherboards in the wall controller (888LM) or the actual opener?

Liftmaster has extended the warranty for those controllers: "We have resolved the loss of function affecting some of our LiftMaster 888LM Control Panels. These units were packed in with garage door opener models 8500 and 8500C, and/or sold as an accessory, such as MYQPCK.

While the incidents of improperly functioning units are low, we are extending the warranty for affected customers until September 2023.

For any customer who wishes to receive a replacement Control Panel for free, please use the following link to complete the form"

Filling out this form will get you a free replacement wall controller.

I think the 8500W and 8900W are similar units with different wall controllers taht are supposed to be less problematic.

In reply to STM317 :

I had two wall controllers fail. One was replaced under warranty.  The motherboard is inside the opener though. And getting an extra wall controller was one of the things that convinced me to order a whole new opener kit. 

I almost wish I didn’t like these things so much, or at least that someone else made something similar. 

I disconnected my garage door opener when it started acting up and just open/close it myself. 

Not much trouble really since the springs do most of the work.    Of course mine came with the house and is probably over 20 years old...