Pete's Log: Garage Door Opener Woes
Entry #2245, (Homeownership)(posted when I was 44 years old.)
So I was doing pretty well with the garage door opener installation today. I got to the point seen in this illustration from the instructions:
With the garage door opener resting on a ladder, I realized it seemed a bit far from the outlet we had installed to power the opener. So I held it up to its approximate mounted position and reached the cord over towards the outlet and found that it indeed came up about 3 inches short.
The wise thing at this point would have been to continue mounting the opener and then worrying about powering it. But instead I became focused on the outlet issue. So I went out and bought additional conduit and moved the junction box with the outlets closer to where the garage door opener would be mounted and rewired everything.
Once done, I tested everything was working properly and found myself satisfied with my work, save one little aesthetic detail.
Up until that point, I had mostly been using a second ladder, since the garage door opener was still sitting on top of the first. But for reasons that elude me, at this point I decided to try to move the ladder with the garage door opener on it. And instantly I realized my mistake. So I had that classic experience of watching something I didn't want to happen happen in slow motion. The garage door opener did not handle the fall well.
This feels like a very Pete thing to have happen.
I'm happy with my electrical work, though.