 |
| Wall button for garage door opener |
Our researchers occasionally come across content that just plain leaves them scratching their heads. When that happens, they'll usually refer the post to another team member for clarification and keep going until someone looks at it and either says, "That's just plain bull," or confirms its validity (usually the former). That's what happened when someone ran across "
Troubleshooting a Garage Door Opener Wall Button," compiled by
Darla Ferrara and posted to eHow.com. Leaf Group's since slipped it into the Hunker.com pile in their niche sites.
The reason our staffer was nonplussed by Ferrara's post was that it simply didn't make sense: everyone in our shop assumed that in the world of garage-door openers, a "
wall button" refers to the button mounted on the wall inside the garage. Someone thought it could be a keyless entry keypad. To Darla, however, it's a "
wall console unit," a term she appears to have plucked from the installation instructions for a high-end Genie® model. That's probably why she opened her post with the claim that,
"A wall console unit for a garage door opener is not a complicated device, so it's fairly simple to troubleshoot when something seems to go wrong. Depending on the model, most work by connecting two to four wires onto terminals, mounting the device on the wall and then plugging the unit into an electrical outlet."
Well, that's not how those wall buttons work, that's how you install one... but we digress. Ferrara goes on to explain what she thinks is the troubleshooting process:
- Check to see if the opener is in "vacation" mode
- Check to see if the opener is getting power
- Look at the wires for the terminal: are they tight? is the red wire on the red terminal?
- Wait 30 minutes and try the button again: maybe the overload circuit was activated.
|
|
|
In other words, Darla has zero idea that she's writing about, and she's pretty unclear on the concept of "troubleshooting" as well. With the possible exception of number 3, her suggestions are pretty much useless. "Troubleshooting" these simple switches means testing the continuity of the wiring, testing whether the switch is functional at all, and checking for corroded connections at both the opener and the wall. The other three tests are all moot since even the dumbest driver can easily see whether the opener works because he or she has a remote in hand!
Well, maybe not the dumbest driver! People like our
Dumbass of the Day are probably busy planning out what bogus how-to advice to write up for her next poorly researched and badly worded post at a content farm like Hunker.
copyright © 2017-2022 scmrak
DDIY - HOME REPAIR
No comments:
Post a Comment