daugen
Epic Contributor
I went out to grab a light rake to cover some bulbs that were already coming up
and when I pushed on the garage door opener
nothing
here we go again
nothing, with a six month old backup battery
the gfi tripped likely due to the storm and that takes down the garage door.
which is why one has a backup battery. Or thinks one has.
apparently when the rain came down, more than several inches, floor in garage floods.
unfortunately there was a surge strip down there.
I usually try to keep them elevated for just this reason.
gfi had tripped, no juice.
started disconnecting things to determine what was unhappy and when I picked up the
small surge strip and water poured out of it, well I don't need to be an EE to figure this out.
That strip went in the trash, had a spare, hung that high up.
the seriously difficult part of this is because the garage has no entry door. Just the big door.
So if the garage door doesn't go up, I have to climb through a window on the side of the garage.
that takes some contortions but I've now done this four times. I will hurt myself at some point
squeezing in that window and flopping down on a plastic folding table. each time I survive I am thankful....
I really need to rewire the garage door opener to a circuit not controlled by that gfi.
the oem battery backup is almost useless, battery drains down.
I have a spare, that's a to do. Would be nice to wire a big AGM battery into that circuit, like an old car battery.
thanks for kind words Scaredy.
then after that extended interruption, I undid two long tangled extension cords, 10G long yellow cords that somehow had
entwined in an advanced mating maneuver hard to undo. This time I redid them with nice velco ties.
100 footer too heavy for me to hold up while rolling up, so I did it in three sections, using a large Hold-it velcro tie.
those things sure come in handy.
but once it was all undone, I ran the long cord out to the generator and put the smart charger on the tiny battery in it.
It turned green in under a minute. It doesn't charge when the motor runs, dumb design. So they give you a separate charger to plug into
side of gen. I don't even use that and go direct to the battery. At least it's 12V and not something proprietary.
and when I pushed on the garage door opener
nothing
here we go again
nothing, with a six month old backup battery
the gfi tripped likely due to the storm and that takes down the garage door.
which is why one has a backup battery. Or thinks one has.
apparently when the rain came down, more than several inches, floor in garage floods.
unfortunately there was a surge strip down there.
I usually try to keep them elevated for just this reason.
gfi had tripped, no juice.
started disconnecting things to determine what was unhappy and when I picked up the
small surge strip and water poured out of it, well I don't need to be an EE to figure this out.
That strip went in the trash, had a spare, hung that high up.
the seriously difficult part of this is because the garage has no entry door. Just the big door.
So if the garage door doesn't go up, I have to climb through a window on the side of the garage.
that takes some contortions but I've now done this four times. I will hurt myself at some point
squeezing in that window and flopping down on a plastic folding table. each time I survive I am thankful....
I really need to rewire the garage door opener to a circuit not controlled by that gfi.
the oem battery backup is almost useless, battery drains down.
I have a spare, that's a to do. Would be nice to wire a big AGM battery into that circuit, like an old car battery.
thanks for kind words Scaredy.
then after that extended interruption, I undid two long tangled extension cords, 10G long yellow cords that somehow had
entwined in an advanced mating maneuver hard to undo. This time I redid them with nice velco ties.
100 footer too heavy for me to hold up while rolling up, so I did it in three sections, using a large Hold-it velcro tie.
those things sure come in handy.
but once it was all undone, I ran the long cord out to the generator and put the smart charger on the tiny battery in it.
It turned green in under a minute. It doesn't charge when the motor runs, dumb design. So they give you a separate charger to plug into
side of gen. I don't even use that and go direct to the battery. At least it's 12V and not something proprietary.
