Garage door opener

Do not mess with a garage door opener if you have a pacemaker. Here is the story. 

On January 5, I had a garage door tech repair the railings and tightened the springs. After working the door four or five times, it quit. He checked the parts and said it was the capacitor. He replaced it. Worked fine. He told me that if the the door stop again, I would need a new motor. On January 6, it quit again. I almost quit also.

while standing on metal ladder, I opened the cover to the opener. I did not unplug it. The new part did not seem warm. I took my left hand and placed it on the panel, the one that looks like transistors on it. Very quickly electricity went up my left arm to the elbow. I took my right arm to knock off my left hand off the panel. I could not pull it off. Arm was partially paralyzed. Very soon I unplugged the unit and put the cover back on. I checked my heartbeat through an app on my phone and it was 110. Soon it slowed down. About two hours later. If the electricity went to my shoulder, it probably would had blown my pacemaker out of me. 

I sent on email to the door company and a new motor was put in Monday, January 8

i only operate the opener through the wall switch and remote in my vehicle. 

4 Comments

Wow

by ROBO Pop - 2018-01-31 18:45:55

Quite the story but you are blowing things totally out of proportion and making false assumptions. Many of us have taken big jolts, got knocked on our butts and nothing happened with our devices. 110 heart rate, mine jumps up to that just passing wind. It's simple if you think something happened affecting your device then get an interrogation...guaranteed nothing happened. 

Robo Pop's wind ...

by LondonAndy - 2018-01-31 19:30:36

Loving the way you put things in perspective, Robo Pop!

It reminds me of an unrelated breaking wind story.  My heart problems started with shortness of breath on a day when pollution was in the news here in London. Apparently a big dust storm in the Sahara Dessert had pushed lots of sand into the atmosphere, and this blew across Europe, picking up pollution from factories in France etc, and hit London.  There was a light covering of sand over parked cars.  So, thinking my SOB was related to pollution, I bought a really good air purifier, that claims to clear 99.9% of dust, and even clears pollen and viruses from the air.  One reviewer on Amazon said how his girlfriend liked it because when he farted in bed at night, the sensors picked up this 'pollution' and increased the fan speed to clean the air up!  I thought this as an exaggeration, and laughed to myself.  But no: it is true.  Even if firing in the opposite direction to the machine, and under the covers, within seconds it has responded and increased fan speed.  

You need a mains circuit breaker

by Selwyn - 2018-02-01 12:49:45

You need to get your main electical fuse box so that it has a trip out safety breaker.

I talked to one man who was digging a hole in his basement using a Kango ( big drill/digger). It shorted out. He was unable to let go as he received mains voltage through the handles he was gripping. He was about to lapse into unconciousness, as his breathing was also paralysed. His wife came down to the basement and seeing what was happening, threw the switch.  Saved his life.

I saw him with electrical burns to the hands.

I went straight out and bought a safety breaker.  Thank goodness, my new electrical fuse box has these built in for every circuit and the overall circuit.

These electrical safety breaker devices save lives. 

Selwyn.

It's not about garage doors or pacemakers

by Gotrhythm - 2018-02-01 16:19:26

It sounds to me as if your garage door opener is improperly grounded or not grounded at all. That needs to be fixed. Ungrounded electrical equipment can be dangerous to anyone, whether you have a pacemaker or not.

I'm sorry you got shocked and glad it was not worse. But your image of something blowing your pacemaker out of your chest? That's not going to happen. Thank God.

 

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