The chain snapped on my garage door opener at 6 AM yesterday

I went to open the door to leave for work and heard this loud pop. The door got stuck halfway and the motor just whined. I looked up and saw the chain had completely separated from the track. Had to call a repair guy who charged me $180 to fix it. Has anyone else had a chain snap unexpectedly on an older opener?

2 comments

2 Comments

ellis.rose7d ago

Is a snapped chain really that big a deal though? @the_alice makes it sound super common, so why not just buy a new link set for $10 and fix it yourself instead of dropping $180 on a service call?

the_alice7d ago

Hold on, that chain didn't actually "separate from the track." What you're describing sounds like the chain came off the sprocket or broke a link, not that it jumped out of the track. The track is the rail the chain runs inside, and it's pretty rare for a chain to pop out of that whole thing. More likely one of the links just gave out from age and rust. I had a similar thing happen on my old Craftsman where a link snapped clean in half, and the repair guy said he sees that a lot on openers past 10 years old. That $180 hurts but honestly that's a fair price for having them come out on short notice like that.