Garage Door Opener

[roadking77]

This is a product review.
Had a storm knock out my garage door opener a few weeks ago. Picked up a new one and got around to the install yesterday. Door opener I had was a Ryobi. Very happy with it BUT they no longer offer them for sale. I think they were too nice, LOL. I have always bought Craftsmen openers. Going back over the past 40 years we specialized in custom homes. Always put an opener on the garage doors. Always a craftsman and I did the installs. I would bet I have installed 100+ over the years. Could just about do it in my sleep. 
Went to lowes and got the least expensive Genie model they had. Reg price was around $200, on sale for $179. First mistake.  They had them going to almost $400. This thing seems to be made about as cheap as something could be made. Belt drive which I wanted. Gears are all plastic, case is small and flimsy. Put together pretty much the same as any other opener. Went to hook up the wires and instead of a screw connection there is a push in connector. My gorilla paws broke one of the push in connectors!!! Was able to rig it up but could not get it to run correctly. Un hook and do it again same problem. Trouble shoot guide said with the problem I was having it may be in the unit itself to contact authorized service. NO, THAT AINT GONNA HAPPEN!! Unhook and try again, this time, again my gorilla paws broke the contact bar!!!!! OMG. I will be heading out tomorrow to get a new opener, gonna pay a little more this time around and be a bit more careful with the install. Will update on the progress.

[5th T/A]

Kerry, lately it seems like you just can't catch a break!

When my house was struck by lightning, it also knocked out my garage door opener. Fortunately, I was able to just buy a new circuit board, it was less work and cheaper than putting in a new opener. Through the years I have installed dozens of openers, belt, screw, track and direct drive. Like you mentioned they are all built pretty chintzy anymore, kind of a throw away item.

Probably 13 tears ago my next-door neighbor locked himself out of his house. The local fire department came and had his garage door open in two minutes. Most openers have an emergency release latch should the door opener mechanism jam. They pushed the center top panel in about an inch and snuck in a hook around the emergency release and disengaged the opener allowing the door to be pulled open. The Fireman just kind of laughed as he popped open the garage door. I asked if he ever had a door he couldn't pop open and he told me about a Chamberlain opener that uses an electric solenoid to block the rollers in the track. About a year later I had issues with my opener and replaced it with a Chamberlain /Lift master. The opener on my attached garage that gets a lot of use has been trouble free since 2011. I installed the same opener on by detached garage in 2013 and it has been trouble free, but it doesn't get anywhere as many cycles. On my attached garage opener I added a Chamberlain AC surge suppressor and also a battery backup. One benefit is a slightly cleaner looking installation as the opener is mounted on the wall next to the overhead door rather than hanging from the ceiling. I have had three friends now install the same opener. The last told me there is a superseded model that replaces mine. It is supposed to be heaver duty, the battery backup mounts in the opener rather than being a separate unit. Also I think you can monitor the door status with your smart phone.

I just thought I would throw this out there. I do believe there are commercial grade openers that can be used but have no idea how much more they cost. Whatever you wind up with I hope it goes well. If you use a conventional garage door opener, don't connect the pull cord to the emergency release latch, it will make it much harder for a thief to pop the emergency release open.

Picture of the opener, it directly drives the shaft the springs are mounted on and may not work on all doors.
IMG_2299 by Lawrence Alexander, on Flickr

The solenoid that blocks the door rollers.
IMG_2300 by Lawrence Alexander, on Flickr

[FormTA]

Stuff is just made so cheap these days. Where I work, we machine oir own product and sell directly to the end user. Our stuff is held to really tight tolerances and nothing leaves unless it's perfect.  We charger a premium for our products and we still can't keep up. Someday things will go back to that, businesses being proud of the quality of their products and maybe this junk will start to disappear.

[roadking77]

That is a nice opener Larry, I do not have a torsion spring door though so it wont work. They are definitely better. I have a 3 bay garage attached to my house and one of the openers (craftsman) is still the original at a little over 20 years. Its on the door behind my T/A. I have lost both of the remotes but the wall switch works. The opener is a bit quirky and takes a bit of a touch to get it to stay down. I think the down pressure is about kaput at this point. I was planning on swapping the ryobi to that door as it still works with the remotes but no wall switch. Although technically I suppose I am in the mid atlantic I have a yankee attitude towards re-use and not throwing stuff away (or you can call me a cheap, pack rat LOL)

Luke, there is a great deal of job satisfaction knowing you are creating a quality product. Everything is made so cheaply today its ridiculous. Even more so in the construction industry. Things are so much different than when I started in 1981. A person used to have to have at least a bit of skill to complete a task. Now everything is so dumbed down just about anyone can do it. I just put a storm door on the other day. Used to have to use a real tape measure to layout and install the lockset. Now there is a plastic gauge that does the job. Its actually really nice as it now takes about 1 minute to do a 5 minute job but in my mind a person should know how to do it the 'correct way' before using short cuts. I even remember when drywall did not have lines, LOL.

[FormTA]

Been a while since I hung drywall. It has lines now? I guess OSB does so why not drywall.

[5th T/A]

Although technically I suppose I am in the mid atlantic I have a yankee attitude towards re-use and not throwing stuff away (or you can call me a cheap, pack rat LOL)

I prefer the term thrifty or frugal!

[roadking77]

2023-08-29_02-16-38 by Kerry Grubb, on Flickr
Picked this up at lowes this morning. Its kind of middle of the road price wise. Out of the box it is leaps and bounds better than the Genie! I knew that thing seemed chinzy but having one a bit better confirmed it. Installation was about the same as any other overhead opener I have installed. I was a bit more light handed making the push in wire connections. Everything worked great. Opener is super quiet, and even has a soft stop when it gets about 6" from the floor. Happy with this one finally!
2023-08-29_02-16-24 by Kerry Grubb, on Flickr

[roadking77]

I forgot to add, had an audience doing the install. I think she wanted to come out in the garage to help us!
2023-08-29_02-16-52 by Kerry Grubb, on Flickr2023-08-29_02-16-58 by Kerry Grubb, on Flickr

[apfstg]

I installed 3 chamberlains in my garage - I had more trouble getting tension right but openers -2 3/4 hp and 1 1/2 hp can be set up all on one wall remote which closes them all at once if needed and if you have Amazon prime they can send code to driver so a door will open once to allow packages to be put inside for safety.
For a laugh my wife while in another state opened and closed a door using the Wi-Fi feature

[roadking77]

The one thing I dont like about them is their connectivity. I am old fashioned that way. I suppose its a good feature but the last thing I want is strangers in my garage when Im not around. I am sure the amazon guy would be fine but...............In the right context I could see how it would be a good thing.

[rkellerjr]

I've bought both chamberlain and genie and have good experiences with both. I loved the genie because it was so quiet. I have a genie sitting the garage now to replace the old one that is currently there that makes an awful racket when running. Course, we all have different experiences.