Garage door opener

Missouribound

Active member

Equipment
B2320, FEL, BOX BLADE, FINISH MOWER, QUICK HITCH
Jun 17, 2014
646
37
28
Missouri
Naww this is out in the detached pole bar/garage so noise isnt a problem
The strongest are the chain drive. I had a door freeze to the ground back when I lived in Illinois. I hit the button and my old Genie pulled the door apart.
The lowest panel was frozen to the ground and the rest just went up the track.
Of course that was before the safety and limit switches became the normal.
 
Apr 7, 2020
27
0
0
US
The strongest are the chain drive. I had a door freeze to the ground back when I lived in Illinois. I hit the button and my old Genie pulled the door apart.

The lowest panel was frozen to the ground and the rest just went up the track.

Of course that was before the safety and limit switches became the normal.
Did the same thing to a Crawford wood overhead door and a genie. Was an expensive lesson. Bottom froze to the concrete and the genie pulled the top sections right off[emoji107]

Sent from my C6743 using Tapatalk
 

biglefty

Member
Lifetime Member

Equipment
L3301. loader an backhoe, EA grapple, Titan pallet forks, brush hog 18ft. landsc
Jun 23, 2019
39
3
8
PA.
If you have a torsion bar I would go with a wall mount opener
 

GeoBx2680

Member

Equipment
FEL, 60" mower, 60" plow, Pallet Forks, 50" snowblower Front mount
Oct 8, 2018
87
1
8
Mn USA
I'm not sure where you get off saying the Chamberlain are junk? I have 2 of them and they work great and if you read the reviews other people are very happy with them. Do you have any personal experience with them or is it just hear say?
No experience with them. My Buddy that does garage doors for a living told me not to get one. He says most of the service he does on openers is Chamberlain openers or other off brands
So I'll take his word on it since he knows more then I do on garage openers
 

bearbait

Well-known member
Lifetime Member

Equipment
L3560, 64" snowblower, 72" back blade
Dec 9, 2011
4,011
766
113
New Glasgow Canada
No experience with them. My Buddy that does garage doors for a living told me not to get one. He says most of the service he does on openers is Chamberlain openers or other off brands
So I'll take his word on it since he knows more then I do on garage openers
Thanks for explaining. Maybe I've just been lucky but if you read the reviews most people are happy with them. Time will tell, I've only had them for a few years now.
 

GeoBx2680

Member

Equipment
FEL, 60" mower, 60" plow, Pallet Forks, 50" snowblower Front mount
Oct 8, 2018
87
1
8
Mn USA
Thanks for explaining. Maybe I've just been lucky but if you read the reviews most people are happy with them. Time will tell, I've only had them for a few years now.
No problem. I know where you coming from one persons dream can be another persons nightmare.

I too look at reviews when buying things and try to make a good judgement call from them its a roll of the dice on any product you buy.
Everything has there good/bad times.
 

Yooper

Well-known member
Lifetime Member

Equipment
3901 LA525
May 31, 2015
1,463
433
83
NE Wisconsin
I had this Liftmaster installed a couple of years ago and it features a 'soft start' motor. No jerking when you press the button. This is the cause of most failures on GDO's. Should be the last one I buy.
 

Attachments

skeets

Well-known member

Equipment
BX 2360 /B2601
Oct 2, 2009
14,171
2,830
113
SW Pa
Yooper it says you are from NE Wis,,, but with a handle like that,, you sure you aint from the UP?? Just asking for a friend :D
 

Yooper

Well-known member
Lifetime Member

Equipment
3901 LA525
May 31, 2015
1,463
433
83
NE Wisconsin
Yooper it says you are from NE Wis,,, but with a handle like that,, you sure you aint from the UP?? Just asking for a friend :D
Born and raised in Escanaba and transplanted to the Capitol of the UP 43 years ago. Green Bay is jokingly referred to as the Capitol of the UP.

You can take the boy out of the UP but you can not take the yooper out of the boy. Took a lot of teasing when I first moved here.
 

DustyRusty

Well-known member

Equipment
2020 BX23S, BX2822 Snowblower, Curtis Deluxe Cab,
Nov 8, 2015
5,203
3,854
113
North East CT
I agree that these are great openers. I got one since the bedroom is partially over the garage. It also freed up the scuttle hole into the attic that the builder thought to put in center where the garage door opener has to be would be a good idea.

They are quite but pricey. You also have to have a foot or two of wall next to the door to mount the opener onto.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
I have 4 Liftmaster 8500, and one Chamberlin Direct Drive wall-mounted openers, and all you need is 8" of side clearance to mount them. The Liftmaster has a higher weight capacity of the door that it is operating than the Chamberlin. I removed all the chain drive Liftmasters after 2 of them broke internal gears and had to be taken down to repair them. I did the work, and the cost of the parts was about $35. I have gotten 20 years of service out of them, so I decided to retire them before they die. The new units are so quiet, you don't even know that they are working.
 

lynnmor

Well-known member

Equipment
B2601-1
May 3, 2021
1,325
1,039
113
Red Lion
Finding someone to repair your garage door is a very simple task. All you have to do is ask a few people who have had their doors repaired or replaced, and you will be able to find a company that will repair the garage door.
Welcome!

Since you are new here you probably didn't see that this thread is about 2-1/2 years old.

I always did my own garage doors, but last time I had 5 doors replaced for little more than doing it myself. Big mistake, the company that did it was in business for half a century, but they botched the job on every door. Finding a good door mechanic is mostly luck.
 

William00

New member

Equipment
mowing, digging, seeding, snow blowing
Jan 30, 2022
1
0
1
Baraban0307$&
Skeets, I know you said you wanted basic. Not sure if you can still get them but my old Craftsman opener was as basic as you could get. 17yrs and still going strong when I moved. Talked with the folks that bought my old place last month and they have yet to have any issues with it.

I did change it up when we built our current house a few years back and went with the Ryobi opener. It's fully configurable. If you want to enable wifi, you can do it. It has the ability to take any one of their cordless tool batteries to provide a battery backup in case your power goes out. Just lift the cover, pop it in and done. Built in LED light so no bulbs to change and it is on a motion sensor so you don't have to flip a light switch when you go in the garage. Comes standard with Home Link and if your ride has that, you can ditch the old garage remote. Comes with 2 remotes if you need them. The cost of the Lift Master is hardly higher than that of the Genie. I knew there was roll up garage door repair at Fix Garage Doors CA but didn't think to go there right away. You also can add accessories to the unit such as a retractable extension cord, parking locator, fan, air compressor or a blue tooth speaker. I have the retractable cord on both, fan in the garage with my Orange and the parking sensors for the daily drivers.

I have it hooked up to wifi and there are some great benefits to that. You can open/close a door from your smart phone, get alerts when a door opens/closes and set alerts if a door is open past a certain time. No more walking out to check doors. Pull up the app and look there. In addition it is belt driven, quiet and can run on DC if required. I paid around 250 per opener if my memory is correct.
Know someone who installs garage door openers. Get the Chamberlain there garbage nowhere. Get a Genie or a Liftmaster. He installed a Genie for me in my pole shed last fall. It was a 1200 model, I think. The 16x12 door opens smoothly and quietly, especially once I've oiled it. sounded rippable prior to being lubricated.
 

GreensvilleJay

Well-known member

Equipment
BX23-S,57 A-C D-14,58 A-C D-14, 57 A-C D-14,tiller,cults,Millcreek 25G spreader,
Apr 2, 2019
9,939
4,080
113
Greensville,Ontario,Canada
Liftmaster is a slightly heavier duty version of Chamberlain ( SAME company )
BTW providing the install was done right, you don't need a 'heavy duty' opener as you should be able to manually lift by hand
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user

William1

Well-known member
Lifetime Member

Equipment
BX25D
Jul 28, 2015
1,085
270
83
Richmond, Virginia
Chamberlain/LiftMaster has a lifetime warranty on the belt. So it your door is wonky, get up on a step ladder and inspect the belt at the motor unit with the door down and all the way up. Any missing teeth, and call them for a free replacement. So far, they have been great as far as customer service goes.
Also, almost all new openers will now have a battery backup and LED lighting. Higher end one will have Wifi connectivity and you can confirm (and or close) the door is down when you are five miles from home and you get that sinking feeling that you left it up.
 

jkrubi12

Well-known member

Equipment
B2601/LA435/QA54"/BH70/B8160box/BB1254/PFL1242/SGC0554/WC-68 Chipper
Sep 24, 2012
397
289
63
right coast
One thing that no one has mentioned here is that the newest models of GDO's have 'battery backups' so you are able to open the door in an electrical outage. My two Genies have this feature (installed fall 2020, acquired thru Amazon) and it works well. The doors only open at half speed when there's no power but they do work, which is nice. It's a requirement for all new door openers in CA (I'm on the other coast) and I imagine it will someday be required elsewhere as well. The only drawback with the 'backup' system is that the opener is regularly charging the battery so there's a small drain on the electrical system.

My two original openers were Genie 'screw drive' units; when one of those failed I replaced it with a Genie 'chain drive'. Now my latest Genies are both 'silent belt drive', lifetime warranty on the belt. I did the usual research when selecting new home products, looked at all the common brands, and eventually came back to Genie, no complaints.
 

The Evil Twin

Well-known member

Equipment
L2501, LA526,
Jul 19, 2022
2,395
2,316
113
Virginia
We chose to go with shaft/ wall mounted openers in the new house. They allowed us to keep the full 15' of headroom. Otherwise the motor unit would be in the way of putting the truck on the lift unless I pulled in nose first.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user

aaluck

Well-known member

Equipment
L4400HST, Bush Hog 276, RDTH60, Speeco PHD, etc
Oct 9, 2019
928
746
93
Snowdoun, AL
I never heard of Chamberlain before,
I had to replace one of mine and got a Chamberlain. Super quiet and nice. As @North Idaho Wolfman said. Get one the same as the dead one. My installation was a breeze. Originally I was only going to replace the motor but it took an extra 10 minutes to do all the parts because the dead one was also a Chamberlain.
 

aaluck

Well-known member

Equipment
L4400HST, Bush Hog 276, RDTH60, Speeco PHD, etc
Oct 9, 2019
928
746
93
Snowdoun, AL
Chamberlain openers or other off brands
Chamberlain as actually LiftMaster, so not an off-brand. The only problem I have had with them is the belts dry-rotting after about 10 years.

The one I replaced had a dry rotted belt and the opener was on sale for about $100 more than the belt so I replaced the whole thing. You literally cannot hear it open the door. Just a super quiet hum, not that it really matters how loud it is.
 

DustyRusty

Well-known member

Equipment
2020 BX23S, BX2822 Snowblower, Curtis Deluxe Cab,
Nov 8, 2015
5,203
3,854
113
North East CT
I like a noisy garage door operator, that way I know when someone has opened the garage door.
 

aaluck

Well-known member

Equipment
L4400HST, Bush Hog 276, RDTH60, Speeco PHD, etc
Oct 9, 2019
928
746
93
Snowdoun, AL
Get a Genie or a Liftmaster.
Chamberlain IS LiftMaster.

The Chamberlain Group LLC, the corporate parent company to LiftMaster, Chamberlain, Merlin and Grifco, is a global leader in access solutions and products. We design and engineer residential garage door openers, commercial door operators and gate entry systems. Read our story.