Garage Door Opener – Checked
Class is now in session….
There are many types of garage door openers, so which one is right for you? The first thing to keep in mind is that garage door openers are not a one size fits all application. Garage door openers are made to work best if they are on the correct type of door, most of our repairs are done on machines that are installed incorrectly or if the opener is on the wrong type of door and in many cases, just a quality bass opener.
Until now, I have used the words “opener” and “machine”, they both have the same meaning, they refer to the entire mechanized operation, so when I say “opener” I am not referring to the manual device in your car. .that is called “remote control” or simply “remote”. With that being said, there are several types of garage door openers on the market…there are screw drives, chain drives, belt drives, and last but not least, direct drives commonly known as “Jackshafts”. But let’s take them one at a time and start with…
screw drives
These machines have been popular (not necessarily good) on all types of doors for the better part of 45 years, but… due to their design, they require regular maintenance. In the late ’60s, ’70s, and early ’80s, Genie used very durable steel in the “trolley” or “trolley” and the machines were tough! Even with no grease on the screw they would run for what seemed like forever then they switched to a lighter grade steel and that all went downhill the openers would still last as long as any other as long as you greased the screw regularly but what? who does that? !! So the average life of the Genie screw mechanism cart was about 4-5 years and that’s generous, Liftmaster, Chamberlain or Craftsman all made by the same manufacturer…(Chamberlain) also has a screw mechanism and has same problem to counter that they use a plastic inner carriage and a self-lubricating casing around the screw to keep heat and wear out, but the self-lubricating casing actually only lasts about a year… or the equivalent of your warranty, then back to the same ol, same ol, “fat-fat-fat”. My official take on screwdrivers is… stay away from them, they’re old technology with a new look.
chain drives
This type of machine has been around for as long as screwdrivers 5 years or so and they have come a long way. Chain drives have always been very durable machines, but they got a bit of a bad rap when Sears started selling a DIY model of Chamberlain’s called the Craftsman, now this machine, although called a “chain drive”, was driven by a chain in one side and a cable on the other and there seemed to be nothing you could do to silence this thing because the cable was stretched to the point of breaking at the loop. So from that point on, chain drives started to get a bad rap as a “coffee grinder” or noisy machine, even though it wasn’t a true chain drive.
The Liftmaster 1300 series of chain drives…dollar for dollar is the best machine possible, they are versatile as they can handle any type of door from heavy wood to light steel, one piece or sectional and they are powerful and economical and Relatively speaking…low maintenance, but to get to this point they’ve had a lot of good improvements along the way. Chamberlain added a chain spacer that prevents the chain from hitting the rail, changed the front sprocket to a pulley to drastically reduce chain noise, changed the steel worm gear to a nylon worm gear inside the case to reduce the heat on the worm gear and they removed the two inner carriage tension springs to reduce door bounce and it is a solid one piece rail with a full wraparound chain.
The components on this machine can handle what the motor puts out, so in most cases you don’t need 1/2 hp to lift the gate, and as far as routine maintenance goes…there’s practically none, just have the two nylon ones. the gears inside the motor case are lubricated every 7 years and that’s about it, in the rare case you have a beach house and only use the opener in the summer then you can spray the chain with a good silicone to keep the free chain links. My two favorite models that have been true workhorses for us for the last two decades are currently called #1346=1/3 hp and #1356=1/2 hp.
belt drives
Several manufacturers make belt drives these days but I like to stick with the most trusted brand which for me is Liftmaster we have the most brands but we prefer to deal with the brand with the least amount of issues so let’s focus on Liftmaster belt drives for now. Please note that belt drive openers are a VERY door specific machine, they DO NOT work very well on 1 piece doors or for very long and should NOT be installed on a 1 piece door. To keep things simple, there are two types of belt drives… AC and DC.
The belt drive model AC, known as the formula I, is one of the earliest belt drive model designs and is essentially a chain drive motor that drives a belt instead of a chain. It’s minutely quieter than a chain drive minus the power and to me…it’s not a good machine, but it’s an easy sell because it’s cheaper than a DC model and the general public doesn’t notice the difference, they just know Belt drives are supposed to be top of the line and this is a belt drive so they don’t know the tricks dealers can buy these types of machines much cheaper than their DC motor counterparts and sell them for the strap. unit price (premium). What makes a “DC motor” belt drive silent is the motor! Otherwise why would they offer it on CC? Also, the other benefit is being able to have a backup battery attached so it works even with the power off.
In its simplest form, a DC motor generates more torque than an AC motor and DC power is rated in “Newtons” rather than HP, but DC motors also have a “slow start/slow stop” characteristic ” which helps maintain full operation. calm. When an AC motor machine is activated it goes to O-60 or should I say “O full speed” all at once… the moment you press the button, but the door, on the other hand, isn’t on the same page and wants to resist the sudden force and that’s where a lot of the noise is coming from…basically it’s the shaking of the door resisting the opener, while the slow starting of the DC machines acts as one more motivator soft for the door to open it. it goes without all the jerking, and it does the same thing when it stops, so for the first two inches and the last two inches it slows down, which greatly reduces the noise of the whole operation.
DC machines also electronically calibrate the pressure needed to operate a door based on its strength and weight,
which leaves little room for installer error, in other words the installer can’t set the machine to crush the hood of your car or your cat, AC motors are at the mercy of the installer, if you set the force setting too much high, it squashes, if he If you set it too low, the door will bounce back on a cold or wet morning as you happily drive to work unaware that your garage door will be open all day and that new Craftsman toolbox has just birthday gift is about to be sold for a fraction of the price it’s worth at the local swap meet… all because you thought you had a bargain priced belt drive garage door opener! Final thoughts… AC motor belt drives = not good (better with a chain drive) DC motor belt drives = Very good, very quiet, but very door specific. (Only works on a sectional door)
secondary tree (Direct management)
This section is simple because there is literally only one available and that is a #3800 Liftmaster and it will only work on sectional doors. So for those of you looking for a machine that doesn’t mount to the ceiling like a traditional machine does, the Liftmaster #3800 might be just what you’re looking for, it’s quiet, it has (800 Newtons) or the equivalent of 3/ 4 hp and mounts to either end of the torque tube as long as you have at least 10 inches of side clearance so the idea behind this opener is if you have a room above the garage it completely eliminates .. the vibration of a typical opener hanging from the ceiling, or if you have a low joist in the garage supporting the second story of your home or have installed an attic or storage shelving where a typical opener would mount, you could still automate your door using this type of machine.
It can also be used in applications where you just don’t want an opener dangling in the middle of your garage. Over the years I have found that the #3800 likes heavier sectional doors compared to lightweight models without insulation, another benefit of this type of machine is that it will lift a sectional door up to 13 feet high without modifications , while a normal machine will only lift doors up to 7’4″ with a normal track machine, you would need to get a longer track to accommodate the extra height of, say, an 8′–9′ or 10 foot opening. height that is becoming more common in newer homes.The Liftmaster #3800 has been a very reliable alternative for us since 2004.
Everyone loves options, but given the fact that when it comes to garage door openers there are so many options it also makes it very easy to make the wrong choice for your particular garage door, which could lead to many service calls and repairs in the future, so Hopefully this can clear some things up for you when it comes to choosing the right machine and you’ll have a lot of “good” ups and downs with the right system.
