Any BITOGERs have or thought about converting their automatic garage door opener to a side/ wall mount

[GON]

Only in the past year did I learn/ see a wall/ side mount garage door opener. I suspect the biggest challenge is not having power at the wall for the wall/ side mount garage door openers.

Any BITOGERs have this setup?

 

[Danno]

Yes, new build. I would do it again in a minute. Also, these have a battery backup so no issues in a power failure, at least for a while. Mine are Lift Master brand. Two 9x9 doors and one 10 x10.

 

[gman2304]

Ive had 2 wall mounts over the last 25 years due to a low clearance ceiling in my basement garage. I currently have the Chamberlain wall mounted My Q smartphone opener for 5 years or so. It has an automatic locking feature ( similar to a dead bolt lock ) every time it closes. Very quiet and smooth operating.

 

[factorytuned2012]

pretty trick

 

[GON]

Reading reviews on Amazon, the vast majority of reviews on the Liftmaster 8500/ 98022 were overwhelming positive.

Here is a not favorable review of the Liftmaster 8500/98022:

This garage door opener is a huge headache. It was actually very easy to install but getting it programmed is a pain. There’s a whole bunch of light sequences that you have to understand to get it to handle the weight of your door correctly. We ended up having a certified LiftMaster technician come out and it worked great for about a week and then it started to throw error codes and would not close. We had the technician come out again and he said this is a common issue and that he would adjust it one more time but we would likely have to go back to LiftMaster and request a new garage door. Guess what we’re starting to have issues again so now I have to battle LiftMaster to get a replacement. This should not be the case for a $500 garage door opener!! Don’t waste your money on this.

 

[dishdude]

My $99 Chamberlain from HD does just fine, I see no reason to swap it out. Ceiling is high enough that it is out of the way.

 

[samven]

I guess all the new doors use a torsion bar but my older double door has springs on each side of the door to assist in lift. The single door on my tool shed has a torsion bar. It does not look like a 1 person job if you have to convert from springs to torsion

 

[shortyb]

Sorry for the long read.

When I first moved into my house here 18 years ago, they gave us the option of an installed door opener(s) which were cheap, off brand, and underpowered, or no opener installed. I went with my own openers and chose a Wayne Dalton which mounted to the torsion bar and operated very similar to the Genie. It was center mounted and spun the torsion bar like the Genie, and worked pretty good. When it was in adjustment. Torsion springs change tension over time and the opener had no way to compensate, other than the almost exact same springs that mounted on a hinge and attached to the door cables to "read" the cable, and thus spring tension. Problem was, they could not provide any adjustment and the opener motor had to sense tension in the torsion bar to move accordingly. Several times, it spun the bar too much and unwound the cables from the drums causing the door to jam. It did it so much that the springs broke on both doors several times. Finally got tired of spending big $$$ to have the doors repaired and re-adjusted, only to have it happen again.

Took the W/Ds off and replaced them with conventional 3/4 HP belt drive Chamberlains. They are wireless, run with the MyQ app, interface flawlessly with the Homelink in all my cars, and have battery back-up (that works) when the power goes out. Was the only person in my neighborhood during Helene that could get into the garage without keeping the emergency door release open and manually lifting the door. Each cost about $300 and did the installs myself. They have worked without any issues whatsoever for the past 10 years. Best decision I ever made. Maybe the Genie is different/better. Maybe not.

 

[AZjeff]

Was unaware of side mount openers until I saw one in a new build. Worked very well, quiet and eliminated belt/chain etc. The problem to convert as GON said is an outlet. I’d try one.

 

[Speedbird001]

Sorry guys, slight thread drift: See picture; door is ~9' but ceiling is ~13'. The horizontal rails and opener being so low kind of cramp my style...

Do you think I could have the vertical rails extended then have the horizontal "wrap" close(er) to the ceiling? I'll assume one of these sweet side openers will be used, with added bonus of removing the center rail. (But say I am not willing to pay ~$500? for one of the side openers, I recon I could extend that "bar" that connects the opener rail to the top of the door?)

 

[tbm5690]

My parents have two of them and a buddy of mine has one. My parents have had to get limit adjustments done multiple times on one of their openers...it seems every year or so the opener hits the pressure limit when closing and pops the door back open again. My buddy has had issues with the automatic door lock on his (required on this type of opener). One other consideration other than power next to the door is that you still need to run wire from the opener to your ceiling to install the light, since it's a separate unit not integrated in the opener like a traditional overhead motor has. Lastly, it could be the doors, but anecdotally my DC belt drive openers are more quiet than the wall units at my parents place.

 

[CharBaby]

My buddy has 2 of these side motor garage door openers on his new(retirement) home however, IDK the brand.
Man, are they smooth & quiet!
I really like the video, it was professionally produced and the guy was a perfect gentleman.

 

[skyactiv]

My parents have two of them and a buddy of mine has one. My parents have had to get limit adjustments done multiple times on one of their openers...it seems every year or so the opener hits the pressure limit when closing and pops the door back open again. My buddy has had issues with the automatic door lock on his (required on this type of opener). One other consideration other than power next to the door is that you still need to run wire from the opener to your ceiling to install the light, since it's a separate unit not integrated in the opener like a traditional overhead motor has. Lastly, it could be the doors, but anecdotally my DC belt drive openers are more quiet than the wall units at my parents place.

My home was built in 2022 and I have two Genie wall mount garage door openers. I have an 18X8 and a 9X8 Clopay insulated doors. My garages are separated by a wall but there is a steel door to access the smaller garage. There is a Genie bluetooth light in each garage plugged into a standard 120V outlet.

Each opener has battery backup and connects to the Aladdin Connect app on my phone. When I order crap on Amazon, the driver opens the 1 car garage door and places the package inside and closes the door. He is able to do that on his handheld device.
There are some things regarding that like your chosen Amazon delivery day, needing to switch it to avoid a $1.99 fee.. .

 

[shortyb]

Sorry guys, slight thread drift: See picture; door is ~9' but ceiling is ~13'. The horizontal rails and opener being so low kind of cramp my style...

Do you think I could have the vertical rails extended then have the horizontal "wrap" close(er) to the ceiling? I'll assume one of these sweet side openers will be used, with added bonus of removing the center rail. (But say I am not willing to pay ~$500? for one of the side openers, I recon I could extend that "bar" that connects the opener rail to the top of the door?)

It could probably be done, but there would be a huge amount of tension on the springs because of the door weight. In your present set-up, the springs only have to provide enough tension to overcome the door weight for a few inches before the top panel goes horizontal and door weight decreases, thus lower need for high tension. If you had the entire door being lifted those extra 3-4 feet before the top panel rotates, the springs would be huge in order to be wound tighter so enough tension could be applied to overcome the door weight for a greater distance (tension decreases as springs are unwound). Commercial applications do it all the time but the doors are usually very light and motors are way more powerful. The ones at my local public works shop have 7HP motors that drive the torsion bar directly, but the doors only weigh ~350lbs for a 12x15 multipanel. They are lifted almost 10 feet before turning horizontal (shop has 25" ceilings).

 

[eljefino]

My uncle has this, it's a good use of space as that corner in the garage often goes under-utilized.

I wouldn't rip out a perfectly good system for another just to spend money.

 

[AZjeff]

Sorry guys, slight thread drift: See picture; door is ~9' but ceiling is ~13'. The horizontal rails and opener being so low kind of cramp my style...

I recon I could extend that "bar" that connects the opener rail to the top of the door?)

Think of the angle the lifting bar would be at as it started pulling the door up if you used a conventional opener. It wouldn't be pulling up it would be pulling the top of the door at a sideways angle that got worse until the door got to the curve.

Where are the tension springs on your current setup?

 

[RhondaHonda]

Installed 2 at my old house in 2011 and currently have 3 installed in 2017 in this house. I like them, they work great and are nice and quiet. I’ll replace the other 2 with them when the originals die as there is a bedroom right above that garage.

My only beef was the wall pad failing and it opening the garage door when it failed. I missed the free replacement window so I need to buy 3 new wall controls.

 

[mk378]

It looks like it just winds up the spring cables. There is nothing to stop someone pushing the door up from outside to break in. (They would have to lift the whole weight of the door, since the cables would go slack instead of the spring pulling on them). A conventional ceiling-mount opener does prevent the door from being opened by hand from outside.

 

[chexxers]

good if ceiling is LOW, otherwise NADA + NOT a wifi guy!! i installed my wayne dalton hi lift garage doors after garage block by others, 77 YO + still an EZE manual lift, KISS keep it simple stupid but recently did an overhead genie chain drive for girlfriend, a friend wired it!, ALMOST needed a side mount which i didn't know about!!!

 

[RhondaHonda]

It looks like it just winds up the spring cables. There is nothing to stop someone pushing the door up from outside to break in. (They would have to lift the whole weight of the door, since the cables would go slack instead of the spring pulling on them). A conventional ceiling-mount opener does prevent the door from being opened by hand from outside.

There’s a deadbolt that mounts on the track and is activated when the door closes. It engages right above a roller and prevents the door from being lifted.