Hey yall whats a good garage door opener thats going to last?
Garage door openers
- Thread starter ARB1977
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About 6 months ago, I replaced my garage door and opener. The opener I bought was the LiftMaster Professional model 3850 with battery back-up. It's belt drive(very quiet), random coding and has a battery back-up good for 30 opening and closings. If you have a lot of power outages, you will really like the battery back-up. It cost me $400 with 2 extra remotes but IMHO, well worth it, since I usually don't carry a house key. It also has a wireless outside programmable key pad.
Genie.
Installed one in my townhouse's garage, no problems.
Installed one in my current house's garage, 6 years later it still runs like a champ. I'm partial to the screw-drive models and all I do for maintenance is once a year, lube up the screw assembly with Genie's lube.
My Dad bought one a long time ago, the thing looked very industrial. It lasted well over 20 years. In fact, it was still running fine when he replaced it. The only reason he replaced it was because he was installing a new garage door and figured that as long as he was doing the work, might as well install a new opener too. He wound up giving the old one to one of the neighbors and as far as I know, it's still working.
Installed one in my townhouse's garage, no problems.
Installed one in my current house's garage, 6 years later it still runs like a champ. I'm partial to the screw-drive models and all I do for maintenance is once a year, lube up the screw assembly with Genie's lube.
My Dad bought one a long time ago, the thing looked very industrial. It lasted well over 20 years. In fact, it was still running fine when he replaced it. The only reason he replaced it was because he was installing a new garage door and figured that as long as he was doing the work, might as well install a new opener too. He wound up giving the old one to one of the neighbors and as far as I know, it's still working.
Yea thats cool. What about warrent?
My dad has a craftsman opener thats about 20 years old. The only thing that went wrong was the spring snaped.
I have two Chamberlain Liftmaster Pro Model 2110 1/3 hp contractors models (low end of the Liftmaster line). After 5.5 years, no problems except the 2 car door one had to be adjusted a couple of times. That was the house builders fault. It should have been at least 1/2 horsepower and adjusted better when it was installed.
I would buy Liftmaster again, but not skimp on power like my builder did.
I would buy Liftmaster again, but not skimp on power like my builder did.
a few months ago i had a garage door problem in one of our rental houses. it was a craftsman opener. i went online and discovered that craftsman, lift master and chamberlain are all the same brand, just different badges. of course there are high end and low end models and stuff, but they are all basically the same.
i talked to a few local garage door installers here in palm beach and they said that those 3 brands are all OK consumer grade openers. they are nothing special. the infrared eyes tend to burn out over time though. the one thing i remember very clear was that everyone who sold garage door openers recomended against getting a genie brand opener. i dont know why that is but i didnt find a single person who would recomend that brand.
i ended up figuring out my door opener has a single bad sensor. that was the problem since the error code the lights flashed was 10 clicks. turns out they dont make parts for my opener anymore. the lift master dealer has some left over parts in stock. but i needed 1 eye and 2 remotes. that would have been over $100 for parts. and a new opener from home depot is $125...
so i go on ebay and find a guy selling used door opener parts. i picked up a pair of eyes and 2 remotes for $30 shipped. not a bad deal.
while i was mucking around with the garage door i decided to re grease the chain, drive gear, worm gear, internal motor bearings and the hinges and rollers on the door. it works good as new now, and its pretty quiet for having steel rollers. apparently new garage doors come with nylon rollers that dont need grease. but mine works fine. maybe one day when it really blows ill splurge for a new one with nylon rollers.
i talked to a few local garage door installers here in palm beach and they said that those 3 brands are all OK consumer grade openers. they are nothing special. the infrared eyes tend to burn out over time though. the one thing i remember very clear was that everyone who sold garage door openers recomended against getting a genie brand opener. i dont know why that is but i didnt find a single person who would recomend that brand.
i ended up figuring out my door opener has a single bad sensor. that was the problem since the error code the lights flashed was 10 clicks. turns out they dont make parts for my opener anymore. the lift master dealer has some left over parts in stock. but i needed 1 eye and 2 remotes. that would have been over $100 for parts. and a new opener from home depot is $125...
so i go on ebay and find a guy selling used door opener parts. i picked up a pair of eyes and 2 remotes for $30 shipped. not a bad deal.
while i was mucking around with the garage door i decided to re grease the chain, drive gear, worm gear, internal motor bearings and the hinges and rollers on the door. it works good as new now, and its pretty quiet for having steel rollers. apparently new garage doors come with nylon rollers that dont need grease. but mine works fine. maybe one day when it really blows ill splurge for a new one with nylon rollers.
Kestas
Staff member
My Liftmaster gave up after 20 years service. I was mildly surprised to find they are made with nylon gears that wear out and can be cheaply replaced. If you open the unit and find white snow, it's time to replace the gears. Easy DIY.
Both of mine say Chamberlain Liftmaster on the label.
I bought a Chamberlain Screw Drive from Costco last year (when my original Chamberlain got zapped with a lightning bolt). The price was great (~$160) for 2 remotes, keypad, etc). It's very quiet, and has worked well thus far. I installed it w/o any help.
I went with Chamberlain Liftmaster openers when we built our house (finished Jun-2007). I have the 1/2 HP 3850 for the 10' Raynor door. I have the 3/4 HP for the 18' Raynor door. I have replaced the board in it twice (made in Mexico if that matters to you). It is possible that the initial board was damaged during install as I didn't install it. First replacement board was bad on arrival. Both units are belt drive & quiet.
Well now, isn't that timely.. My door opener failed Saturday evening. Went out this morning, took it apart, plastic snowflakes all over the inside. It's a Sears Craftsman Model #41A3493. At least 20 years old, maybe more.
We have Sears parts center about 20 miles away. Soon as I find a part #, I'll give them a call.
Thanks for the timely info, Kestas.
I disabled the Genie openers on our garage doors as they were noisy when opening and closing, where they sounded like a tank in our quiet neighborhood. They even had a lot of hum, like lights at K Mart. Now both doors have a short length of rope on the inside for closing, which has lasted a long time. I've greased the wheels and oiled the springs, trying to get the parts to last.
Well, it's fixed. Tried to get a part locally. No one would sell me the part. Glad to come out and fix it for me, $65 + parts.
What a pain. 65 mile round trip to Sears Parts Distro +$23.05 with tax for a rebuild kit. Only needed the gear. It's a simple repair. I needed it fixed today, or I would have ordered it over the internet.
Side note: Looked in the yellow pages. There must be at least 197 garage door install/repair companies in CLT. I smell a ripoff business.
Side note: Looked in the yellow pages. There must be at least 197 garage door install/repair companies in CLT. I smell a ripoff business.
Sears garage door opens are good. The one currently in my house was from the previous owner and still work great, probably 20 years old or more. Mine is the chain drive, not too noisy just a little slow. It does have the safety reverse feature. I've been opening the garage door manually to exercise my arms.
I think Genie garage door openers have sensors you place on the sides which will stop if something or someone gets in the way while door is closing.
I think Genie garage door openers have sensors you place on the sides which will stop if something or someone gets in the way while door is closing.
About 1993 a Federal law was enacted requiring the IR sensors. Mine is chain drive also. Very powerful. The door is a commercial steel door 16' X 10' high. It's to heavy for me to open with my bad back. The original builder had trucks. House was built around 1971. Don't know when the garage built, probably 72 or 73.
As oldmoparguy said, federal law requires the optical sensors. The garage door opener should also have a mechanism to reverse the door if physical contact occurs before the door touches the ground and somehow doesn't trip the optical sensors. One of the installation steps includes adjusting the downforce for this feature.
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What if it's Tiny with a machete, and he wants to come in?
We bought a gear driven Stanley several years ago and its been trouble free.
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