any garage door opener advice?

I've seen plenty of garage doors that don't have the ORB, instead they use a piece of wood fastened to the strong points of the garage door. Entire purpose is to spread the pulling on the door over a larger area to prevent damage.

Something to consider.
 
I agree that fixing the ORB bracket to the door is a simple handyman task (as if you can find one today). But likely you do not even need a new ORB but I assume a bolt pushed through the door or the pin broke. If the bolt, a bigger washer/spacer bar would do it. The pin is replaceable at Home depot in specialty hardware drawers. The only issue with wood is if it allows clearances if it is too thick.
 
I've had a LiftMaster for 12 years. No problems; works great.
 
All 3 of the bolts were on the floor - the painter painted the door shut and when I got home and hit the button zip they leapt out and the metal arm was swinging freely from the top. The painter tried to drill new holes but now the door won't sit right.

I have put a msg out to my favorite handyman can he install the part and expect I will hear back Monday. I have no way of knowing how bad the opener is - it was working but it is 24 years old so I can see it might be fading. He may know about using wood too - I will see.

They tried to tell me there were metal shavings or something but I mean idk it looked sort of like dirt to me. I am female and not well versed in having a lot of tools or doing this sort of thing.
 
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Likely not a big deal. If the painter stripped out the holes, that ORB will allow your handyman to drill some new holes and re-lineup the attachment arm from the garage door opener. Might need to adjust the travel to get the door to sit properly in the closed position.

Seems like painter should give you a few bucks for messing up your garage door. He should have just got the next larger size lag bolt (self tapping) and used them in the original holes.
 
Not a fan of the wifi option but that's just me. I would recommend a belt drive over a chain drive. My first opener was chain drive and worked fine but my wife asked me to replace it because it was very, very LOUD. Bought a belt drive for under $200 and it took me an easy afternoon to change it out. Sooo much quieter. I donated the old one (with remote) to our local Habitat for Humanity store.
 
We have Craftsmen belt drive which is made by liftmaster. We chose belt drive because they are quieter and we have living space above the garage. Ours are 20+ yrs old and I just replaced both belts @ $60 each. I don’t recall if screw drive was available back then. Having gotten use to the belt drive I cringe whenever I hear a chain drive unit in operation. Craftsmen has a load of accessories and replacement parts available on ebay etc. I really love the wireless (not wifi) keypad we can set temporary codes for visitors.
 
RetiredAndLovingIt said:
Definitely deduct the repair cost from what you owe the painter. Totally his fault, I have never heard of a painter painting a garage door shut, what an idiot.
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Our builder painted our steel garage doors 23 yrs ago and we still have issues on a warm day the vinyl seal sticks to the latex paint. I tried cleaning, sanding, and lubing the contact area which helps but the door still binds a bit before it breaks the seal.
 
Check out a jackshaft drive opener. Such as Liftmaster 8500w. Mounts on the wall at one side of the door and drives the door open and close by turning the jackshaft. So no pulling on the door. Very quiet, have soft open and close, built in lock, and you eliminate the center opener drive mechanism.

I have had these on several doors. No problems and would use them again. Little more money than the std openers, but IMHO a lot better opener.

See video here:
https://youtu.be/BOVVisCu56c?si=Vq4v9grBEymzq83-
 
myQ is great. I have occasion to need to open the garage remotely. I also have programmed to automatically close at 9PM if the door happened to be left open.
 
OldShooter said:
My new house/new liftmaster came with "MyQ" wifi, which is a sad joke. It sends me notifications when the door opens and when it closes, mostly many minutes (10?) after the event. I also have their camera, which was cheap at $35 but is nearly useless since the reason the door opened or closed is long since past. Of course they would really like to sell me a subscription where the video is recorded to the cloud and I can review it. I don't do subscriptions. Eventually I will probably buy a camera that records on site and I can review for free but I have lived a long life with no garage cameras at all and it seems to be working out.

The Liftmaster is belt drive and very quiet. I like that. Its light beam blockage sensors are on the floor at each side of the door, very flimsy and easy to knock out of alignment. I'm sure I will come to hate them and eventually disable them.

"Bracket on the garage door" Hard to believe that can't be repaired or drilled for a larger screw. Local welding shop might be able to help, too. Pictures?
Click to expand...

My new house came without wifi compatible garage opener and was not an option through the builder. My SO constantly asks me 1 mile down the road if I closed the garage door. I ordered a Chamberlain add on wifi controller for the existing opener and installed it in about 20 minutes. I got it on Amazon for under 40 bucks. So far, it has worked flawlessly and is the best money I've spent for a wifi item. It has a piece that plugs into an outlet(mine is on the ceiling) and a monitor that attaches to the garage door to guage if it is open or closed. The My Q app on my phone handles it all and SO has the app also.
 
1 - belt drive should be quieter vs chain

2 - wifi gives options to you. I like ability to open/close door from my phone. When going for walk and use garage door to get something, or come back via garage door, etc. also check on door status.

We’ve also used it in Letting someone into house when we were out of town and they couldn’t find their key.

Also - we don’t use this - but you can allow Amazon and perhaps others to leave things in your garage and avoid porch pirates. Cameras will keep delivery people honest.
 
Multi-segmented Worm Drive: Bad Idea

I would avoid a model that ships in a 4 foot box, like you find at the big box hardware stores.

That size box means you have a multi segment rail rather than one continuous rail. It's not impossible to design a multi segmented system that's reliable, but mine wasn't. But it was (is) a worm drive. It's unlikely anyone is bored enough to want to watch, but I made a diagnosis and repair video about what I did to make sure the worm drive shaft stayed together (wrapped with copper wire and soldered).
 
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The painter won't admit fault he says I must have broken it. I was like then how did I get my car out of the garage? (I had left it outside while paint was going on so that I could come and go without making him move ladders and so on). The painter did try to drill new holes and make it work but it isn't adjusted correctly and sits funny so I am not trying to use it until it is done properly. I don't want to make anything worse.

sengsational, interesting you mention the 4 part rails the garage repairman said those were horrible too but I wondered if he was just full of BS to get me to spend money today on his fancy ass stuff. The garage door guy said the paint on its own probably would not have been enough to pop out all the bolts - it was proof I had some wear or something like that. Which is not unlikely even though I was not aware of an issue.

Today I am leaning more toward whole new system where yesterday I was leaning more towards just the ORB so I guess will see what I am tomorrow when I start calling people again.

I have heard a lot of problems with the wifi openers opening at random times and that would be huge problem to me but since none of you are reporting such maybe it is just nonsense. I still doubt I'd hook it up as I pretty well hate automation.
 
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My multi-segment rail for my garage door opener has been totally fine, and other's I've have in the past have also been fine.

All of them were chain driven, and maybe that is why no issues, because chain is/can be a little sloppy/flexible in the route it takes, like a bike chain it can be wiggled with my finger (obviously only when not running and just examining it).

I would think a worm drive has to be pretty straight and no wiggle to work correctly.
 
jrgators said:
myQ is great. I have occasion to need to open the garage remotely. I also have programmed to automatically close at 9PM if the door happened to be left open.
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I second that! When my barn was built they installed a chamberlain chain drive with MyQ features. Loved having the ability to open and close when I got my lawn tractor out to mow, etc. Didn't have that on the regular house garage and always had to use the remote number pad by the door outside.

One day browsing the internet I find out that chamberlain has a MyQ smart garage control and I bought one for $15 and added it to the house garage door opener which is a chain drive Overhead Door model. Works perfectly so now I can control both doors from my phone! Or check to see if I left one open.

Additionally, I have the app set to automatically close either of the garage doors at 6:30pm if they are open. Comes in handy if Gk's have been outside playing and went out the garage and didn't close the door before they left and I didn't remember they used it.

PS: my chain door openers are near silent in operation!
 
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We have a 7 year old Liftmaster/Chamberlain chain drive and it's still going strong. That said I have only had to replace one garage door opener in 41 years of home ownership. We've moved 3 times and the only one I replaced was in the home we owned for 26 (of 41 years). I've owned Stanley (no longer in biz?), Craftsman and Chamberlain, both belt and chain drive. Sorry I couldn't be more help, I guess garage door openers last "24 years" for me too.

I'm not big on connected home devices in general (yet?), and certainly not a garage door opener. My Liftmaster has MyQ but I don't care...
 
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Sorry, not much to offer except our Overhead Door branded chain drive units will be 28 years old this spring and are still working fine and pretty quiet. Had to replace the tension springs twice though.
 
misanman said:
Sorry, not much to offer except our Overhead Door branded chain drive units will be 28 years old this spring and are still working fine and pretty quiet. Had to replace the tension springs twice though.
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+1. I forgot about that, I had one torsion spring (not extension springs) snap in 41 years too, had to be replaced - not a DIY job (like extension springs).
 
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Yeah I have chain driven "overhead door" model now. Seems fine to me (prior to this). Replaced springs about 2 years ago. But the garage place insists I have a problem with the opener as well even if I didn't know. But of course they'd say that. Still, I really would not know unless it was dramatic.

Leaning back towards just the bracket and not messing about with this nonsense.

I'd be delighted to see my favorite handyman actually as I have the beginnings of another project idea for him anyway.
 
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badatmath said:
Yeah I have chain driven "overhead door" model now. Seems fine to me (prior to this). Replaced springs about 2 years ago. But the garage place insists I have a problem with the opener as well even if I didn't know. But of course they'd say that. Still, I really would not know unless it was dramatic.

Leaning back towards just the bracket and not messing about with this nonsense.

I'd be delighted to see my favorite handyman actually as I have the beginnings of another project idea for him anyway.
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And he will probabaly give you an honest assessment of whether you should repair or replace the unit.
 
One thing I had to do on one of mine was get a 1.25 HP model. (VS the usual 1/2 to 3/4 HP models) Since it was for a wider and higher than normal door for my shop. Plus I needed to by an extension bar and chain for the needed extra height. Installed it ~15 years ago and still works great. Reminds me, maybe I should oil the chain once in a while. :facepalm:
 
Car-Guy said:
One thing I had to do on one of mine was get a 1.25 HP model. (VS the usual 1/2 to 3/4 HP models) Since it was for a wider and higher than normal door for my shop. Plus I needed to by an extension bar and chain for the needed extra height. Installed it ~15 years ago and still works great. Reminds me, maybe I should oil the chain once in a while. :facepalm:
Click to expand...

You wouldn't need all the extra parts with a jackshaft style opener. Since it mounts on the wall and operates on the shaft, it doesn't have length issues. The Liftmaster 8500 is good for up to 850 lbs door. I have them on two 16x10 insulated doors and they work great.

https://www.liftmaster.com/dc-battery-backup-wall-mount-wi-fi-garage-door-opener/p/8500WMC
 
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