any garage door opener advice?

[Car-Guy]

^^^^^
Well now you tell me... Too bad you can't help me with my Mighty Mule gate opener... Having trouble with it now.

 

[wmc1000]

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.

+1 on the lubrication. I use white lithium grease on the chain and the wheels.!

 

[Walt34]

Interesting discussion. We had a new Sears garage door opener installed when we bought the new house in 2002. That lasted until 2005 when it just up and quit working because "something in the radio frequencies changed" according to the two repair guys we called. I mean, it worked, but only if you were standing directly underneath the garage door opener with the remote while inside the garage.

So, we buy a new garage door opener, this time from a local shop, definitely not Sears. At the time (Feb. 2007) it was $350, installed. It's made by Chaimberlain and has worked fine since then except for the remote keypad which we don't care about anyway. I have no idea if it's belt or chain driven and as long as it works I don't care. According to the inflation calculator at bls.gov $350 then is equivalent to $528.10 now so that's my "anchor point" for a reasonable cost replacement garage door opener. BTW, it did come with two remotes and a supposed keypad. The keypad worked until about two seconds after the warranty expired and I haven't bothered to fool with it since. Well, I did try replacing the battery in it a couple of times but that didn't work, and I'm certainly not going to pay someone to fix something that we never use.

 

[badatmath]

My neighbor pops over with name of a garage guy today - he says he will be here in a little while - no call no show nothing. I get so tired of that. Wasted all afternoon waiting.

I had picked up the ORB this morning at Lowes - the HD one was too long.

 

[badatmath]

I spoke too soon! Garage guy left - said I didn't need an opener or a bracket - needed the travel limits adjusted to fix the new screw position where the painter had drilled lower than what was there before so now I don't have weird light gaps at the top. $100.

So now I can return the bracket and proceed hopefully normally for awhile anyway. /Fingers crossed.

Between the roof and the paint I really didn't want to spend any more money for a couple months.

He said none of the new ones come with more than 1 remote - supposed to use your phone I guess.

$528.10 is too low for what any of them quoted too. Even the odd one that came this afternoon.

 

[pb4uski]

A bit of an anti-climatic end to a thread. That's 54 post that we'll never get back.

 

[Jerry1]

A bit of an anti-climatic end to a thread. That's 54 post that we'll never get back.

I’ll take an anti-climatic end to a problem any day!

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

You need to use your phone for a lot of stuff these days.
I just got a new thermostat installed with a geofence setting. I set the range and when all phones leave the area the heating or cooling adjusts to my away setting. When I re-enter the zone, it resets to the home setting. I love it, I have always been really bad at forgetting to hit the away button on the thermostat and leaving for hours. Now it happens automatically.
Now if only Amazon could get the Ring alarm to do that as well I'd be so happy. The best they can do is send me a text to remind me I forgot to turn the alarm on. It can be done, I had the Lowes Iris security system that did it for me and I bought that one at least 6 or 7 years ago and was very happy until they went out of business.

 

[badatmath]

I flat refuse to use my phone for most things and often tell people I don't have one. Phones only make my life harder than it has to be. (I know you all disagree).

But nevertheless I appreciate the inputs on the thread as I will revisit this topic when I move forward.

Just grateful I have my internet community to talk to and that this week leading to Christmas will be peaceful and cheap! I'm at max on house items right now and need to ease into the holiday.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

I flat refuse to use my phone for most things and often tell people I don't have one. Phones only make my life harder than it has to be. (I know you all disagree).

But nevertheless I appreciate the inputs on the thread as I will revisit this topic when I move forward.

Just grateful I have my internet community to talk to and that this week leading to Christmas will be peaceful and cheap! I'm at max on house items right now and need to ease into the holiday.

I don't really disagree with you. My goal, some years ago,was to be the last person standing without a cell phone. And I still wince and object when I see simple things that require a cell phone. However, in my own case, I realized that (A) it wasn't going to go away, and (B) it wasn't going to get any easier for me personally as time went on. So I became a reluctant late adopter.

 

[pb4uski]

Resistance is futile.

 

[Car-Guy]

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

^^^^^
Well now you tell me... Too bad you can't help me with my Mighty Mule gate opener... Having trouble with it now.

Thanks for your PM's. It encouraged me to give it another try... Fixed it too!

 

[HI Bill]

I am absolutely NOT using wifi even if it is there so that is irrelevant to my purpose.

This week, I left the house and almost two hours later I noticed that I'd left the garage door open in my security app. I used myQ to close the door remotely. If I hadn't had that option, I'd have had to hurry home, rather than leisurely packing up my gear, relaxing at the beach, and going out to lunch. I rarely need the feature, but it's awesome to have it when I do!

 

[Deuce]

Belt drive is the way to go. It is probably the most quiet of the normal openers.

 

[djdawson]

I installed a new Chamberlain B970T opener a couple years ago because our old one was too small for our garage door. We're in Florida and have a 16" hurricane-rated metal door that's pretty heavy, so the mass of the door was too much for the old 1/2 hp opener which caused its motor mount in the head unit to fail, even though the springs were adjusted properly to balance the weight of the door. The new opener is belt drive, 1.25 HP, and has both MyQ WiFi and a backup battery (which we've never needed). It's very quiet, and I believe it has a DC motor that does soft-start and soft-stop, so it starts and stops gradually instead of jerking to/from full speed. At least for us the MyQ WiFi works extremely well and is very responsive to door events, so I get a notification on my phone almost instantly if the door is activated. I'm extremely happy with our garage door opener.

 

[badatmath]

They did tell me if i got a battery backup I'd need a new battery every 3 years at least. (I assume due to climate but idk)

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

My battery lasts 3-5 years before it fails. I just buy an after market one on EBAY or Amazon and I think I paid somewhere around $15-$20. Very easy to unplug the old one and connect the new one but you do need a ladder to open the door on the opener to get to it. When it dies, it starts to beep and it sounds the same as when the 9V battery fails in the smoke detectors in the house. It always takes me days to figure out the sound is coming from the garage.

 

[DougJohnson]

LOL. All the big installers I called so far use Liftmaster.

The bracket is called an ORB. It is about $75 to buy and the rest is labor. IDK if it goes over the top of what is there or they take it off. It is dark out there right now so would not get a good photo.

I just find it hard to believe I need $1100 worth of opener.

It's $30 at Home Depot: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Clopay-21-in-Opener-Reinforcement-Bracket-Kit-4125479/100069364

It looks like a 10 minute job with a wrench and screw driver.

-- Doug

 

[KarenF]

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?

We have MyQ and really like it. We linked accounts with our son and we can switch between houses in the MyQ app and open/close each other's garage doors. I have a Blink camera in my garage.

 

[Crabbyjerry]

My q

This week, I left the house and almost two hours later I noticed that I'd left the garage door open in my security app. I used myQ to close the door remotely. If I hadn't had that option, I'd have had to hurry home, rather than leisurely packing up my gear, relaxing at the beach, and going out to lunch. I rarely need the feature, but it's awesome to have it when I do!

My brother recommended my q also. It has come in handy many times as we go in an out of garage probably 15-20 times a day walking dog etc. Many times to keypad which I have replaced in the past refuses to work and my wife has called me at work and I’ve opened it on app. Sometimes it’s been quirky but I think that’s the internet, but for a 15 dollar items it’s a great gadget. I’d like to do the thermostat on WiFi also eventually.

 

[djdawson]

They did tell me if i got a battery backup I'd need a new battery every 3 years at least. (I assume due to climate but idk)

I had to replace my battery after a couple years - it starts beeping when it's time, but not frequently enough to easily find where the beeping is coming from. You don't really need to use the battery at all, but the battery store where I took the old one to be recycled had an identical third party battery for a pretty good price, and since I wanted to show them some love for all the old batteries I've taken there to be recycled I got the replacement battery from them. I've still never had to use it though.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

I have had to use it a couple of times in a power cut and it has been a lifesaver. It's slower and it sounds weird when it's opening but it does the job and I'm happy to have it just in case.
I do realize that I could still open the door manually by pulling the release cord to disconnect it from the opener but the battery back is just so much easier.
I've a My Q for ages and never connected it. Today is the day after I finish my Christmas shopping.

 

[Dean56]

Belt drive is the way to go. It is probably the most quiet of the normal openers.

+1


I've had chain drive, worm drive and belt drive. The belt drive is by far the quietest I've had.