Garage Door Openers

Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum

Help Support Winemaking Talk - Winemaking Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Boatboy24

No longer a newbie, but still clueless.
Joined
Mar 18, 2012
Messages
17,136
Reaction score
29,800
Location
DC Suburbs
We came home Christmas night, hit the button and the garage door opened halfway, then stopped. I got out of the car and walked into the garage to hear the motor running, but nothing happening. Using the keypad, I stopped the motor, disconnected the door from the opener and locked it. Finally got around to looking at it yesterday. Chain was on the gear, so no issue there. As suspected, when I opened it up, the gears inside were completely stripped. I can get a 'kit' containing their replacements and a few other small parts for about $30. But this house is nearing 20 years old and I suspect these openers were installed when the house was new or nearly new. They are old Liftmaster models. I was tempted to just attempt the repair, but my thinking is at this age, something else will probably break and/or there is another issue that caused the gears to strip in the first place. So I'm leaning toward a replacement.

Thoughts? Brands/models to look at? The Genie models seem to get fairly mixed reviews. Chamberlain looks OK, and if I'm not mistaken that is the same company that made Liftmaster. I had two Craftsman openers in my old place that worked flawlessly for 10 years. Hesitant to go that route again, considering the shape Sears is in.
 
I have a Chamberlain, installed about 8 years ago, after the Craftsman I had installed when the house was built 4 years earlier decided to strip all it's gears. I have been very happy with it. One thing to consider doing is when it is installed put rubber between the the mounting locations and where they connect to the rafters. Our bedroom is over the garage and this has made it almost silent when the garage doors open.
 
I would be inclined to look at wifi enabled openers, that way it could be opened via an app and phone. I added a wifi switch / relay for my whole house fan and it works like a champ. My goal is to use common wifi and phone to handle the house going forward.

You can then set rules on opening / closing the door, check to see if it is closed, send you a notice when it is opened...

 
Last edited:
I have a Chamberlain, installed about 8 years ago, after the Craftsman I had installed when the house was built 4 years earlier decided to strip all it's gears. I have been very happy with it. One thing to consider doing is when it is installed put rubber between the the mounting locations and where they connect to the rafters. Our bedroom is over the garage and this has made it almost silent when the garage doors open.

Is yours a belt drive? Our current units are chain and a little noisy. Our bedroom is also over the garage - not an issue now, but may be down the road when the kids are older.

What exactly did you do? Put rubber gaskets/washers where you mounted the angle iron to the ceiling?
 
I would be inclined to look at wifi enabled openers, that way it could be opened via an app and phone. I added a wifi switch / relay for my whole house fan and it works like a champ. My goal is to use common wifi and phone to handle the house going forward.

You can then set rules on opening / closing the door, check to see if it is closed, send you a notice when it is opened...

I'm very interested in wifi capabilities after we left for a ski trip last Feb, only to get a call from a neighbor a couple hours later asking if we'd left because our garage had been open all day. Not sure how secure they are at this point, but I imagine you have the capability to 'lock' the door?
 
Our first opener was a Craftsman belt that lasted for 12+ years until lightning strike near by wiped it out and we replaced it with a Liftmaster per friend that is a contract installer. We just had another surge in July and I ordered parts online and fixed it for around $80.
I learned that Liftmaster is Chamberlain's "Pro" model / longer warranty, they also make Craftsman and maybe Raynor. You can add WiFi to old models of openers too.
https://www.liftmaster.com/for-homes/myq-connected-home
We haven't added WiFi yet, we have keypad on outside that neighbors can just hit the "Enter" button to close the door without use of a code!
@NorCal what model # / MFG is that?

As a side note I installed this switch for our light over the kitchen table so wife never has to come home to dark house! It auto changes on / off for Daylight saving time!!
https://www.amazon.com/Honeywell-Econoswitch-RPLS740B-Programmable-Switch/dp/B004AP92N2
I'm just rambling no hijack intended.

TXWineDuo
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Is yours a belt drive? Our current units are chain and a little noisy. Our bedroom is also over the garage - not an issue now, but may be down the road when the kids are older.

What exactly did you do? Put rubber gaskets/washers where you mounted the angle iron to the ceiling?

No mine is a chain drive. But, when my wife leaves in the morning, I hardly hear the garage door open and close. The installer cut small strips of rubber and everywhere a bolt went, he put a whole in the rubber and ran the bolt through it. It provides some small noise and vibration isolation. It was a real godsend, when my kids were still living here and coming home later than they should have. It kept all of us sane.
 
I have a Craftsman belt drive that has been in service for 14yrs without problems, although now that I said that, it will probably fail tomorrow. My garage door is opened multiple times each day, it gets used as the entrance and exit to the house regardless if a car is involved or not. My garage stays heated during the winter months, but I don't know if that influences the service life or not. One of the door torsion springs failed about a year ago, so those have been replaced.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top