I Need New Garage Door Openers

[m_thompson]

The gears in one of my 40 year old garage door openers broke a few days ago. I won't bother trying to find the parts to fix it because replacements are not very expensive.

I only want something simple, no battery backup, maybe WiFi, and nothing else. HomeLink would be nice because the mirrors on our BMWs (except the coupe) have it built in. It looks like the HomeLink on our 10 year old BMWs isn't compatible with the new and improved HomeLink now available in the openers. I am not very interested in connecting the openers to an external server and a phone app, but that feature only costs about $30 but maybe in the future I might be interested.

I searched the typical sites that recommend and rate products, but they only recommend products that have lots of features. It looks like Genie and Chamberlain openers are the most common and most often recommended. Genie has a longer warranty than Chamberlain. I see chain, belt, and screw drives. Chain drive would likely be the longest lasting and I don't care about the additional noise. The Home Depot and Lowes WWW sites were not much help. The products on the two sites have part numbers that are just a little different, but the products look the same and have the same technical specifications. Even on just the Home Depot or Lowes WWW site there are lots of different models from the same manufacturer, but the specifications are listed as the same. Who knows what the differences are?

Does anyone have any recommendations or comments?

 

[tmh]

I just changed from what was supposed to be a Genie lifetime warranty screw drive (lasted 35 years) and went with a Lift Master belt drive with wifi. It wasn't worth the effort to pursue what was supposed to be a lifetime warranty and I have no idea if I could ever find documentation to satisfy whatever Genie would require. I also did not want to wait days or weeks dealing with Genie. I haven't tried the wifi yet. It does have a 5 year warranty and was $550 installed, cheaper than expected for what is supposed to be one of the better units in their product line. Everything was totally replaced and refreshed and I am very happy with it. The screw drive would quiet down considerably with fresh lubrication but the belt drive is unbelievably quiet and smooth, actually amazingly quiet and smooth.

 

[Markos]

I’m about four years strong on my chamberlain 3/4hp belt drive. I have bedrooms above the garage and they are very quiet. All the noise is the door movement, which I muffled via nylon rollers.

Wifi works very well. I don’t use the wifi to open often, but I particularly like the alerts that let me know when the doors open. Quite helpful if you are on vacation and having people watch the house. As you can see I have a few lights that work with the garage remote or my phone.

Closing the door with your phone is a bit annoying because it has a safety feature where it blinks and beeps before shutting.

It also let’s me know that I haven’t driven my BMW in nearly a year. I actually unplugged the door and locked the roller track.

 

[bavbob]

Markos, Thanks for the nylon roller idea to quiet my doors!