Garage door openers: what we supply, install and repair

We supply, install and repair LiftMaster, Chamberlain and Genie openers. An opener does not lift a garage door: the springs do that, and the opener only supplies the last part of the effort and holds the door where it is put. That is why an opener fitted to a badly balanced door fails early no matter how good it is.

The four drive types

Chain drive is a bicycle chain pulling a trolley along a rail. It is the cheapest, the most durable, and the loudest, which matters if there is a bedroom over the garage and does not if the garage is detached.

Belt drive replaces the chain with a reinforced rubber belt. Same mechanism, considerably quieter, and it is the usual choice on an attached garage.

Screw drive turns a threaded steel rod. Fewer moving parts, mid-range noise, and it wants its rod kept greased.

Wall-mount, sometimes called a jackshaft, bolts beside the door and drives the torsion shaft directly. There is no rail across the ceiling at all, which is the answer when the ceiling is needed for storage, when there is a car lift, or on a high-lift or cathedral-ceiling garage. It needs a torsion spring system and enough side room to fit.

Horsepower, and what it is really about

A heavy steel, wooden or carriage-style door gets a three-quarter horsepower opener. A lighter single door does fine on a half. The number is less about lifting power than about the strain the motor takes on every cycle: an underpowered opener on a heavy door will run hot, get noisy, and strip its gears years early.

A door with a broken or badly worn spring makes every opener underpowered, which is why the balance gets checked before an opener is quoted.

Features worth having, and one that is not obvious

Battery backup keeps the door working in a power cut, which on an attached garage with no side door is the difference between getting your car out and not. Wi-Fi lets you see whether the door is open from somewhere else, and close it. A soft start and stop reduces the shock loading on the door hardware, which quietly extends the life of everything else.

Every opener with a remote is a radio device. Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada names garage door openers among the Category I equipment that Canadians should look up in its Radio Equipment List, the list of radio equipment cleared for use in Canada, before buying.

The one that is not obvious is the reinforcement strut. A lightweight top section flexes when an opener pulls on it, and a strut across that section is what stops the opener slowly tearing its own bracket out of the door.

Repair or replace

A motor that hums while nothing moves is usually a stripped gear kit, and that is a repair. Logic boards, capacitors, limit switches, remotes, keypads, trolleys and rails are all replaceable. Replacement makes sense when the unit is old enough that parts are hard to get, when it has no safety sensors, or when it stalls and needs adjustment repeatedly rather than once.

If the opener on offer is second-hand, check it first. Health Canada's advice on second-hand products is that older products, even in good working order, may not meet current safety regulations and may have been recalled, and that a used product should be checked against its recalls database before you take it.