If you’ve just got your new garage built, chances are that you had difficult time deciding which was the right garage door opener for your situation. Others may say that an opener is just an opener, and as long as it does its job, which is to open and to shut the garage door, it cannot be wrong. However, going deeper in details, you’ll see how many types of garage door openers are there, thus making your choice difficult.

First of all, there are many brands. My father has a Stanley garage door opener operated by remote, and he is satisfied with it. In my opinion, Stanley or not Stanley, Genie or Liftmaster, or Chamberlain, a garage opener needs to have certain qualities and features as a remote control, a service team ready to install it and to help me with troubleshooting in maintenance and operation, plus an affordable price and an extended guarantee. Is Stanley offering all these? Probably they do, but I think others may do it as well. You definitely need to do some research prior to buying anything.

Garage Door Openers Types

There are three different types of door openers:

1. chain driven opener
2. belt driven
3. screw drive openers

Each of them fits a different purpose, and they are chosen depending on the door’s weight or size. A chain driven garage door opener is appropriate for heavy doors, like the wooden garage doors, which are massive, solid, and usually weigh quite a lot more that other doors made of composite materials or aluminum. So, wooden doors are a match here. Chain drives are driven by a powerful motor, which gives them resistance to bad weather conditions, but which makes them a bit noisy.

Screw drive openers come as the most common option for usual garage doors. They typically work buy having a lifting mechanism that moves along a threaded steel rod. These are quite powerful and come in variety of different horse power motors.

Last but not least, the belt driven model of garage door opener has the great quality of being extremely silent. If your garage is neighboring a bedroom, you may want to choose it for your door. The belts do have a tendency to wear out a little fast then the other types of models. Belt driven openers typically don’t have the power that the others have either.

These are the basics when choosing a garage door opener that will suit the needs of your garage.

For more info, you can check out Tyler Casselman’s site Garage Door Openers Guide

Garage Door Openers belong to that category of inventions that saved so many of us from back injuries for over 35 years, yet there has been few new modifications or major innovations in these garage door openers. They are almost the same as by the time they were invented. Yet, there are a few improvements, like the remote control, so you can open and close the door directly from inside your car. And lights have been added as well; even timers, which turn off the lights if not in use for a certain number of minutes.

Believe it or not some people have voice activated garage door openers instead of you having to place your little finger over the button when you walk from your house to the garage. Pretty funny and perhaps for the person who has every thing. Yet we need more features for our garage door openers. Probably some people may think this is silly and that we should be pleased with what we already have.

Well I submit to you that I have a plan that will revolutionize garage door openers forever. How so you ask?

Well I propose that when you go into the garage and say “OPEN!” that the garage door senses the outside air and says;

“Are you sure, it is negative 12 degrees out there with wind chill, don’t you want to wait until you get into the car and start it first?”

Then you can say: “Why yes Genie, thank you for warning me!”

“By your command!”

Once the car is started the garage door opener senses this additional noise or shock sound waves from the car door closing and then it will open for you. So, the future will be pretty cool. Next the ceiling will open and you can vertically take off in your flying car and go to your next destination. It seems like sky is the limit when it comes to garage door openers evolution.

Garage door openers need an engine to make them operate the door. You don’t have to think in big terms here. No, you should not need a V8 engine to run the garage door. The automatic garage door openers are so convenient and they are standard in most garages today. No rain or snow when you get out of your car to open the garage door. Actually you don’t get out of all, you just sit in your car and press a button on the remote control.

There are some issues to be aware of concerning the safety and security. For example for young children, some old garage doors can pose a risk. Even if you don’t have any children living with you, you need to concern yourself with any neighbor kids, even housebreakers! that you could be held liable for if an accident were to occur. The newer models of overhead roll up garage doors feature pinch resistant or anti pinch panels. This feature makes the door safe and fingers will not get injured if stuck in the gap between panels while the door is closing.

When you have decided which type and make of your garage door that suits you, the next step is to choose a garage door opener. You will need a powerful opener if the door is heavy. An opener with at least 3/4 horsepower may be your best option. Also choose a model that uses heavy-duty, industrial-strength chains that will guarantee you years of dependable operation. If your door is of normal weight you can go for a less powerful
opener.

Most garage door openers make noises and so does the door itself although some models are specifically designed to be quiet. If you want a more quiet system you need openers with very quiet belt openers. The models have flexible rubber belts that mute vibrations and eliminate the metal-to-metal contact of other chain- or screw-based models. Also more powerful systems usually work easier, smoother and are more silent.

For safety reasons an electronic eye at the base of the door automatically cause the opener to reverses during the close cycle if an object or person breaks the beam. Usually the systems work even when the door sense an excessive load on the closing mechanism, which will automatically reverse the closing or opening.

Some models, actually a lot of them, claim to be virtually maintenance-free. It is usually self-lubricating systems with chains that always run smoothly and make as little noise as possible. More expensive models have a kind of isolation of the motor which gives a quiet and powerful operation.

Many garage owners who decide for an upgrade and go for buying a remote control door opener ask themselves if they need a specialist to install it, or they can do it by themselves. Genie has the answers in their animated installation instructions. You watch the film, then decide if that’s a job you can do or not. Genie provides you with the tools you need, so you can buy them before you start installing your opener. Tools like the electric drill, the hammers and the screwdrive are probably found in many homes, but you’ll also need a carpenter’s level, a socket wrench, a step ladder and a few more tools you may have to buy or borrow.

Genie is so trustful in the ability of their clients to install the openers by themselves, that they are selling even products from their premium line in stores such as Home Depot, Sears or Lowe’s. For example, the Genie Direct Lift screw drive garage door opener is considered a do-it-yourself product and it is sold with an installation manual.

The Genie Company History

Founded in 1923, and known in its early days as the Alliance Manufacturing Company, the company produced a broad line of consumer, industrial and military products. When America was at war in the 1940´s, Alliance’s factories produced everything from fuse caps and voltage regulators to canteen handles and generators. In May 1954, the Alliance Manufacturing Company first produced its own garage door opener unit. Genie was the first mass-produced, radio-controlled residential garage door opener, becoming the market leader in design, safety and reliable service – core values Genie still upholds to this day. In the years following the introduction of the original opener Genie, engineering innovations brought about the development of the first screw drive opener in 1958. Further design refinements ultimately resulted in the offering of a split rail. This innovation opened opportunities to mass retailers for the first time in the mid 1970´s. Consumer appeal for this product grew alongside the rapidly developing do-it-yourself market. In 1983 the company entered the home and shop vacuum market, and in 1985 it changed its name to Genie Home Products.

By the time Overhead Door Corporation purchased the company in 1994, the Genie name had become well-known for its reliability for millions of customers around the world. Its continuing focus on product quality, innovation and service remains the hallmark of Genie’s legacy.

Today, Genie manufactures remote-controlled garage door opening systems for multiple distribution channels, as well as a full line of commercial operators private labeled exclusively for Overhead Door distributors. Genie’s line of garage door openers include advanced features such as the Intellicode remote access security system that automatically changes the security code to one of billions of combinations each time the transmitter is activated, as well as the Safe-T-Beam infrared beam system that senses objects in the door’s path to prevent entrapment.

You can search for distributors for Genie garage door openers in your area here.