Your Guide to Choosing Garage Door Opener
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The last thing you need after a hard day’s work or a long drive is to put in more physical effort to get something done. In this case, we are talking about having to open and close your own garage door. It might not seem like a lot of effort when you’re fresh and energetic. But, after hours of slogging at the office, you just want to park your car, get in, and drop yourself on the couch.
That’s exactly why we have garage door openers. They make your life a little easier to live. They take care of all the heavy garage door lifting work while you just park your car and get inside.
However, a lot of people don’t really know how to choose a good garage door opener. If you’re one of them, this basic guide should help you make a good decision.
Type of Garage Door Opener
Choosing Garage Door Opener types Chain Drive, Belt Drive and Screw Drive
There are mainly 3 types – Chain Drive, Screw Drive, and Belt Drive.
The chain drive is the most common. The key advantage with these types is that they can lift any kind of garage door; from aluminum ones to heavier wooden ones. Plus, they are cheap too. However, they also happen to be noisy. So, they’re best suited for homes that have the living space on top of the garage.
Screw drive garage doors are moderately priced and mainly used for single piece garage doors. However, they require periodic maintenance such as oiling and lubrication. But, owners like them because they are quiet.
Belt drive garage doors are the quietest of the lot. They work with garage doors of any weight and type. However, the catch is that they are really expensive.
Safety And Garage Door Openers
“automatic reverse” feature
Once you decide on the type, the second and probably, the most important aspect to look at is safety. Garage door openers control your garage doors, which are extremely heavy. Even the lightweight versions are of significant weight.
As a result, safety becomes a huge concern because you don’t want your garage door falling on a car or even worse, a person. That’s why there are Federal regulations that demand all garage door openers be fixed with sensors to detect people or objects.
Another safety feature to look for is “automatic reverse”. This stops the door as soon as an obstruction is detected.
There are even more advanced sensors that use beams to detect objects at a distance. Even if something comes within the range of the beam, the sensors on the opener will detect it as a possible obstruction and prevent the garage door from coming down.
Power
Battery Backup Opener
Garage door openers need some power to operate and when it comes to that, there are 3 main options – ½ horsepower motors, ¾ horsepower motors, and 1 horsepower motors.
The first is the most basic option and good for standard sized doors while the second is ideal for oversized doors.
As for the last option, you’ll need it if your garage doors happen to be on the “really heavy” side. Other than that, they are great for faster operation as well.
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