My default buying process is research + spreadsheet creation, this time thought I’d ask the community here if you have any experience / wisdom with garage door openers. Thanks for any help!

Additional info: Single car garage built in the 1950s in the U.S. The current opener is a lift master, just eyeballing it probably from the 90s. The door could be original? I don’t know. It’s wood, seems fairly substantial.

Yesterday and this morning started having issues with the door just stopping in the middle of opening or closing. When it stops, the remote button becomes unresponsive for a few seconds. When it starts moving again it goes the other direction so you have to keep pressing and try to get it to close/open before it stops again. This morning I ended up pulling it down part of the way because I’d gone through several rounds of up, down, up, down. It doesn’t seem to want to move manually which isn’t surprising. Worried my car is going to get stuck in there before work so I figure should probably be proactive here.

  • litchralee@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    1·
    6 months ago

    Can you clarify what style of garage door this is? I’m aware of two main styles: 1) a one-piece door which tilts upward, kinda like a doggy door, and 2) a door with four horizontal panels that rolls straight up on tracks. The first type has giant springs on the left and right, whereas the latter has an axial spring situated just above the door.

    In both garage door styles, it should be the case that once the opener is disconnected, the door can be manually lifted and opened, to get the car out during a power cut. If this is not possible, something is wrong and the door itself needs to be serviced first, to avoid cascading issues.

    If you do replace the opener, consider models which have a small backup battery, to operate when there’s a power cut. The door must still be in working order, but the battery will slowly open the door using the remote control, as normal. Some openers have WiFi connectivity – which I think is mostly a gimmick, except if there’s an app to indicate if I’ve closed the garage door or not.