A Guide to Garage Door Openers
Garage doors are no longer the regular roll-top ones, which have
to be pushed up by hand. These days, garage door openers are
provided with various accessories to make opening easier. No
matter how heavy the garage door, it can be fitted with the
right kind of opener. These openers ensure utmost safety and
security for garages under any conditions. They are also
provided with several options and in various designs to suit the
exact requirements of the user. The best thing is, they can be
installed within 3-5 hours (even do-it-yourself ones). A
professional can install a garage door opener in 1 hour!
Garage door openers are of two kinds depending on the use:
residential and commercial. In the commercial range of garage
door openers, the main models are: Trolley, Jackshift, Hoist and
the Slide models. While Trolley openers are used for standard
lifting on sectional doors, Jackshift is used for grilles,
rolling doors and shutters. Hoist operators are similar to
Jackshifts but they are also suitable for heavy duty industrial
doors. The slide door openers are meant for single and
bi-parting slide doors and also for fire doors.
The main step in purchasing a garage door opener is to determine
the actual drive system. Garage door openers are of three kinds
depending on the drive system: belt driven, chain driven and
direct drive. The most important points to be considered in a
garage opener system are the kind of motor and the horsepower.
Garage door openers differ in speed also. The average speed is 7
inches lift/drop per second. There are openers that operate at
even double this speed.
Garage door openers are provided with different kinds of
warranties. Safety is another important aspect while choosing
the right garage door opener. It is mandatory that all automatic
door openers should be equipped with a non-contact invisible
beam system that can sense the approach of a person and make the
door to reverse back to the open position. Other mandatory
features of garage openers are: automatic lights, a timed
reversing feature, a manual emergency release cord and a force
adjustment feature.
Garage door openers are usually noisy but some advanced models
are being designed to be really quiet. Proper maintenance and
lubrication would also lessen the noise made by garage door
openers. On the whole, garage door openers should be weather
resistant, safe, and should have the least wire exposure for
long life. Garage doors can also be operated by a remote
control. This is especially useful for people who have homes
with multiple garages. However, it is better to have a rolling
radio signal code for the control as it is easy for thieves to
capture the code from thin air. Garage door openers can also
have an automatic light, remote control and a wall operator, as
well as the option of single/two/three button transmitters.