If your garage door opener is so old that you can’t remember how it is, then it’s probably the time to think seriously about changing it. Here are five good reasons that it needs to be replaced. Basically, it comes down to how safe your garage door system is as well as being able to take advantage of new technologies that will simplify your life.
Improve your safety and that of your family
What would you say is the main entry point to your house if you have an attached garage? For most homeowners, it’s the… garage! All of you who park their car there, leave for work in the morning and come back in the evening; those who use it as a workshop or to access lawn and garden accessories, as well as the kids when they run off to school then return in the afternoon… it gets a lot of use as “the door.”
So, taking that into consideration, it becomes very important for your door opener to be safe and not liable to hit or injure anyone. Did you know that before 1993 door openers had only one automatic reversal system, the one we call “mechanical”? In this system, when the door is lowering, if it comes in contact with an object or person, that pressure will cause it to immediately reverse direction.
As not all people were overly diligent about verifying the proper functioning of their garage door, U.S. and Canadian authorities added a second safety system, this one using photo eyes. This system consists of 2 units placed on each side of the door, about 4 to 6 inches from the ground with one sending a beam of light to the other. If anything breaks this beam, the door automatically goes back up.
Are you confident that your door opener is equipped with these 2 automatic reversal systems and that they are working properly, thus ensuring your safety and that of your family?
Prevent your door opener from being used by intruders
If you programmed the remote for your door opener using DIP switches set in either a +, 0, or – position, it is very likely that the signal can be received by ill‑intentioned people who will then go ahead and burglarize your home in your absence.
Since 1993, most door openers have used the much more advanced technology of rolling codes. This means that each time you press on the remote, a completely new code is generated for the subsequent use. In 1993, Chamberlain Group (including the brands Chamberlain, LiftMaster, and Craftsman) started equipping its remotes with the Security+ system which allowed for many millions of codes. This was followed by its Security+ 2.0 system in 1996 offering more than 1 billion possible codes.
Today, we are talking about connected homes
We have now reached the point where we can use our smartphones, tablets or laptops to open and close our garage doors from anywhere. Chamberlain Group (LiftMaster and Craftsman) have offered the technology MyQ since 2013.
What’s more, since August 2017, new garage door openers have come with Wi‑Fi technology, meaning you can use your voice to open and close the garage door. We’ve certainly come a long way, haven’t we!
Today, you can open and close the garage door from your smartphone.
Reduce noise, especially if your bedroom is located over the garage
If your door opener operates with a chain drive, like that on a bicycle, or a system made up of a chain attached to a steel cable, you’ve found where those garage noises are coming from. Today, there are door openers that use rubber belts (reinforced with metal fibers similar to the way car tires are made) that are proven to be much quieter.
To reduce the noise even further, you can choose to replace your metal rollers with white or black nylon rollers. In addition, there is even a vibration isolator system which uses rubber placed between the opener motor and the metal brackets holding it to the ceiling to further quiet operation.
Are too frequent power outages causing problems?
Then be aware that some door openers come with a backup battery, specifically the models 8500, 8500W, 8550W and 8360W from LiftMaster. In the event of a prolonged outage, you would able to use your door opener 20 or so times during the outage.
Our friendly professionals know garage doors and door openers inside out! They will advise you and explain the best choice to make based on your requirements, whatever they may be. Give us a call at Midlothian Garage Doors today!
