New garage door openers...

[holland_patrick]

i'm getting new garage door insulated and will be getting new door openers.

now are the Liftmaster 8500 Wall Mount Garage Door Opener worth it I really like the side pull but they are an added expense. this is a normal garage built in the 90's with a flat ceiling.

SO what do you guys think? normal belt drive or the 8500??

 

[James-W]

Is there a particular reason why you would want a wall mount door opener?

 

[gnpenning]

What is the radius of your track? 8500 should be installed with a hi lift track. If not you should use pusher springs. While some 8500 have been installed with out either of these with no problem many have had issues.

Mainly with the door starting down then getting slack in the cable and reversing back to open. I've seen enough of these in multiple door installation that I believe it's in the opener.

They can be a great opener in the right situation. I run trolley openers in my own garage.

 

[holland_patrick]

we run them at the FD and t6hey are great... I'm just looking at them for home..

 

[upndown]

Big difference between what you run at the Firehouse and an 8500! Gotta agree with gnpenning! Until I stop reading about various problems associated with the 8500, I gotta go with the tried and tested chain or belt drive! Not talking about the **** they sell at the box stores.

 

[icenfire01]

I have 2 8500's installed in mine. Best opener on the market IMO. I have had mine up for about 6 mos on a standard garage door with no helper springs and had none of the problems mentioned above.

 

[splam]

I just installed two Raynor Prodigy 2 and am very impressed. They appear to be just like the 8500. I installed two new fully insulated doors, one 9x20 and the other 10x10. They are super quiet and very smooth but also vey expensive.

 

[nickm1024cobra]

I had an 8500 at my old house for 5 years. New house 3 months. I would buy nothing else. Have had no issues. Extremely quiet. If you don't need the overhead height increase than it may not be worth it if already setup for center mount.

 

[drmarkr]

I have 4 of the 3800's.....3 in place for a couple of years now with zero problems. One other I put on one of the rollers on my shop about 18 months ago. Same story on that one as well.

Love them. Quick install, easy to set up, amazingly quiet.

 

[Redwolf947]

I installed an 8500 with regular tracks.. You just need a well balanced door.. This unit is much quieter than the chain drive that I took out. I don't seem to have a before pic that I can find. The garage just looks bigger with the 8500..

Here's my install sorry a bit blurry.
View media item 52873
My ceiling is 106" from the floor at the moment. I hope to put in a lift in the future. I guess it depends what you plan to do in there.

 

[obonaven]

Does that unit have battery backup? I'm pretty sure thats what that says.

If so have you had a hcnace to use it on battery? We had a 5 hour power otuage this AM and it would have been nice to operate the garage door.

Does this have an advanced feature like WiFi so you cna tell when its open or closed or ope it via your cell phone?

I installed an 8500 with regular tracks.. You just need a well balanced door.. This unit is much quieter than the chain drive that I took out. I don't seem to have a before pic that I can find. The garage just looks bigger with the 8500..

Here's my install sorry a bit blurry.
View media item 52873
My ceiling is 106" from the floor at the moment. I hope to put in a lift in the future. I guess it depends what you plan to do in there.

 

[CFDgarage]

I have two of these one with battery back up. My 16ft door was giving me the down 7 inches and popping up again issue and Liftmaster replaced the whole unit. It seems to be working so far. My doors are insulated too. I have torsion springs to assist. I love the openers but that issue was really getting me pissed off at them. If you don't have the wifi control get it that's the best thing about the openers.

 

[CFDgarage]

 

[faralta]

I just had three 8500's installed in my new pole barn. One drives a 10'4"x16', another drives a 10'4"x9' and the last one drives a 10'x10' - none of them are high-lift and all work very well. I noticed the installers took specific care in "training" the doors for the correct pressure when moving down the track. Essentially, they held additional slight pressure up, by hand, while the doors were being trained for their downward pressure. I believe this helps many of the false starts and start-stop issues I've read about. Anyway, time will tell as I've had them only a few months.

 

[MikeF]

If you go 8500, install cable keepers. They go over your rollers on the bottom fixture and wrap around the cable with some tension. Picks up the cable slack. Also raise the rear of the horizontals a bit if you can.

 

[GYPSY400]

I have 2 8500's on 10x10 doors.. I can't believe how quiet they are! Also the internet gateway is nice.. It sends me a notification on my phone when the doors open.. Or if one of my buddies drop by to pick something up I can open the door from work. Comes in handy once in awhile


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[manwithtools]

I'll let you know in a few days, I just bought three of them for new doors on the shop. I needed at least one of them to allow clearance for a car lift in one bay; decided to do all three after pricing a good belt or chain drive model and the necessary track extension to work with 8 foot high doors. The price difference was not that great and decided I already would need to provide 120 VAC to the wall that had the doors, this way I'll just continue down the wall with that circuit to feed all three openers.

 

[upndown]

Not talking about the **** they sell at the box stores.

If you purchase the pro series openers belt or chain, there are no extensions to deal with! Correct length rail for the height of the door.

 

[morgaj1]

I had no idea there was such a thing as wall mount openers. Those are really nice.

 

[Want2race]

I have had my 8500s for about 6 months

I've gone thru a good few parts on the one door. The other has been solid

Lately I'm waiting for a new limits board and just replaced the lock on it. :/

 

[manwithtools]

If you purchase the pro series openers belt or chain, there are no extensions to deal with! Correct length rail for the height of the door.

So I guess the "pro series" openers come at no extra cost compared to those POS big box openers?

Can you explain the price vs. performance of the openers you describe as "pro series"?

I'm the type of person that will spend the money when it makes sense, I'm not afraid of paying for performance in other words.

I'm thinking that the "pro series" will cost enough that the 8500's are again - not that much more expensive.

 

[s_ontario]

The elite series is the best this one has the auto brake added security and safety incase a spring breaks
Chain falls for power failure





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[manwithtools]

Yes, those are nice openers. I was quoted an insane price for those at work so we built our own. My whole question centers around cost vs. performance. I paid $300 a piece for the Liftmaster 8500's and in comparison to other consumer operators they were not that much different in terms of cost and features.

I realize there are "better" openers and maybe better cost vs value openers, but to dismiss these seems shortsighted without giving them a chance. I'll reserve my judgment until I see how they perform in the longer term.

 

[upndown]

So I guess the "pro series" openers come at no extra cost compared to those POS big box openers?

Can you explain the price vs. performance of the openers you describe as "pro series"?

I'm the type of person that will spend the money when it makes sense, I'm not afraid of paying for performance in other words.

I'm thinking that the "pro series" will cost enough that the 8500's are again - not that much more expensive.

A pro series is simply an opener you have to buy from a door co. Not available at box store. They come with a solid rail vs a 3 piece rail, also come with a solid chain vs chain and cable. Won't fit in the trunk of a Honda.

As far as price, don't really know. I wouldn't install them, and I bought all my product wholesale from the big distributors in town. But definitely not the price difference between standard and a wall mount. I've serviced enough of the box store openers to know better!

Is it worth the price difference for a pro series? In my opinion Yes! Smoother operation as well as never having to replace the drive cable when it breaks. That alone would cost way more than the price difference.

Don't get me wrong, I think the side mount openers are a great idea, long overdue for residential use! Providing the application is right.

 

[Jim Dawson]

I recently moved to a smaller house. At my pRevious house I built a second garage with a 16'X10' door and installed an 8500. When I sold the house the 8500 had been working flawlessly for 5 years. I'm going to replace my current Craftsman opener with an 8500 as soon as I can.