I've lived in a few different houses, and consequently had a variety of door openers. Self install is possible, but can be a pain. By luck, one year we went to a home owner convention of some sort where they try to sell you windows, roofing, jacuzzi tubs, garage door openers, etc. Kind of cool in one way -- but tiring after awhile. Anyhow, with several door opener companies at the place, they were slicing each other's throat on pricing. I had been looking around before and ended up buying one there that was was $50 less than any deals I could find before, included free install and had tax included so that wasn't a separate charge.
1. Craftsman - A few older homes I've lived in had older Craftsman door openers. One was great, just looked old. Another had issues and made weird sounds when opening. The latter was a rental unit, and the owner had no desire to fix.
2. Genie - I owned 2 homes where I installed these units. Both screw drives. I liked them quite a bit. Went with the larger 3/4 HP vs 1/2 HP motors. Never had issues at either house.
3. Liftmaster - This came pre-installed at my most recent house purchase. It's a belt drive model and quiet like the others said. It has gadgetry out the ying yang. And I noticed the other day I don't think the eyes are calibrated or hooked up properly as I was horsing around tried to stop the door by waiving my foot/leg in front of the sensor and it didn't stop. Also, I noticed it sounds like it sometimes "struggles" to get the door all the way open. Not sure if that is part of how belt drives work or not. Maybe the door has too much tension on the springs. Overall I like the unit, I'm just not up to speed with it.
