Jack shaft openers besides Liftmaster?

[Robbo]

I’ve had Liftmaster jack shaft openers in two houses now. The previous house we lived in had a residential model 8500 installed on a single car door.

Our current house has several commercial models (8900 I believe) out in the shop.

My experience with them is they are garbage. The residential one started opening on its own randomly.

In this current house, the commercial model on one door is not quite 18 months old, and has probably been used 40 times. Quit working today out of the blue and just clicks once and doesn’t try to move.. According to the trouble code & troubleshooting chart it’s likely the control board.

I’d rather not spend any money on a what I feel like is a crappy product from a less than stellar company (after reading how they dealt with the residential model board failures) so is there another company that makes a Quality jack shaft style opener?

Thanks
Rob

 

[sublime68charger]

I'll be following along as I'm in the market for a jack shaft opener for my 18'x8' door right now that I opener via strong arm method that I am getting tired of having to due.

 

[Disney]

I shopped for one when I built my shop. I found Liftmaster, Genie, and Zap. I went with the Liftmaster based on reviews here on GJ. I've had it in for 6 years and not a single problem. It's on a 16x10 insulated door.

 

[Robbo]

I shopped for one when I built my shop. I found Liftmaster, Genie, and Zap. I went with the Liftmaster based on reviews here on GJ. I've had it in for 6 years and not a single problem. It's on a 16x10 insulated door.

Thanks for the feedback. I wish I could say the same haha.

 

[m3bs]

I have two 8500s, each lifting a 10 x 10. No issues in 10 years.

 

[jetranger]

I had 2 8500's at our old house, never an issue. Now we have 1 8500 on the main door at our new house and it gets used daily, and we have 3 8500W's on the shop... 2 2x12 doors and a 14x14. I did have one of mine with the same symptoms as yours about a month ago (on a smaller 12x12, no less) and my garage door guy came and swapped it out same day, no charge.

So, 1 in 6 of mine bit the dust, but honestly, I love them and can't picture not having them. My garage door guy said they are having some quality control issues in 2020 due to Covid... whether this is true or not, I do not know, but all 3 of my 8500W's were built in July 2020.

 

[bas157]

I shopped for one when I built my shop. I found Liftmaster, Genie, and Zap. I went with the Liftmaster based on reviews here on GJ. I've had it in for 6 years and not a single problem. It's on a 16x10 insulated door.

I'm not finding any info anymore on the residential Zap opener. Only finding commercial ones that I'm not sure if they have remotes to open or not. Their website really leaves much to be desired. Lots of invalid links. I know 2 years ago they had one coming out called the "Butler" for residential use but really not finding anything current about it.

 

[ckessel]

I have two of the 8500's in my new garage. Had one at my old one. Love the space they occupy and not occupy. My only negative is the companies help/tech support for the MYQ add ons. Bought one of the cameras so we could see inside the garage for security. HAD planned on buying a second unit on the Black Friday deal. Could not get any further on setup of the unit past naming location. Calls into tech line got no calls back, we had to call in. Got an email confirming conversation on second call in, was waiting AGAIN for call back, got crickets. We received a survey asking about our experience. Told them just how wonderful and helpful it was[NOT], put on the survey they need to investigate our case number so they could see what has transpired so far. Still no calls back from them for assistance. They were like, gee thats too bad call in again. This is a week later. So...next week I'm taking it back for a refund from the door supplier and we are getting a Nest unit instead like I said on the survey.

 

[Robbo]

I have two of the 8500's in my new garage. Had one at my old one. Love the space they occupy and not occupy. My only negative is the companies help/tech support for the MYQ add ons. Bought one of the cameras so we could see inside the garage for security. HAD planned on buying a second unit on the Black Friday deal. Could not get any further on setup of the unit past naming location. Calls into tech line got no calls back, we had to call in. Got an email confirming conversation on second call in, was waiting AGAIN for call back, got crickets. We received a survey asking about our experience. Told them just how wonderful and helpful it was[NOT], put on the survey they need to investigate our case number so they could see what has transpired so far. Still no calls back from them for assistance. They were like, gee thats too bad call in again. This is a week later. So...next week I'm taking it back for a refund from the door supplier and we are getting a Nest unit instead like I said on the survey.

There was a big thread I found about the board failures a few years ago when my residential opener started randomly opening at all hours (I haven't bothered to look it up again.. and it might have even been on another car related forum I'm on...it's been a few years) but there was a lot of customer service stories that sounded a lot like yours. That's what put me off Liftmaster in the first place... think I'll just replace it with another brand.

I had 2 8500's at our old house, never an issue. Now we have 1 8500 on the main door at our new house and it gets used daily, and we have 3 8500W's on the shop... 2 2x12 doors and a 14x14. I did have one of mine with the same symptoms as yours about a month ago (on a smaller 12x12, no less) and my garage door guy came and swapped it out same day, no charge.

So, 1 in 6 of mine bit the dust, but honestly, I love them and can't picture not having them. My garage door guy said they are having some quality control issues in 2020 due to Covid... whether this is true or not, I do not know, but all 3 of my 8500W's were built in July 2020.

All of my openers are pre-2020. But out of 5 openers, I've had two control board failures... one on a door that has probably been opened less than 100 times. The other one I don't know because it had been installed several years prior to us buying the house... but at any rate, 20% is bad enough of a record for me to look elsewhere.

 

[Zmann]

1.5 years on my LM 8500. probably 4 up down uses a day avg
no issues. .