Let's talk garage door openers.....

[MotoCARR]

Let's talk garage door openers.....looking to replace two Chamberlain openers from 1992 in a detached garage. I have seen some that have wifi and the ability to open from a phone.

1. Wifi/smartphone option seems cool. If you have one do you actually use it?
2. These Chamberlain ones have lasted 25+ years, what brand(s) have you used and have they been relatively trouble free?

 

[foodie]

I have the chamberlain lift master myQ and love it. I have not used the attachment with the iPhone but my sister uses it all the time. Very very convient when needing to let someone in the garage to drop something off, or especially with contractors needing to get in and not giving them your garage code. Not only that you know when they arrive and when they leave. That feature works flawlessly. Chamberlain to me is one of the best brands and has been trouble free thankfully. Not to mention their tech support for the myQ is awesome should you have any issues.

 

[Stevedore]

We had 2 new doors & openers installed last March; the openers are Liftmaster 8550's, with wi-fi & battery backup. The wi-fi phone app is nice, although we haven't used it for much other than checking to see if we remembered to close the door after we're on the road somewhere.

The openers are nice & quiet, and the only problem we've had was a dead circuit board, which was replaced under warranty. We think it was due to a nearby lightning strike the night before we noticed the problem.

 

[Dick in Wisconsin]

LiftMaster Shaft drive. I put one in the race shop, very, very happy with it. Very quiet. No long device bouncing around.

 

[countrybumpkin]

Ryobi has a pretty awesome modular opener. It has all sorts of attachments for ot as well. Pretty cool.

https://gizmodo.com/this-modular-garage-door-opener-has-more-features-than-1769116418


I have a Chamberlain chain drive that I caontrol via Chamberlain MyQ. I love it. I can open and close it from anywhere, anytime. I can automate open and closing based off of position, gps tags in my vehicles or whatever. It nptifies me wjen open / closed and for how long. Its pretty nice and was about $75 shipped. I did have to use a wifi extender to get good enough signal to the garage though.

If I had to start from scratch I would go with a direct mount shaft drive mountes to the wall at the door to save ceiling space. Or, the ryobi unit.

 

[kbs2244]

I have no need for the wi fi stuff
But if you are going to replace them, go with the Chamberlain rubber belt ones.
Very smooth and quiet.

It should be a same hole to same hole, bolt off/bolt in, exchange.
They haven't ever changed the basic design.

 

[MotoCARR]

It should be a same hole to same hole, bolt off/bolt in, exchange.
They haven't ever changed the basic design.

Great to hear. The feedback from other forums have the majority saying Liftmaster/Chamberlain.

 

[PhantomEB]

I love my 8550, all my buddies are planning to swap out theirs in a few years for the same.

Still need to play around and get some of the accessories.

 

[The_Geologist]

We just had our Liftmaster from 1997 replaced this past summer with a current model Liftmaster (can't remember the model now, but can update later when I get home). The old one was a belt drive, but the replacement was chain drive. A bit louder, but supposed to be able to last longer. The old belt had stretched (which could have been replaced), but the old motor was getting tired anyway. Only cost $375 to replace the motor, arm, electric eyes, and a few other things (door adjustment, tension adjustment, etc.). I wasn't about to mess with the tension spring myself, so that is why I paid to have someone else do the job.

It has the MyQ ability, but we don't intend to use it. Our door remotes are sufficient for us.

 

[testwerke]

Only qualm I have with the Chamberlain belt drive is that the Homelink buttons in my 2006 car are not compatible with the new “Security+ 2.0” openers. The only solution is to buy an repeater accessory that communicates between the opener and the Homelink button. I just decided to use the included remote and forego the non-backwards compatible feature. Homelink really screwed up here.