Liftmaster 8500 huge price increase?

[Viper98912]

Hello everyone,

Was going to buy a couple last month, but now as I go to order, they've gone up in price anywhere from $100-300 each?

Am I missing something here?

 

[kaymccampbell]

No, just greed.

 

[nadogail]

Because of the poor customer experience I received when I purchased a Liftmaster opener, I prefer not to consider them for any future purchases.

 

[Flat Thunder Channel]

I purchased and had my garage doors installed by an overhead door company. They sold and installed a side jack door opener on my 12'x20' garage door. It is 'Manaras Opera' brand. I will be installing the same model on my rear garage door in the future. I think it is a good quality unit!

 

[CraigStu]

I didn't have any real problems w/ my 8500 in the last house, just annoyances. I will say it is quite quiet but it is also kind of slow moving. I am not sure I really like the concept though. First, I wanted the door to go up further as I was losing maybe 5 inches of height compared to the opening. So I adjusted it to go further but then it wouldn't reliably start to close because too much of it was on the horizontal part of the track. And nothing but gravity closes it. I guess the track should have been higher up the wall. The up travel stop position wasn't reliable so I put some bolts/nuts in the track for it to stop against using the force limiter. I also wasn't a fan of the lock method. You have that solenoid lock but, if it happens to fail to operate then, as said above, nothing but it's weight keeps it closed. And dang, reading of other's problems here + a big price increase, I'd be looking at options.

 

[Chuckster in NJ]

I wanted the door to go up further as I was losing maybe 5 inches of height compared to the opening. So I adjusted it to go further but then it wouldn't reliably start to close because too much of it was on the horizontal part of the track. And nothing but gravity closes it. I guess the track should have been higher up the wall.

Install pusher springs On the tracks to solve your problem.

 

[Jwallace1]

i have had one for probably a year and a half with no issues, i know a lot of people love them and a lot of people hate them, what are our options for the side mount style openers other than commercial? i have two doors and only one currently has an opener on it. i will say the big bonus with this style opener is how easy it is to install you don't have to mess around with brackets up in the ceiling and in a pole building it can be tough to find things to mount it to since the ceiling is typically open.

thanks

 

[nadogail]

Because of the way the Liftmaster Rep withheld information about their known problems with radio interference in my local area, the next Liftmaster purchase for one of the 7 garage doors I am responsible for will be predicated on future weather reports.

That is when Hades freezes over, and then only maybe.

 

[aggie113]

Also, many places are low or out of the Chaimberlain RJO70 units. Maybe manufacturing was slowed down a lot due to Covid 19?

 

[Viper98912]

^ I wonder if that's it, because it appears that some sellers are out of stock as well. I hope it comes back down to the previous price (about $100 less per unit).

 

[Metallitubby]

I've been waiting for my 8500 to show up for over a month now. They are far behind production schedules, which probably means that they're looking to maximize whatever they can sell them for.

 

[aggie113]

I looked around at local sellers for the RJO70 and couldn't find any. Ended up buying one reasonably priced on eBay.

 

[peterlawl84]

I was had a company come out and give me a bid, he was saying they changed the circuit board a couple of years ago and have not had any issues with them burning out like people have mentioned before. probably higher prices due to shortage from cover

 

[Viper98912]

I've been waiting for my 8500 to show up for over a month now. They are far behind production schedules, which probably means that they're looking to maximize whatever they can sell them for.

I hope this is the reason and that it'll come back down to the pre-covid price in a few months...

 

[jbwilkins]

There are primarily manufactured in Mexico and their plant was shut down for several weeks, and only recently has it gotten to 100% production. We build ~5000 homes a year and are struggling to get openers for our jobs as an exclusive partner of theirs.

 

[eastbaysubaru]

Haven't heard about the price increase. I got one off of Amazon at the end of April for $350. No problems with delivery, but that was early on in the pandemic ****. I wouldn't consider any other opener at this point and have recommended them wholeheartedly to as many people that will listen. I hardly noticed the increased opening/closing times as the thing is so quiet I no longer can tell when it opens or closes from inside the house.

FWIW, we've been using them for over a decade now on various projects and we've only had one of the weird opening issues with the wall controller that have been noted elsewhere on the forum. I believe they were earlier units as that location is one of the first place we used them. Liftmaster sent out a replacement wall controller no questions asked and the opener has been operating flawlessly since.

-Brian

 

[Bigblockyeti]

Many things related to build have escalated quite a bit, lumber in particular as it was forecasted there would be less building during the pandemic coupled with reduced manufacturing capacity as factories for many things adjust to keep employees safe. Disruptions in raw materials feeding some factories has snowballed that effect.

 

[Chevy-SS]

I had two 8500's installed about 6 years ago in new garage addition. They have been very good. I lube them once in a while, and they are smooth & quiet. I also periodically disconnect the gear, and raise/lower the doors by hand, just to make sure the spring tension is correct.

One hard-wired wall switch failed, that's been extent of issues so far. I'd happily buy another 8500.

 

[pgilmore7]

I noticed that too, I had been contemplating buying two for my roll up doors. I had them saved for later in my Amazon cart and about a month or so ago I noticed the price went up between $200-300. I asked the seller about the jump in price and never got a response.

 

[Viper98912]

Hello everyone, just a quick update to help my fellow GJer's -

I had surprisingly come across a couple of Chamberlain RJO70 units at my local Home Depot/Lowes sitting on the shelf; I definitely never expected to come across 2 of them in a big box store! But at $499 each, and knowing I was previously looking to purchase a pair for about $765 combined, I passed.

So after much (much) research, I went ahead with purchasing the Chamberlain RJO20 units from Lowes.com, since they were going for $399 each, closer to the original price I was looking for. This was also the cheapest I could find, and looks (is?) identical to the Liftmaster 8500 but also comes with the add-on myQ wireless module included.

More importantly, it said it would arrive to my local store in about a week and half. After ordering, I got an email from Lowes that said it would be delayed about a week. Then I started to get nervous about if it'd be infinitely delayed.

Well! It actually ended up arriving 1 day earlier than the original promise date. So I think all worked out well. Hopefully anyone looking for one of these Liftmaster/Chamberlain units has luck with Lowes as I did.

 

[aggie113]

I started a new thread about this as I couldn't find this thread. I was going to say the same about the Chamberlain's being back in stock at local box stores now. My guess is Liftmaster line will soon follow with availability.