Liftmaster 8500 owner's manual question

[jengland]

Hello everyone,

In the Liftmaster 8500 manual it says:

"THIS GARAGE DOOR OPENER IS COMPATIBLE WITH:

• High lift (up to 54 inches (137.2 cm) high) and standard lift sectional doors up to 14 feet (4.3 m) high."

I did not understand what this meant so I called Liftmaster technical support and was told: "The jackshaft opener has to be installed 54 inches from the ceiling of your garage."

That's 4.5 feet away from the ceiling?! That sounded suspect to me, like the "technician" either didn't understand my question or didn't know what he/she was talking about.

Does anyone understand what the "high lift (up to 54 inches...)" part of the manual means? And can explain it to me?

BTW, I have a 100 pound, 8x7 sectional garage door that I'm trying to raise with the opener.

 

[Walter_TA]

A high lift door is one that when opened stays close to the wall and then the roof. I made my standard door a high lift door so I could use my lift with the door open. You can mount that opener as close to the roof as it will fit.

 

[driftpin]

I agree with Walter TA, you use a high lift track to have the garage door much-closer to the ceiling. Typically, a high-lift door track will just continue to run farther up the wall, so the door in horizontal position will be a longer distance from the garage floor. Since the jackshaft opener is attached to the garage door horizontal bar with the spring coils on it, which mounts probably within a foot of the top of your opening, it's probably not going to be anywhere near the ceiling.

Sounds like the person with-whom you spoke misunderstood you.

 

[jengland]

Thanks so much for the replies and reassurance. I just removed and raised one side of the garage track today. Looking forward to eventually getting the car lift set up!

Thanks again Walter and driftpin. Appreciate it.

 

[pattenp]

I have a 36" highlift which means the torsion bar and opener are 36" above the standard position at the top of the door opening. The 54" is the max distance above the standard position at the top of the door opening the opener can go.

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