Making an opener quiet (not the usual problems)

[Bustedwheel]

My problem is a little different than most of the questions about making a garage door opener quiet. I live in an apartment building so i don't actually own it, but the garage door opener is basically attached to the floor of my apartment. It is not a massive opener, but is bigger than a normal household opener, and it is chain driven as opposed to screw driven. I have talked to the landlord, and he has agreed to let me out of the lease if I can't take it, but I kind of like the apartment and location, so i would rather not move. he does not seem interested in replacing it just to make me happy, but is being nice about things. We are discussing ways to make it better and he is open.

My question is, is there a way to quiet it down so it doesn't drive me nuts? I have lubricated all of the points that I can, and it helped a little, but most of the noise comes from the motor and the vibrations it causes.

My initial thought is to build a type of box around it (leaving the bottom and part of the front open) with some foam egg crate material that would deflect the noise down away from my floor.

Any thoughts would help.

It is similar to this.
http://www.globalindustrial.com/p/material-handling/dock-truck/dock-seals-shelters-roll-up-doors/electric-commercial-roll-up-door-opener-reduction-drive-chain-li-doors?utm_source=google_pr&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Dock-Seals-Shelters-Roll-Up-Doors-google_pr&infoParam.campaignId=T9F

 

[copterdoctor]

not sure what brand of garage door opener my father in law just got, but it is SUPER quiet and only cost him 80ish dollars. it's belt driven, vs screw or chain driven. it is the quietest opener I've ever heard, or barely heard i should say. lol
it's so nice that I'm going to buy one, even though our brand new house just came with a screw driven opener.

 

[sammerdog]

Holy ****.

How big of a door is the thing lifting?

 

[katmat]

I saw on This Old House where they used some old truck mud flaps & isolated the opener from the ceiling!

 

[Torque1st]

I have a chain drive opener and the door makes the majority of the noise. Other than that there is a tick-tick-tick that the chain makes as it runs over the sprocket but it is not very loud.

 

[mackrmnn]

Google the phrase "Isolating A Garage Door Opener". There are plenty of kits out there to accomplish this.

 

[rodnok1]

Can you isolate if it's the opener or the door itself...I've seen some that track and door rollers were outta wack and made a god awful racket.

 

[Bustedwheel]

I thought about the rubber mudflap trick. On a chain drive opener, is the opener/motor under a lot of tension when lifting the door?

I know that on a screw drive, it is not really, because it is just turning the screw as opposed to pulling the door.

 

[tdkkart]

I thought about the rubber mudflap trick. On a chain drive opener, is the opener/motor under a lot of tension when lifting the door?
I know that on a screw drive, it is not really, because it is just turning the screw as opposed to pulling the door.

Replace the hanger brackets with rubber straps made from mudflap type material, this will isolate a large majority of the motor's vibration from the ceiling.
Next to none of the opener's forces are downward other than the weight of the motor. You could hang the motor from heavy string. The forces from pulling the door are transmitted horizontally through the track to the door header.

 

[rickairmedic]

My garage door was CRAZY loud ( metal door not insulated ) . I insulated it a couple weeks ago and now it is wisper quiet.


Rick

 

[Intel]

I didn't hang ours by the mud flaps but used bits as insulators between the pieces of L channel that held the unit up. Cut down on vibration.

 

[CraigFL]

Try nylon rollers for more quietness ---- http://www.garage-doors-and-parts.com/garage-door-rollers.html

 

[onewaydave]

My thanks to BustedWheel. I replaced a GDO if 70's vintage years ago but saved it. Figured I'd use it some how some time. Well, I started to install it on the 12x10 shop door. googled the mfg and found them in Fl. Sent an e-mail inquiry. Well the current owner bought the business in the 90's and kept the name and said he thought the original owner quit the GDO business 10 years before that. Well, the link OP put up is a dead ringer for my GDO THANKS!