Which Opener for 18x10?

[Olympus]

The last piece of my shop puzzle is putting in an automatic opener. My door is 18x10 insulated and I'm planning on using a 3/4hp unit. So far, my choices are the Chamberlain Whisper with the belt drive, Genie Silentmax 1000 with belt, and Genie Silentmax 1200 with screw drive.

The shop is not anywhere close to the house so noise is not a consideration for me. The Chamberlain is the most expensive and comes with MyQ which is something I'll never even use. Most days the door stays down. In the summer it goes up and down maybe twice day. Thoughts on any of those 3 models?

 

[xyster101]

I like my liftmaster 8500 and it was easy to install. I have a 18x8, insulated, windows, and a wind kit. Works great.

 

[Olympus]

I have a $100 gift card to Lowes so it has to be one of those 3 models.

 

[LS6 Tommy]

Go for the 3/4 horse Chamberlain. I have a 17'x8' wood door with the Craftsman 3/4 unit. Craftsman's are Chambelains. Been flawless for at least 15 years. Every one our family has ever had was a Chamberlain and never had a failure. That's got to be around 12 or 13 units.

Tommy

 

[Hpozzuoli]

I had the exact same door size on my old house I just sold. I recently changed the openner and used the Genie screwdriver you speak of. Only issue with Genie is they get confused periodically so you have to reset all your limits. It happened to me once in the 4 months I was still at the house. Went up 6" then stopped. Lady from Genie walked me thru the reset and it has worked great since.

 

[Olympus]

Of either unit, I'm leaning more towards the belt drives. Both brands seem to get good reviews. The Chamberlain is $40 higher than the Genie. Both look to be DC motors.

 

[Gixx]

Are they all capable of lifting a 10' door high enough, or do you need to buy some sort of extension ?

 

[Olympus]

I'll have to buy extensions for all of them.

 

[CNGsaves]

+1 for Chamberlain beltdrive. With proper setup of torsion springs, that should be a lifetime opener.

 

[James-W]

I have a Chamberlain belt driven opener and I have an 18 X 7 insulated garage door. When you adjust the torsion spring properly the opener doesn't work very hard at all. As I recall the opener cost about $200 though, but it comes with two remotes, a numbered push-button entry keypad for outside the garage, a push-button for inside the garage, and a wireless device for turning on outside lights.

 

[Olympus]

The 3/4hp belt drive Chamberlain is $240 and the extension kit is another $60. So $300 total for the Chamberlain.

 

[G McKay]

Sears always made a good door opener. Overhead door makes a great one, too.

 

[Olympus]

Don't have a $100 gift card to Sears or Overhead Door though.

 

[bmw57isetta]

The Sears garage door opener is a Chamberlain. I had one of their belt drives for years and it was great. Got an 8500 jack shaft at the new house and it's outstanding. +1 for the Chamberlain.

 

[Olympus]

I ended up buying the Chamberlain because i found out there are no 10ft extension kits for the Genie. Lowes had the Chamberlain on sale for $208. Saved $32! Now to see if i can install this thing on my own or not.