I had to replace our Garage Door Opener today.
When we came home from dinner and piano practice last night, our garage door wouldn’t open. After examining it, I could see that the gears were not engaging. I adjusted the force controls on the existing opener but that didn’t engage the gears. Without ripping the existing opener open, I can only make a guess that some gears were stripped or the clutch (assuming a clutch model) burned out. Regardless, the unit was no longer functional. The bummer was that this was not that old of a unit though it was certainly past warranty. As I’ve now read about openers, they look like they last 10-15 years so my 2-4 years is not a good unit. The brand was a LiftMaster.
I decided to go with Sears Craftsman. I installed one of these units in our home in California and it worked great and went up great. The instructions were clear and since it was a replacement, the installation was pretty simple. I took down the old unit (the first of two times I needed Kathy’s help – getting the unit down). I assembled the new unit. I installed the unit to the header (the last of two times I needed Kathy’s help – helping me angle the unit to get the pin in that holds the travel bar to the header). I installed the unit to the ceiling and wired it up to the button controller and the safety monitors for the door. I programmed the remotes for the cars (we have small key chain remotes coming by the end of the week in the mail!). I adjusted for travel and force and viola! It was done and working. All told, it took a smidge over 4 hours with just me (and the two times I needed an extra pair of hands).
I did go with a slightly over powered unit. The old unit was 1/2 HP and I upped it to a 3/4 HP for the new unit. My reasoning was that while I didn’t think the door necessarily warranted it even though it was insulated (added a bit of weight though it was surely lighter that the door we replaced which was a solid wood door) but instead weather changes may cause the door and track and spring to play tough on how the movement acts so a little more umph! would help. I hope that my logic pays off for the long haul.