Monday, February 1, 2010

A Guide to Garage Door Openers

Garage doors are no longer the regular roll-top ones, which have to be pushed up by hand. These days, garage door openers are provided with various accessories to make opening easier. No matter how heavy the garage door, it can be fitted with the right kind of opener. These openers ensure utmost safety and security for garages under any conditions. They are also provided with several options and in various designs to suit the exact requirements of the user. The best thing is, they can be installed within 3-5 hours (even do-it-yourself ones). A professional can install a garage door opener in 1 hour!
Garage door openers are of two kinds depending on the use: residential and commercial. In the commercial range of garage door openers, the main models are: Trolley, Jackshift, Hoist and the Slide models. While Trolley openers are used for standard lifting on sectional doors, Jackshift is used for grilles, rolling doors and shutters. Hoist operators are similar to Jackshifts but they are also suitable for heavy duty industrial doors. The slide door openers are meant for single and bi-parting slide doors and also for fire doors.
The main step in purchasing a garage door opener is to determine the actual drive system. Garage door openers are of three kinds depending on the drive system: belt driven, chain driven and direct drive. The most important points to be considered in a garage opener system are the kind of motor and the horsepower. Garage door openers differ in speed also. The average speed is 7 inches lift/drop per second. There are openers that operate at even double this speed.
Garage door openers are provided with different kinds of warranties. Safety is another important aspect while choosing the right garage door opener. It is mandatory that all automatic door openers should be equipped with a non-contact invisible beam system that can sense the approach of a person and make the door to reverse back to the open position. Other mandatory features of garage openers are: automatic lights, a timed reversing feature, a manual emergency release cord and a force adjustment feature.
Garage door openers are usually noisy but some advanced models are being designed to be really quiet. Proper maintenance and lubrication would also lessen the noise made by garage door openers. On the whole, garage door openers should be weather resistant, safe, and should have the least wire exposure for long life.
Garage doors can also be operated by a remote control. This is especially useful for people who have homes with multiple garages. However, it is better to have a rolling radio signal code for the control as it is easy for thieves to capture the code from thin air. Garage door openers can also have an automatic light, remote control and a wall operator, as well as the option of single/two/three button transmitters.
Garage Door Openers Info provides detailed information about best garage door openers, as well as garage door opener parts and repair Garage Door Openers Info is affiliated with Business Plans by Growthink.

Monday, January 25, 2010

A Review of the Most Popular Garage Door Openers

Genie, Chamberlain, Sears, Wayne-Dalton, Linear, and Universal (SkyLink) make some of the best garage door openers on the market. The following product reviews should be useful for those in the market for a garage door opener.
The Genie® Company is one of the most well-known and trusted companies in the US. Founded in 1923 under the name of the Alliance Manufacturing company, Genie manufactures consumer, industrial as well as military products. The Genie® brand of garage door openers are very popular for their high power remote-controlled garage door opening systems.
Genie produces a wide range of garage door openers and the most popular brands from Genie are: the Excelerator, the Screw Drive and the Chain Glide. Other brands include the Alliance, the Blue Max, the Crusader, Python, Pro-Max, Lift-a-door, OverHead Door, Norelco, Code-Dodger and Intellicode.
Genie uses state-of-the-art technology in its garage door openers. The Intellicode® remote access security system changes the security code to one of billions of combinations each time the transmitter is used, thus making it one of the safest systems in the world. Its Sate-T-Beam™ infrared beam system can sense the presence of objects in the door’s path and can thus prevent damage to equipment. Genie garage door openers can be installed on both single as well as double doors. They use ½ horsepower and can work on doors that are up to 8 feet high. Genie garage door openers open twice as fast as other garage door openers but close at normal speeds. They are very quiet, have a bright, wide-angle lighting and powerful motor design and can work in any weather conditions. Such advanced technologies make the Genie brand of garage door openers most popular in the world.
Chamberlain GmbH based in Saarwellingen, Germany is a principal supplier of residential garage door openers, commercial and residential gate operators, and remote controls in the world. The company has offices in France, England, the Netherlands, Poland, Slovak Republic and Singapore. Chamberlain products are available almost across the whole world.
Chamberlain offers garage door openers in commercial as well as residential varieties. Chamberlain®, Whisper Drive® and Power Drive® Garage Door Openers are the most popular brands from Chamberlain.
LiftMaster® is the most popular brand from Chamberlain. This range also includes the Liftmaster garage door opener remotes, replacement parts, mini transmitters, keychain remotes and other accessories. LiftMaster garage door openers are available in different drive and horsepower modes and are combined with a wide range of accessories and options. The LiftMaster range contains: the Estate Series, the Premium series and the Contractor series. These are available in the belt drive; screw drive as well as in chain drive models.
Chamberlain’s Power Drive® and Whisper Drive® belong to the residential garage door opener category in the do-it-yourself range. The Elite™ range contains premier residential and commercial gate operators and access control systems. The Sentex® range is for secure residential and commercial garages.
Sears Holdings Corporation, parent of Kmart and Sears, Roebuck and Co., is the third largest broad line retailer in the US. Sears Holdings is a leading supplier of tools, lawn and garden, home electronics, and automotive repair and maintenance. It supplies the Craftsman range of garage door openers.
Craftsman supplies power tools, storage chests and cabinets, bench power tools, mechanics tools, power tool accessories, general hand tools, compressor tools, carpentry tools and home security and garage door openers and accessories. The Craftsman range of garage door openers consist of simple ½ hp garage door opener, ¾ hp garage door opener in chain drive models. Other products include the universal remote control conversion kit with 1 remote, the 10ft chain drive extension kit, the 10ft extension kit for garage door opener, the 8ft extension kit for garage door opener, the 8ft rail extension kit, the Remote control, 3-function security, keyless entry pad, plug-in light control for garage door opener, the wireless garage door monitor and the extension kit (screw drive).
Wayne Dalton, established in 1954, is the producer and supplier of the safest residential and commercial garage doors and garage door openers in the US. Wayne Dalton supplies two kinds of garage door openers: wall mount and ceiling mount. The wall mount openers, an exclusive product from Wayne Dalton, can be mounted on the wall beside the door. This helps to eliminate the chains, belts, screw drive and tract that usually clutter the garage ceiling. This model also helps to eliminate noise and vibration to a large extent.
The Linear Corporate is a major producer of security systems like garage door and garage door openers. Linear produces garage door openers accessories like the Linear Act 21 key chain transmitter, Linear DR3A Linear Moore-O-Matic gate or garage opener receiver, Linear DT2A gate or garage door opener replacement transmitter, Linear DTC Moore-O-Matic Delta 3 Remote (same as DTD or DT) gate or garage door opener replacement transmitter, Linear DTKP wireless keypad, Linear MDR Megacode System single channel receiver, Linear MDT-1 and MDT-2 Megacode gate or garage door openers, Linear MDTK wireless keypad model, Linear MT-1B channel visor block coded transmitter, Linear MT-2B channel visor block coded transmitter etc.
Linear also makes the Stanley range of garage door opener parts and accessories like Vemco, Quiet Glide, LightMaker, Home Innovative, Whistler, Popular Mechanics, SecureCode.
Garage Door Openers Info provides detailed information about best garage door openers, as well as garage door opener parts and repair Garage Door Openers Info is affiliated with Business Plans by Growthink.