Some history of and tips for purchasing a garage door opener. Part II
In part one we discussed the origins of the garage door opener and some of the major changes that have occurred over the decades to arrive at the products that are available to today.
To review; unlike in years past where garage door openers were mechanical devices, today they are essentially computers run by software exclusively and like all computers, they suffer from software bugs, malware, lockups, hacking, etc.. When you mix this together with the fact that most of the garage door manufacturers have been purchased by larger corporations who have cheapened up the products considerably and finally add in the Florida power grid which delivers power in peaks and valleys you start having issues. Lots of issues. We frequently get a tremendous amount of service requests from customers after thunder storms, hurricanes or even just a hot summer day. This power surge or valley causes the logic board in the garage door opener to forget its settings and they either revert back to its original factory settings, you press the button it won’t move, forget limit settings, door goes down to far, not far enough or both and cause other irregularities.
So what do you do to avoid this? Unfortunately not much. All of the garage door openers manufactured today have the same setup and all are susceptible to the same problems. But there are things you can do to try to minimize these issues:
- Stick to the name brands. ABS Garage Doors has installed and tested every garage door opener brand out there. Its takes a tremendous amount of resources to fix a newly discovered problem once that product is in production and out in the field. The smaller manufacturers simply do not have the resources to fix this once that happens. The larger one’s do.
- Keep it simple: The more features a product has the more likely it’s going to have issues down the road. If you don’t need all the bells and whistles then keep it basic.
- Purchase models that have been in production the longest: Ever hear about a brand new automobile model that is having a ton of problems and or recalls the first year that it is manufactured? Everyone has and everyone knows not to buy that brand new model until after it’s been out for a number of years to give the manufacturer time to iron out the problems. It’s the same way with the latest garage door openers. Here is an industry secret, shhh don’t tell anyone. The manufacturers test new models out by selling it to you the customer and then wait for the feedback. Essentially the customer and the dealers are doing all of the manufacturers testing for free. How fun! Then they will continue to release updated versions of that model until they have a garage door opener that works the way it should have originally. But, it’s an old model now so we better create an entirely redesigned new model, and then release it without really fully testing it out, and the process repeats itself all over again.
- Keep your old garage door opener if you can: Certain older models are excellent. Such as:
- Linear model LDO-33 and LDO-50. Manufactured from 2000 to 2015. ABS Garage Doors has installed thousands of these and are some of the best garage door openers ever made. These last for decades are easy to fix and of course they don’t make them anymore. If you don’t need the latest and greatest keep this one.
- Genie PMX- 500 / Overhead Legacy 496 and 696: Manufactured from the late 1990’s to 2013. Another great opener though not as easy to fix and they are getting long in the tooth at this point. If they can be fixed do it, if not replace them.
- Various LiftMaster/ Chamberlain / Craftsman / Raynor Models: Manufactured from 2000 to 2015. Essentially all the same brand as they were manufactured by LiftMaster / Chamberlain. There are too many models to list but all were good units that lasted for years.
- Linear model LDO-33 and LDO-50. Manufactured from 2000 to 2015. ABS Garage Doors has installed thousands of these and are some of the best garage door openers ever made. These last for decades are easy to fix and of course they don’t make them anymore. If you don’t need the latest and greatest keep this one.
In the final analysis we are not saying to start scouring EBay for 20-30 year old new old stock garage door openers to replace your current model that is no longer able to be repaired. What we are saying is put some thought into what you are purchasing. If you talk to any honest air conditioning company that is operating today, they will say “if you have an older unit keep it”. This advice holds true with just about everything in your home these days including garage door openers.
ABS Garage Doors is located in Palm Coast, Florida and Serves Palm Coast, Flagler Beach and the surrounding communities. You can reach us at 386-445-7047.