Choosing a Garage Door Opener

Garage door openers are like plumbing or heaters: you only notice them when they aren't working. While paying more attention to your garage door and the method by which it opens and closes will not ensure a long life, paying closer attention to your home and its many parts is never a bad idea. Garage door openers are not different. You should always pay close attention to the tracks, if they are damaged or not, if the sensors are working, and the if the garage door is going up and down as it should. The ability of certain openers is dependant upon several factors, which are discussed below.

Garage Door Types
Before we get into garage door openers, we need to discuss the kinds of garage doors these openers need to lift. As far as methods of lifting, there are only two distinct types:

Tilt-Up Garage Doors
Sectional Roll-Up Garage Doors

Sectional roll-up garage doors are the most common type seen in every suburban neighborhood in the country, though both are viable choices for garage doors.

From here, garage doors are comprised of several different materials: wood, fiberglass, steel, and aluminum. These material types are only mentioned because some of these materials weight quite a bit more than others, and as a result, it takes a garage door opener with some muscle to pull it up.

Garage Door Opener Brands
Currently there are no more than 10 major manufacturers of garage door openers. Some of the brands have openers for all types of garage doors. Others only target one type (tilt-up or roll-up), while there are other brands that focus solely on certain garage door materials. So while one brand might be best for the wood garage door on your home, that same brand may or may not be the best brand for the door on your neighbor's garage or for your lawnmower shed.

So there are plenty of items to consider when choosing your garage door opener. It is best to survey the market and take stock of your options. Some door systems use sensors so that pets and children will never have worry of getting caught by a closing garage door. These sensors also keep people from locking themselves out, when at the last minute your realize that you left your keys inside, you can quickly stop the door.

Other brands offer outside codes to get in your garage door so that you never have to worry about someone stealing your remote control opener or the batteries dying, as you can always punch in the code to get in.

As with anything, price will determine quality, so make sure you are taking the right things into consideration when making your decision.