Garage door opener advice needed

codrus said:

Bubbal said:

Liftmaster, belt drive.  Last a long time.  My door springs have failed due to number of times door opened while the opener keeps going.

 

The Liftmaster 8500 is better than belt drive, it mounts to the wall and turns the jackshaft directly.  Very quiet and it doesn't hang in the middle of your garage so it's not in the way of engine hoists and the like.

When it works, you will love it.  In the 5 years I had mine I had to replace the wall controller once, the circuit board once, and the timer inside of the opener twice.  AND WHEN IT FAILS, IT OPENS ITSELF UP.  Yes, I woke up THREE times to an open garage that had been open nearly the whole night.  Got calls from my wife who could npt get the door open.  I will never own the 8500 LIftmaster again.  The reputation of this specific opener is terrible.  garagejournal has a fair number of stories about it.

If you have living space above the garage, strongly recommend belt drive.  Significantly less vibration than chain and the vibes from the chain drive were very noticeable in the room above.

In reply to ebelements :

Yeah, the high torsion springs can kill you if you aren't extremely careful. The old style side mounted springs are pretty safe but rarely used in the past 30+ yrs. I generally do everything myself (taxes, haircut, 240v electrical, landscaping, elevator repair, car repairs, plumbing, etc) but when my spring broke I paid a local company  $150 to come out and replace it for me.

Replacing the opener is a fairly simple DIY project if you are mechanically competent.