If manually opening your garage door each time is not your cup of tea, automatic garage door openers are just what you need. No bending, lifting or getting out of your warm car and into the biting cold to open heavy doors; all you need to do is press down on a button. The automated function also offers greater security, which is no doubt an important consideration if you have kids moving in and out of your garage with their bikes and playthings.
It goes without saying that you should invest in the right garage door opener. Here are some basic points that will help you make an informed decision.
First things first, what kind of garage door opener do you want?
You can choose from three options: chain drive, belt drive and screw drive. Each has its own mode of operation, pros and cons. A belt drive has fewer moving parts and offers very quiet operation and negligible vibration. It is, however, an expensive proposition. A screw drive has plastic-lined tracks and fewer moving parts. This translates into quiet operation and low maintenance. The chain drive opener is the most economical of the three. While its operation is reliable, it can get noisy.
Controls: What remote access options do you have?
Remote access is the basis of a garage door opener. There is the basic one-button remote for smaller garages and more for two-door and three-door garages. An outdoor wireless keypad is also a good option – with this, you can enter a security code to open your garage door. This is a handy solution for accidental lock-outs.
Garage doors come with rolling codes that roll through several permutations and combinations to choose a unique access code every time. This form of random code generation assures that intruders will not gain access to your door opening code.
When it comes to speed, you can choose from slower standard speeds (will entail some waiting in your driveway) and high-end models that offer quick operation. LED lights are also featured on some controls to alert you to malfunctioning units, and facilitate easier maintenance.
What kind of safety features do garage door openers have?
Garage door openers come equipped with features that help ensure the safety of people who get in the way. The sensors on many garage doors automatically bring a closing door to a halt when there is an object or a person in the way. Some come with automatic lights that are activated when the doors start to open. The newer units have reversing systems that stop the closing action and reverse automatically if the doors haven’t closed completely within a time span of 30 seconds.
Keep these points in mind, and buy a garage door opener that ticks all your boxes.
