Garage Door Repair and Maintenance in Portsmouth VA

A: This question is asked often, but there is no easy answer. What may work for one person, will not necessarily work for another. Assuming you are looking to actually replace the garage door opener (as opposed to just replacing the remote or adding an additional remote), there are some things that need to be considered.

A: If your old garage door opener is a chain drive model, then you can simply go with an open belt drive model. If your current garage door opener is a screw drive model, it cannot be replaced by just any open belt drive model because most open belt drives require 3″ of clearance between them and the bottom of the tracks whereas some screw drives only require 2″. However, you should also know that if your original garage door had 3″ of clearance and you had to use an extender on it, then your new garage door opener can also utilize that same extender.

A: Generally speaking, a one horsepower model will work perfectly fine for most homes and garages as long as there aren’t any steep inclines or declines on the floor. If you have those types of slopes in your home’s layout, some would recommend going with a 1/2 horse power model as opposed to full strength so as not to damage something.

The type of material used on your garage door is also a consideration when replacing an old opener. Generally, open belt drive garage door openers cannot be used on wooden garage doors because they are not designed to support the additional weight. They can be used on steel or fiberglass, however.

A: A lot of people question whether or not they even need an automatic garage door opener. The answer is that some just prefer them even if they do not actually use it, and those people tend to choose wireless as the most common type of opener. Other types include chain drive or belt drive, beam or torsion spring tensioning, and screw or jackshaft drives.

A: Some features are useful, while others are more for safety and convenience. One example of either is motion detectors which will shut the door if something (or someone) gets too close to it.

Another feature that goes with that one is safety sensors on the opener itself rather than just the remote controller. Safety sensors detect things like cars, pets, children, or anything else that can get in harm’s way by preventing an accident from ever happening.

Other features include wall-mounted control panels instead of hand held remotes so as to avoid dropping them when trying to operate the garage door opener. Another handy item would be keyless entry so people do not have to worry about having a house key with them at all times because they have their garage door opener remote.