First and best for folding doors with exertion springs is a belt drive opener.

These openers are the quietest to operate and least affected by temperature changes. Chamberlain makes Lift master and Sears units are basically the same units with different covers. Worth noting is the system that you buy online or at the store in order to be packed in a box you can carry in your car the rails are divided into 3 or 4 sections.This arrangement is ok but over time the rails can get miss aligned and cause noise or jam problems. these problems are magnified in screw type openers because each section needs a joint in the screw drive and these can wear out and cause problems and jams. The Professional openers we sell, Both Genie and Liftmaster/Chamberlain come with single piece rail systems that are much stronger and trouble free.The Genie has a low profile that makes it a good choice where low headroom is an issue. We feel that at this time that the Genie openers are your best choice for the following reasons; 12 volt high torque motors are quiet and more powerful and have less parts that regularly fail in the DC units. these parts are the gear set and capacitor. The hundreds of Genie openers we have installed this year have convinced us that this new design is reliable and trouble free.

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Genie model 3024.pdf Model 1028.pdf Model 2028.pdf Model 2568.pdf

Model 3064.pdf Model 4024.pdf Model 4064.pdf

Second would be chain drives and combo chain and cable drives.

these can be set up in the same way as the belt drives with a single piece or sectional rail. the chain is driven by a gear similar to a bicycle and tend to be noisy and clanky. Homeowners often try to tighten the chain drive themselves and usually do it in the summer . when winter weather shrinks the chain it becomes too tight and wears out the bearings in the unit.Thus problem is exasperated with chain cable combos because the shrinkage coefficient for chain and cable are different, symptoms of problems with either the length or bearing wear is that the door gradually goes out of position adjustment and either travels too far down causing it to open unexpectedly or run into the stop bolt at the top and catch the trolley under the nut, correct tensioning of the chain is very important. the gear set is pictured below the red arrow at the top shows the bearing when worn it allows the shaft to tilt and the small positioning gear at the bottom skips a tooth from time to time affecting the travel limit switch these parts are not nessessary in the new Geni hi torque units eiminating the major case of .opener falure

Third is the troublesome screw drive.

these units are the least expensive made and they are slow, noisy, require grease and are not recommended By All Family Garage. Over time the joints that turn the screw (similar to a universal joint in a car) wear out and either stop turning the screw all together or jam intermittently stopping the door in unexpected places you can see where sections of the screw are jointed here

The forth type is exclusively for torsion springs and it is called a Jack Shaft opener

Jack shafts clamp on the wall near the door and connects directly to the spring shaft. They feature a very secure solenoid throw lock and come equipped with wireless radio activated safety lights that can be placed anywhere there is power.

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All types of openers can be equipped with battery backups.

These supply power for a couple of days to operate the door if power goes out, any door can be operated by hand if the emergency release is disengaged . Battery backup is a luxury option recommended for elderly or handicapped people who rely on access though the Garage door .

• The chain drive units are only 50 to 75 dollars cheaper(installed) than the belts . If you have a bedroom over the garage your not likely to even hear the belt drive open the door. The belt itself has a lifetime warrantee.

• Below you see All Family's Top Rail wiring System This allows us to run only 2 wires up the rail instead of over the ceiling. The new factory tensioned Genie rails completely hide the wires!making the wiring at the opener nice and neat. All wires normally joined at the unit are placed in watertight dielectric gel connectors discretely above the door minimizing wires traveling across rafters and ceilings.

The door has 2 separate systems for opening it, the springs do the lifting and the Opener does the moving. If the door is properly balanced it is virtually weightless. 1/2 horsepower units are more than enough for a balanced door.If the door has too much spring tension or too little the motor either has to push the door down or lift the extra weight, Any condition except a properly balanced door will cause excessive wear in the opener shortening its useful life

Cars equipped with Homelink transmitters can be taught by your hand remote to talk to your garage door. Over time, for security reasons, the frequency that the codes are transmitted on has changed and some car companies have not quite caught up.

Genie openers (thankfully) have been recently redesigned to talk to any year and make of car eliminating the relay unit required by some older cars for doors using Liftmaster Openers. In addition they have leapfrogged the industry by using 12 volt Hi Torque 3/4 horse motors that eliminate transmissions ,capacitors and other troublesome parts to make these units quiet as mice and almost indestructible. in addition the 3024 comes with 2 remotes and a keypad in the box. These are an add on with liftmaster belt drives the model 3024 gets my best bang for the buck award . There is a model with motion detecton if that is important to you.