Low overhead garage door opener

I'm installing a new wood garage door in a small, low-ceiled garage and want to install an automatic opener.

A garage door installer came by for an estimate yesterday and told me that I didn't have enough ceiling height for my existing door and that the opening would have to be shortened to six feet to accomodate an opener. I'm six feet tall and with a door sitting even lower than me I can see some serious skull cracks from that.

The installer said he needed a minimum of 6" overhead clearance between the rails and the ceiling. No exceptions. I googled around a bit and found a zero-clearance opener, albeit a bit pricey:

formatting link
Currently I have about 3" of overhead clearance.

Does anyone know of any other low-clearance openers or any experience with the Miracle(tm) opener above?

Thanks.

Steve Manes Brooklyn, NY

formatting link

Reply to
Steve Manes
Loading thread data ...

Two suggestions.

Quick turn brackets, which are designed to make the door edge turn sooner, might buy you enough clearance, but doubtful.

Look at the Wayne Dalton IDrive opener. It mounts to the torsion spring shaft above the door (if you have extension springs you would have to convert). There is no track above the door, so it will work in very low clearance situations. But it's a bit pricey too.

HTH,

Paul

Reply to
Paul Franklin

The miracle operator isn't that good, especially if you have extension springs. The thing opens and closes the door from one side of door nnd if your door is not working perfectly the thing will not function correctly. This opener is prone to many trouble calls once it starts "slipping" in the track..

Read and heed:

"The Miracle opener was designed with the installer in mind."

But in the long run the home owner is going to get the headaches (and the bills).

How much room do you have from the floor to the ceiling? Do you have extension or torsion springs?

Reply to
Rich

Another vote for IDrive, they work ok, remotes are weak, and slow; and when you cross safety beam lights won't turn on ... but Idrives are also pretty darn fast and allow low clearance.

Reply to
Brian

formatting link
would be the people to contact if you insist upon getting one of these things.

Reply to
Rich

I had a WD IDrive installed in my parents townhome 2 years ago. Nice unit. It is used with a Wayne Dalton door. I believe now they have a model with battery backup.

Reply to
Art

Thanks for the tips. Googling around though, I found a whole nest of nasty comments about iDrive, from installation nightmares to flakey performance to poor customer service. Here's one such thread:

formatting link
The principle behind iDrive seems great and, in theory anyway, nonproblematic. But after reading this stuff I'm reluctant to try it given my luck with such things. If there's a bug in something, I usually tend to find it.

Are these just older, dot-oh models and Wayne Dalton has since cleaned up its act?

Steve Manes Brooklyn, NY

formatting link

Reply to
Steve Manes

Yeah, that and the fact that I saw about a hundred "affiliates" selling this opener but no product reviews of it made me skeptical, which is why I asked about it here. It looked like it might be one of those Chinese MLM products.

At its lowest point, I have 79" from the floor to the bottom of the exposed steel 8" joists under the concrete deck above. The current door has extension springs but I'm replacing all of this and widening the opening to 9' so it could be either.

Steve Manes Brooklyn, NY

formatting link

Reply to
Steve Manes

On 09/08/05 07:22 am Steve Manes tossed the following ingredients into the ever-growing pot of cybersoup:

Our garage door has torsion springs, but the tops of the pulleys are already more than 6 inches above the top of the door opening. The newly installed iDrive did not add anything to that height.

IOW, the balancing mechanism alone took more than 6 inches above the door opening, even without any kind of mechanical opener. Are there balancing mechanisms that need less than that?

Perce

Reply to
Percival P. Cassidy

replying to Steve Manes, sully wrote: I have used one for over 10 years. You need to replace the roller every few years and replacement parts are over priced but all and all a good product

Reply to
sully

replying to Rich, sully wrote: The rollers only spin when the wear down. I have had few problems over the 10 plus years I have used it

Reply to
sully

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.