Auto garage door openng/closing

No. Mine has worked for over 9 years. I had to replace the motor a couple of years ago, but that's fair wear and tear. Other things to look out for are knocking the led safety beam slightly out of alignment so the door won't close. In daylight the led is almost invisible, so you might be puzzling over why the door doesn't close. Also watch out for the remote playing up (flat or loose battery, or poor contact button). Always keep a spare remote handy.

Shop around. When I bought mine, the price seemed to vary rather a lot for what appeared to be the same thing.

The original system (from before my time) went faulty. The repairers replaced the motor and said an AC motor is much better than a DC motor. It has worked perfectly ever since.

Early ones didn't have an auto brake to prevent the door falling down or unrolling in the event of a failure (mine still doesn't) but I suspect a brake is standard with new ones. Wireless security was a problem with the earlier ones, I don't know about now but it would be worth a thorough check on how secure the protocols are. Are infra-red zappers available? If so, they would be my choice if the range is adequate. FWIW I disabled the wireless part of mine and use physical switches inside the house (but I don't use the garage for cars).

We have roller doors on the car port (added after a burglary). They work very well except the safety sensors on them eat AA batteries. Even the Energiser Ultimate Lithium only last a month.

We have a double garage with an up and over door with a Seip TS 100 motor. The door can be opened and closed (or stopped moving) using a remote or pressing a button inside the garage. The garage has a separate key operated door. The remotes have to be programmed into the Seip motor and have usually have 4 buttons, for 4 separate motors! Clone remotes can be bought and then added just like the Seip ones. The main difficult is getting the motor to move the door up and down without rubbing on the door frame.

There are limiters in the motor which stop the door movement when it is fully opened or fully closed.

The motor manual can be downloaded.

I had one come with a house I bought in France. Occasionally, I would come back to find the door open, even though I was very careful about closing it when going out. I cured the problem by changing the system away from the default code settings. Obviously, somebody nearby had the same system.

All the oily bits seem to come from the one maker, and generally ain't of the best quality.

When we bought our current house, it had an up an over double door with an electric opener with a remote. It seemed quite old - at a guess 10 years- and worked for perhaps 10 more. We had the odd problem but mainly with the door itself. The actual opener just needed greasing maybe twice per year- a bit messy but otherwise easy.

The door mechanism eventually failed and we replaced it with a roller door

- powered with remote. That is great. We?ve had it perhaps 8 years and had minor issues, fixed by cycling the power. Only maybe a handful of times. It is a much better fit, the old one allowed leaves etc to blow it. This one is virtually draught proof.

I?ve just added a sensor linked to Alexa which turns on the main garage light when the door opens and off after a delay when it closes. It also announces when the door opens / closes - useful if you press the button by accident.

For security, it doesn?t allow Alexa to operate the door.

All in all, certainly with a double door, an electric opener is great. Plus, if you have a door into the house etc, it is great to be able to avoid getting wet etc.

I had a Alutech fitted a year ago - Double up and over replacing 2 singles and centre pillar. removed. Pleased with the result. Subsequently I was told it was made in "MINSK"

mmmmmmm !

Rob

I keep getting getting spurious openings when the wee remote cover slides open by itself

Well, I have heard of a lot jamming in one position or another, stripping gears etc, but then you seldom hear of those which work all the time,I mean when was the last time anyone called to you and said, hey its the 20th anniversary of my garage door opener, and its never gone wrong. Brian

Ours is 9 years old. It's an added motor to an up & over door. Hasn't gone wrong yet.

We have three Chamberlain ones that I added to our garages twenty years or so ago. They're still going strong though they have needed a bit of maintenance and replacements on the way:-

One main PCB failed

Two radio receivers have failed, replaced with 'generic' ones from eBay

Recently one stripped its nylon gears, replacements very cheap (three sets for about £12)

My Seip has run for donkeys' years with no problems but I don't think they're available in the UK now.

That's £7 every two months, assuming 2 are used.

Can you not connect up a relay so that the safety system is only energised when the roller shutters are up ?, (assuming that the doors are down for most of the time).

Two stories.

1. My Mum stalled the car whilst reversing out the garage and had pressed the close button before she was out. New windscreen needed,

1. And this one is DIY related. A hard wired vibrator needed some soldering work. Same garage as no 1. I needed a vice to hold the vibrator still to do the soldering. Anyway whilst the soldering iron was warming up things got a little steamy and I ended up having sex with the gf on the garage work bench.

Then the garage door started to open up and halfway through opening my Dad shouted and asked if we wanted a cup of tea. Once the door was fully open and he saw us he said "I'll tell your Mother you do not want any tea" and followed up with "Adam there are some small steps hanging on the wall over there why do you not stand on them? It will be a lot easier."