roller garage doors

[Harry Bloomfield]

Now it is fully installed, I can better answer your questions.....

There is no spring counter balance in the unit, it relies entirely upon the motor to raise and lower it. At one end of the spool upon which the door winds around, is a tubular motor of around 3" diameter, built into the spool. The motor is fitted with two limits, one for stopping it on the way up, one for stopping it on the way down - both seem very precise. There is an hex hole near the limits at the end plate of the motor, into which the fixed part of the manual winding mechanism can be permanently fixed. The lower end of that has an eye, onto which you can hook a supplied cranking handle. It seems when the motor is run, the drive for the manual crank is disconnected and when you manually crank it, it reconnects itself - so some sort of clutch in there. It cranks round very easily to lift the door, but as supplied it can only be used from inside the garage - assuming there is an alternative way to get in there.

There is an adapter kit, which takes the manual drive down, then through a wall, so that it can be opened from out side. You basically insert a cranked handle through a hole into a socket, to turn the shaft end. So the security is simply it needing a special end to fit the socket, or as someone else suggested you could add a hasp and padlock over the hole to improve the security.

The door, the motor, the controller and the rest of the hardware are all standard bits used by other door suppliers. The suppliers just cut the bits as required to your specified size.

If you look at this -

can better see how the cranking handle works and how it can be adapted for use through the wall from outside. The only difference between that and mine, is that a different (but quite similar functionally) controller is supplied.

Since I last wrote, I have added a set of wired buttons to operate the door without need for either of the remotes, once in the garage. Just a spare plastic electrical box, 2x normally open contact buttons (for up and down) and 1x normally closed (for stop) and a bit of 8core telephone wire into the door controller - it is all 24v, apart from the motor. Cost to me was nothing, the bits were just spare ones. I keep one remote in the house to operate the door from inside the house and the second one inside the car. My next project is to add an IR beam to the door for a bit of additional safety, just as soon as I can find one at a sensible price - the controller comes with the facility for one to be added.

[<me9]

The one I got (Seceuroglide) had as an option an external handle. The hole the handle fitted into had a locking plate to cover it. It presented as a keyhole in a plate, you turned the key removed the plate,inserted the handle (as long as you hadn't locked it in the garage!) and then started unwinding.

It's much quicker and easier with the motor!

[Fred]

How have you got on with this? Has it been ok since you fitted it?

I didn't buy one straight away because all my money was spent with Christmas ;)

I'm in the market now though.

I did look at another ebay seller "totalsecurity2005" but I was unhappy with them. On ebay the advertised price is £417 + £65 p&p. they asked me to call them with my requirements and told me the price was £690! I asked why this was £200 more than the ebay price and was told the ebay item had a "cheap Chinese" motor and the one they quoted had a "solid British" motor; also the ebay one (apparently) did not come with safety sensors to stop the door if something/someone was in the way but the expensive one did. The description implied the ebay item had sensors included.

Has anyone else used total security and if so, how did you find them and their products?

I've emailed Birkdale and hope to go with them.

Thanks again.