When it comes to garage door openers, there is one single question that weighs on a customer’s mind: what brand of opener to buy?
Fortunately, there aren’t a lot of options for the homeowner. Craftsman, Chamberlain, and Genie are the name brands that you can purchase at any retail store. This narrows your options considerably.
If you call in a professional, then your options just broadened. The large majority of professionals carry Liftmaster, while other larger companies manufacture their own product, such as Overhead Door Company. These two options are only available through a qualified retail service provider of those products, so make sure to check your local listings.
Chamberlain, Craftsman and Liftmaster have many of the same parts and are therefore interchangeable and carried by most professionals. Mainly, the gear and circuit board, which are common fixes on all brands.
Genie and Overhead Door Brand are interchangeable as well with each other.
Next you need to decide on what horsepower you need. The large majority of residential garage doors require 1/2HP, no more and no less. However, 3/4HP and 1/3HP are available with all the brands mentioned here.
Probably the single most important difference between all of the above brands is in the rail. Craftsman, Chamberlain and Genie have a split rail. This requires assembly of 3-5 pieces to create the rail that the opener travels on as your door goes up and down. This creates a lot of flexibility and fluctuation in your doors operation, and sometimes the joints can become a problem down the road and do more damage to the door and opener itself. The plus side here is that the large majority of garage door professionals are equipped to service these brands.
Liftmaster and Overhead Door Company are equipped with a solid, one piece rail. With these rails there is very little flex and bend during the door operation, and no chance of joint problems down the road. While Liftmaster is what the professionals install and recommend and equipped to service for problems down the road, by choosing Overhead Door Company you are choosing to have them service your opener and door for years to come. Due to the special parts needed and availability of them only through Overhead Door Company, most other garage door companies will not perform service on them.
Liftmaster is the choice to go with for its quality, durability, available servicing, and easy access to replacement parts.
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