What Are Automatic Garage Door Openers?

An automatic garage door opener is an electrical device that lets you open the door to the garage with a hand held transmitter (remote control). Most people have the transmitter installed in the car so all they have to do is push a button when they enter the driveway to open the door. The same control closes the door behind you when you are safely inside the garage. You can open the door from the inside because there is usually an opener installed on the wall. You don’t have to worry about anyone just coming up your driveway and opening the door from the outside because you don’t put a transmitter in this area.

In order for this type of garage door opener to work, you need to have either a door that rolls up in sections or one that glides up in one piece. The door can be either metal or wood and either a single or double garage door. As long as you can open the door manually, you will be able to install a garage door opener to make things easier for you.

There are three types of garage door openers you can choose from – screw drive, chain drive or friction drive. With the screw drive openers, the up/down setting is quite reliable, making these the most commonly used. The chain drive openers, the up/down setting tends to be more difficult and the chain stretches over time, adding to the difficulty. The chains also wiggle and could come loose. The friction type of door openers are very quiet, but they do have a lot of problems associated with them. This is one of the reasons that many stores no longer sell friction drive openers and replacement parts are harder to find.

Garage door openers now come with safety features. With the screw type openers, you can adjust the down force so that if the door hits something on the way down it will automatically reverse to open all the way. This saves a lot of damage to your car if you forget to go all the way out of the garage before you hit the close button.