Traditional vs Jackshaft

Most people are familiar with the traditional garage door opener that pulls the door by way of an arm sliding along a rail.  This type of opener is available in belt, chain, or screw drive, and can have an A/C or D/C electric motor.  The current trend is that A/C motors are disappearing, as D/C motors are much quieter, can have variable speed for a soft start and stop, and are compatible with backup batteries.

Jackshaft openers have been in commercial use for a long time, but have only been available for residential use for about a decade.  They only work with garage doors with a standard torsion spring system and standard track.  Instead of pulling the door, jackshaft openers rotate the spring torsion tube.  This design is quiet and smooth, and frees up a lot of headroom in your garage when the door is closed.

There are now two options on the market if you want a jackshaft opener:

Chain, Belt, or Screw?

Belt drives are the quietest.  Some of them are virtually silent.  But, compared to older openers that most people are used to, a chain or screw driven opener with a D/C motor will still seem pretty sweet.

How Strong of an Opener Do I Need?

Most garage doors out there today will work just fine with a 1/2 or 3/4 horsepower (which is equal to 800 Newtons for openers with a D/C motor) garage door opener.  This includes insulated doors as big as 16′ x 8′.  Most of the time, the actually strength of the opener motor is a non-issue.  The biggest problem that REALLY heavy doors cause is that they make the opener rail flex as the door lifts off of the ground.  This leads to a very “bouncy” action that isn’t good for the opener or door.

More important than the horsepower is the ability to attach an extra support to the opener rail. A 3/4  h.p. chain opener can easily lift a big old wood door if the rail is well supported.  Only the absolute heaviest doors (big wood carriage style doors and some polyurethane insulated steel doors) require anything stronger.

Your Options

Back in the day, there were all sorts of different garage door opener makes and models to choose from, each with unique pros and cons.  During the 1980’s and 90’s, old players like Stanley, Montgomery Ward, Allister, and Crawford have fallen by the wayside, leaving Chamberlain and Genie as the two dominant manufacturers.

Chamberlain manufactures their own brand, as well as LiftMaster and Craftsman.  Occasionally, I see one of their openers with a cover on it that says Raynor, Wayne Dalton, or some other random brand.  If you look at the circuit board they all say Chamberlain and the insides of these machines are identical across brands.

Genie also makes openers branded as Overhead Door.  Overhead Door Company is the biggest garage door company in America, and probably the world.

More recently, Linear has come on the scene with a very good line of professionally installed openers.

Marantec and Sommer are German companies that were supposed to impress us with their sleek precision, but have failed to catch on.  Some garage door companies and retailers are still pushing these but I am very skeptical.

Most Importantly

The quality of the installation is the biggest factor in how well your garage door opener works out for you.