soon to be a new home owner... I need a garage door opener...

so we're scheduled to close on the house on the 31st... 

the garage doesn't have a garage door opener... it appears that it had one at some point but was removed... the current owner uses it as a hang out room and has a pool table and a projector and screen for movies (also has a HUGE one in the house)... 

so assuming when we get in there the garage door opener doesn't show up somewhere what am I looking for?

the garage is a 2.5 car garage, seperate from the house with the wide 2 car garage door, fairly light weight alu (or some other stampped metal) although I plan on insulating at some point.

what sort of HP am I looking for and belt, chain, or screw drive?...

thanks guys :)

Mark

On my 16x7 insulated I have a Liftmaster 8550 Elite. 

Make sure that if you insulate the door you change or adjust the spring for the extra weight so that the motor doesnt work extra hard. 

Do you have coil springs or a torsion spring?

If you have a torsion spring, get a Liftmaster 8500.

I have a lift master in one house belt drive . Exact as slippery. Garage door companies have them. 

just installed another belt drive yesterday - this time chamberlain - HD or Lowe's. 

4 remotes on each
both have wifi 

both have keypads

 both are whisper quiet 

can't go wrong with either 

Woody said:

Do you have coil springs or a torsion spring?

If you have a torsion spring, get a Liftmaster 8500.

torsion spring setup... any specific reasons?

donalson said:

Woody said:

Do you have coil springs or a torsion spring?

If you have a torsion spring, get a Liftmaster 8500.

torsion spring setup... any specific reasons?

 

Yes. If you have a torsion spring, you can use a jackshaft opener, like the Liftmaster 8500. It is super quiet and doesn't take up any ceiling space.

It also gives you the option to do a high lift conversion and move the open door closer to the ceiling, which means that you can then add a lift.

The house I just moved into has two single-car garage doors that each have their own openers. The two openers look similar and function the same way (chain drive/long spring). However, while the Liftmaster makes such a racket you can hear it and feel it all through the house, the Linear is so quiet that several times I've hit the button a second time not realizing it was already staring to move. The doors and tracks are the same age.  I wonder if the install/setup is what made the difference in noise.

nderwater said:

However, the Liftmaster makes such a racket you can hear it and feel it all through the house, 

Something is wrong with your setup. It shouldn't work that way 

The old Liftmaster at my rental property sounded the same, so I assumed the racket was because these are low-end openers.  I'll google to find how to service them and see if that makes a difference.

The lift master at my rental property is 6 years old

other about 8 years ols

both I installed. If I blindfold you - you won't even know gatage opening. Whisper quiet 

I had to install them as the bedrooms in both rentals are above the garage. The stupid chain drives used to create a racket before I swapped them 

Came here to echo the Liftmaster 8500 comment.  Some of the best money I have ever spent.  

Another Liftmaster 8500 upvote here

Oh and I forgot to add congrats on home ownership!

If you need a lift master jackshaft opener, I found a guy here in Los Angeles who has the best price by far.  I want to say $350 each. 
 

but check craigslist and OfferUp and Facebook marketplace etc 

I have two Liftmaster 8500 on individual insulated doors. SUPER quiet and out of the way. They are fantastic. ~1.5 years old.

I have the Chamberlain MyQ 3/4 horsepower overhead lift.  It has a belt drive and is quiet for my all wood (heavy) door.  The thing I really like about it is the WiFi access.  I have it connected to my wireless network and can open and close the door from my phone and look at the last time it was open or closed.  It also had regular garage door remotes.  It's cool for those "did I close the garage door" moments or to figure out last time it was closed.

-Rob 

I have I think the cheapest Chamberlain from Home Depot. It seems to work fine, but it's not great. It's very loud (chain drive), and the rail (not sure if that's the real name for it?) is multi piece and seems a bit flimsy. That said, I've had no problems with it. I have a 1 car garage. I would probably at least spring for a belt drive next time.

Family member works at that brand mentioned above and he told me there is a nylon drive gear that wears and can be improved but it sells a lot of replacements.

I find that to be funny.  

AIUI, the nylon drive gear is there as a fuse.  It's designed to shear when something jams so that it doesn't break something expensive.

Another +1 on the Liftmaster 8500, I have one and it's awesome.  I had a belt-drive overhead unit in the old house and while they are a step up from the cheap chain drive ones, it's nowhere close to as nice as the 8500.