Garage door opener replacement

2458n · Aug 3, 2014

The three part rails are so you can ship them. They were always a weak point. I live about a 1/2 mile from a former Stanley garage door opener plant. Worked for Clopay and ran tests on chamberlain=which made openers for others was hands down the best and would outlast the hinges on doors. 250,000 opening and closings were common. They may have taken this info and decided to cheapen parts by now. Reverse engineering was a term that was used. I feel safe knowing my former Boss will never see this.

Happy Gilmore · Aug 4, 2014

2458n said:
The three part rails are so you can ship them. They were always a weak point. I live about a 1/2 mile from a former Stanley garage door opener plant. Worked for Clopay and ran tests on chamberlain=which made openers for others was hands down the best and would outlast the hinges on doors. 250,000 opening and closings were common. They may have taken this info and decided to cheapen parts by now. Reverse engineering was a term that was used. I feel safe knowing my former Boss will never see this.

Are you saying the Chamberlain was a solid opener? We have an old Stanley, over 20 years old, we'll be needing a new one eventually.

ray66v · Aug 4, 2014

JDgreen227 said:
I think the same company manufactures Craftsman/Liftmaster/Chamberlain and only the branding is different...the Lightmaker I replaced recently was an antique as Stanley got out of the opener business a long time ago. What ray66v says about quality is probably true...more plastic, thinner steel parts, etc. Recently I helped someone replace an early-90's model half horsepower Craftsman opener, the rail for that was 3 very thick sections of T-shaped steel bolted together. The Chamberlain rail I just put up was press-fitted sections of hollow square steel....yeah, build them cheaper so a customer will buy a new one sooner.

Correct, they are all the same company.

If you buy a Liftmaster from a door company, you will get a one piece rail. But, the same opener then costs you about $75 more, cash and carry.

The flimsy rails are not the failure point, it's more about aesthetics.

It is the gears, motors, and electronics, that are problems.

My friend will not sell the battery back up units anymore, because of multiple complaints about the batteries going bad.

If you run a new opener, up and down too many times in a row, you can overheat it. I have had them heat up from using it too many times, to adjust it during installation.

An installation tip: Make sure when you install your opener, with the arm coming off the trolley vertically, when the door is closed. If there is an angle to it, prying the door up to break in, is much easier, than if it is straight up and down. If it is straight up and down, you are prying against the rail, if it is at an angle, the force is against the braking system on the opener, and that will fail at some point.