Important Reasons to Replace Your Garage Door Opener

Oct 6
07:22

2010

Aaliyah Arthur

Aaliyah Arthur

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A garage door opener is a very basic and simple mechanism that requires replacing more often than you might realize. Here we look at the reasons why yours may need to be replaced right away.

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If you have a garage door,Important Reasons to Replace Your Garage Door Opener Articles then you may need a new opener for that door. While yours may be working as well as it did when you first installed it the newer models of door openers for garages come with a higher level of safety, more security and a great deal more convenience.

If your door opener was purchased before 1993, the time has come to get a new one. Ever since 1993, openers have been constructed with a safety reversing mechanism. This feature is a very beneficial one. It is made up of two sensors that sit approximately six inches above the floor and are positioned on both sides of a door. The sensors cause a light beam to appear. If a person or family pet walks by while the door is in the process of closing, it will stop the closing action and will reverse what it is doing. This safety reversing feature is highly recommended. If your door opener does not have one, consider doing something about that.

Some garage door openers are very loud. If someone in your household works until late at night or gets up really early in the morning then others may be awakened by an unpleasant surprise. The same can be said for your neighbors! Installing a new door opener will be a great deal quieter. Most of the older openers for garages open and close with the help of a chain drive. Some look similar to the chain on a bike. The newer models are belt drives or screw drives. There are still some chain drive openers around if you favor that kind, but the newer ones are far superior in their construction to the original ones.

Security is a huge issue when it comes to an opener. The older ones are easier for thieves to manipulate than the modern ones are. For example, the older ones were made with a fixed code. An individual who wanted to break into your garage could simply plant him or herself outside of your residence and use a special device to figure out your code. From there it would be very simple for them to break in. The newer door openers on the other hand have a rolling code feature. What this means is that the code is modified every time it gets used. This makes it much more challenging for criminals to decipher your code.

Many of the older garage door openers required keys. The new ones do not. They have keypads that can be affixed to the outside of the garage. The homeowner can drive into their driveway, enter their code into the keypad, and the door will open. This can all be done without keys. This means there are no keys to lose, misplace, leave at work or have stolen.

Some openers work with keypads that can be purchased and installed. However, if your older opener does not allow for this, it may be a good time to upgrade. Some newer keypads use fingerprint detection which removes the need for memorizing a code.