How To Install Automatic Garage Door Opener

How to Install a Replacement Garage Door Opener

Updated: Sep. 02, 2022

Tips for a faster, meliorate installation of a new garage door opener.

Replacement garage door opener garage door opener installation Family unit Handyman

Check out these expert tips for easier garage door opener installation and trouble-free operation. Nosotros'll clarify the instructions that are most of import and pass along some pro communication that yous won't find in the manual.

Tip ane: Make sure the door parts are working

Bank check for a broken spring

If you have two garage doors and they become similar use, have the springs above both doors replaced when one breaks. The other one will probably break within a yr.

If your garage door is opening slowly or making a lot of noise, the problem may non be your opener. And so before you buy a new garage door opener, check for broken or wobbly rollers and brackets. But don't supersede the bottom roller bracket yourself—the cablevision attached to it is under extreme tension. You'll need to call a pro. If you're replacing the rollers, go nylon rollers. They operate quieter than steel rollers and cost just a few bucks more. Next, bank check the torsion bound (mounted on the header to a higher place the door opening) to see if it'due south broken. When one breaks, you'll encounter a gap in the coils. You lot'll demand a pro to supervene upon a broken jump.

Read more on garage door opener repair and troubleshooting.

Tip 2: Check the door balance

Examination the door balance

Open your door halfway and let become. If the door moves upwards or downward on its own, the torsion spring is out of aligning, which causes your opener to work harder and vesture out faster.

Make sure the garage door is balanced. Close the door and pull the emergency release cord (always close the door first so information technology can't come up crashing down!). Lift the door about halfway upward and let get. The door shouldn't movement. If information technology slides upward or down, the torsion spring needs to be adjusted (or maybe even replaced). Adjusting the torsion spring is dangerous, so don't attempt it yourself (yous could get seriously hurt). Phone call a pro to arrange it.

Tip iii: Choose the right garage door opener

When ownership a garage door opener, choose a one/iii hp or 1/ii hp garage door opener for a single garage door (ane/3 hp can exist hard to observe at some habitation centers). Go with 1/2 hp for a double door and iii/iv hp for a door that has a wood or faux wood overlay (they can be heavy!). Openers have a fix opening speed, so installing an opener with a college horsepower won't open your door whatsoever faster.

Garage door openers are available with a chain drive, spiral drive or chugalug drive. Chain drives (a long chain pulls the door open and closed) are the to the lowest degree expensive, just they're loud. Screw drives (a long threaded rod drives a mechanism that opens and closes the door) are priced in the mid- range. They require the least maintenance, simply they're not as quiet as chugalug drives. Belt drives (a condom chugalug opens and closes the door) are the quietest, making them the best selection if you have living space above the garage. They're also the well-nigh expensive.

Tip 4: Set the garage door opener on a ladder for easier installation

Position the opener

Place the opener on a ladder and use scrap lumber to go it at the meridian y'all need. Align the opener'southward rail with the center of the garage door.

Follow the manufacturer'southward instructions to get together the opener and mount the rails to the header bracket in a higher place the door. Then set the opener on a ladder where you're going to install it. The ladder (unremarkably an 8-footer) holds the opener in position while you measure for your lengths of bending atomic number 26. If necessary, put boards under the opener to heighten it.

Have the door open when you install the opener (clamp locking pliers onto the roller rail below a roller to keep the door from closing). It'south easier to align the opener with the eye of the door when the door is open up.

Tip 5: Purchase heavy-duty bending fe

Hang the opener with angle atomic number 26

Don't use the flimsy strap that comes with some openers. Solid mounting ways less vibration and a longer life. If the opener is more than than 6 in. from the ceiling, attach an angle brace to eliminate sway.

Garage door openers come up with everything you demand for garage door opener installation. But the mounting straps that are included are ofttimes so flimsy that yous tin can bend them with your hands. Then buy slotted angle fe at a hardware store. Cutting it to size with a hacksaw.

Angle atomic number 26 provides a stronger installation and reduces vibration, which helps extend the opener's life span. In an unfinished garage, adhere the bending fe direct to the face of a joist with one-in. lag screws. For finished ceilings, attach bending iron along the bottom of a joist with 3-in. lag screws. Hang the opener using two more than lengths of angle iron and basics and bolts. Use lock washers or thread-locking adhesive to proceed vibration from loosening the nuts.

Tip 6: Replace all the components

Don't be tempted to reuse the old photoelectric eyes and wall push (opener button). The new photo eyes and wall push are designed to piece of work with your new opener.

If the wires that run from your opener to the photo eyes and to the wall push button are exposed, replace them, too. Those wires have probably been in your garage for 10 years or more, and they may exist nicked or worn. Newer openers are extremely sensitive and won't piece of work if a wire is damaged. It simply takes about xv minutes to run the new wire, and then it's fourth dimension well spent. If the wires are protected within the wall, you don't need to run new wire.

Tip 7: Check the door's opening forcefulness

Check the opening force

Rest your human foot on the door and open information technology with a remote control. The light pressure from your foot should crusade the door to terminate. If information technology doesn't, arrange the opening force.

Your instructions probably don't encompass checking the opening force. If your door encounters more than about v lbs. of resistance when information technology'due south opening, you desire it to stop. This is an important safety feature. The "resistance" could exist your finger caught in the track.

To check the opening force, residuum your foot on the door handle virtually the floor and open up the door using the remote command. When the door lifts confronting your pes, it should finish with very little pressure. If the door continues to open, accommodate the force.

Tip eight: Fine-tune the opening and closing forcefulness

Adjust the force

Make minor adjustments to the opening and closing force screws, then retest the force. A ane/8-in. plough is sometimes all you need.

The opener's instructions probably tell you lot to identify a 2×four on the floor under the eye of the door, then close it. When the door contacts the wood, it should stop and and then opposite. Proper closing strength ensures that if something is in the door's path, the door won't crush it.

The locations of the opening and closing force aligning screws vary. Our unit has two screws on the front end. When adjusting the opening or endmost force, plough the screw only near 1/8 in., then recheck the force.

If the door starts to open then stops on its own, increment the opening forcefulness. Besides, if information technology stops on its own while endmost, increment the closing force. You might have to make several small adjustments to get the forcefulness exactly how it should be.

Tip nine: Use bulbs that handle vibration

Install tough bulbs

Utilize "crude service" bulbs and don't exceed the wattage listed on the opener. Bulbs that are likewise hot can harm the opener.

Garage door openers vibrate, so you'll need special lite- bulbs that can handle it. Await for "crude service" or "garage door" on the label.

Be certain to use the wattage specified in your transmission. If you use a higher wattage, the rut could melt the plastic embrace over the bulbs or fifty-fifty damage the circuit board inside the opener.

This is 1 identify where LED or CFL bulbs aren't the best choice. LEDs have a low light output, and CFLs aren't designed to handle the vibration. And since the lights are on just briefly, the free energy saved with these bulbs would be negligible.

Tip 10: Ready a reversing door

The most common trouble with garage door openers is the door reversing when it's closing, even when there's cipher obvious obscuring the photoelectric eyes. If your closing forcefulness is adapted correctly, so the problem is most always the photoelectric eyes. The eyes are very sensitive— fifty-fifty cobwebs can interfere with them. First brand certain the eyes are still in alignment (some- thing may have knocked them out of whack). And so make sure the eyes are clean and the path betwixt them is clear. Finally, wait for loose wires in the eyes and the opener.

Required Tools for this Project

Take the necessary garage door tools for this DIY project lined up before you start—yous'll relieve time and frustration.

Originally Published: January xviii, 2022

Source: https://www.familyhandyman.com/project/how-to-install-a-garage-door-opener/

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