Class is now in session….

There are many
types of garage door repair Reseda CA, out there, so which one is right for you??
The first thing you have to realize, is that garage door openers are
not a one size fits all application. Garage door openers are made to
function better if its on the right type of door, most of our repairs
are done on machines that are either installed wrong or the opener is on
the wrong type of door, and in a lot of cases just a low quality
opener.

Now so far I’ve used the words “opener” and “machine” both
have the same meaning, they refer to the entire mechanized operation so
when I say “opener” I’m not referring to the handheld device in your
car…that’s called a “remote control” or just “remote”. With that being
said there are several types of garage door openers on the market..
there are screw-drives, there are chain-drives there are belt-drives and
last but not least direct-drives commonly referred to as “Jackshafts”.
But lets take them one at a time and start with…

Screw-Drives

These
machines have been popular (not necessarily good) on all types of doors
for the better part of 45 years but…because of their design they do
require regular maintenance. Back in the late 6Os,7Os and early 8Os,
Genie used a very durable steel in the “carriage” or “trolley” and the
machines were tough! Even without grease on the screw they would run for
what seemed like forever then they switched to a lighter grade steel
and all that went downhill, the openers would still go as long as any
out there provided you regularly greased the screw but who ever does
that!! So the average life of the Genie screw-drive trolley was about
4-5 years and that’s being generous, Lift master or Chamberlain or
Craftsman,all made by the same mfg…(Chamberlain) also has a
screw-drive and it has the same problem so to counter that they use a
plastic inner trolley and a self lubricating housing around the screw to
keep the heat and wear down, but the self lubricating housing really
only lasts about a year..or the equivalent of your warranty then its
back to the same ol,same ol,“grease-grease-grease”. My official opinion
on screw-drives is…stay away from them, they are old technology with a
new look to them.

Chain Drives

This type
of machine has been around for as long as screwdrivers give or take 5yrs
and they have come along way. Chain-drives have always been very durable
machines but caught a bit of a bad rap when Sears started selling a
do-it-yourself model from Chamberlain called the Craftsman, now this
machine, although called a “chain-drive” was driven by a chain on one
side and a cable on the other and it seemed like nothing could be done
to make this thing quiet because the cable would stretch until it broke
at the loop. So from then on the chain-drives started getting a bad rap
as a “coffee-grinder” or noisy machine, although it wasn’t a true
chain-drive.

The Lift master 1300 series of chain-drives…dollar
for dollar are as good a machine as you can get, they are versatile, in
that they can handle any type of door from heavy wood to light steel,
one-piece or sectional and they are powerful and inexpensive and
relatively speaking…low maintenance, but to get to this point they
have had many good improvements along the way. Chamberlain has added a
chain spreader which keeps the chain from slapping the rail,swapped the
front sprocket to a pulley drastically reducing chain noise, they
switched out the steel worm gear to a nylon worm gear inside the case to
reduce heat on the helical gear and they removed the two tension
springs off the inner trolley to reduce door bounce and its a solid one
piece rail with a full wrap around chain.