Without a garage door opener we would have to get out of the car to fumble with a manual garage door in a torrential downpour, or worse, get out of the car when thugs are lurking close by ready to hold a gun to your head and drive off with your idling car. With a garage door opener, you simply push a button and drive right in.
A garage door opener is an electric motor appliance that opens a garage door at the push of a button, wired into the household electrical circuit. The button sends an infrared or radio signal to the control unit that, in turn, activates an electric motor with a track-and-pulley system that moves the door.
Commercial sites have different needs from residential applications – where your private garage door might only have to open once or twice, a commercial operator may be used several times an hour, and for this reason garage openers have to provide the highest levels of strength and durability.
Garage door openers have to have the power to lift the largest garage door… steel, fiberglass, wood or vinyl, and you need to take into account the garage door height, door width, and door weight.
You obviously want a quality garage door opener; one that allows the garage door to be opened or closed manually for emergencies or maintenance. A garage door is a large heavy object, and for safety purposes, you want the motor to stop immediately if the door is obstructed.
Always choose an opener capable of lifting in excess of the force required to move the door so that the machine is not constantly working at the limits of its capabilities.
You want your garage door opener to give years of trouble-free service, but this largely depends on the build, quality and design of the product; the most sensible thing is to contact Tandem Security, where quality and service go hand in hand.