Use someone's experience - your guess may not as good as my advice
Garage door opener - many and various can be judged on these
points.
You have decided to automate your garage door and - what next? 
Choose carefully. Selecting an automatic garage door opener raises a few
questions.
Here are several important items to consider:
-
Motor power - The garage door opener's pulling
power
-
Security - Keep the rogues out of your home with
this garage door opener.
-
Safety - Won't crush the car or the kids. This
garage door opener can't.
-
Reliability - How about one minor fault in 15
years
-
Drive system - Never seen a chain break even with
the pre-historic 1970 models
-
Noise - Quiet as a Dormouse and it's chain driven
- Hear It If You Can
-
Power
consumption
Garage door opener power
If you're looking at the latest designs "Power" is
described in 'Newtons'. The DC motors -using low voltage cannot be confused wih mains current
motors at 240volts in UK.
These are rated at 700 newtons to 1100 Newtons - plus a few more.
So that's easy then. "The larger the door, the larger the power required.
Above all else Safety. Mains installations should be
left to qualified electricians. No ifs - No buts. It is illegal (in UK ) to step outside the
regulations. Use a licensed electrical contractor for any work on the mains supply. You can - of
course - Put the plug into the mains
socket.
The rest of the work to be done. If the colour does not match the
garage decor? A quick blast from a spray can will soon settle that. Not inside the box - Outside
the box only. Yes done that too.
If you are planning to fit your
automatic garage door opener then you'll be pleased to know that the list of tools you'd need is
delightfully short. If you were to need advice then your supplier should be willingly answer all
your technical questions throughout the venture. If this support is not included in the kit then
buy your automatic garage door opener from someone else.
Another tool for the day - a second pair of hands. Essential for a
first timer. Acting as Duty Monitor and some time helper with installation guide in hands is a
great idea.
You'll be better asking advice from someone with more than a
slight sniff of experience. If necessary use the phone.
Let's again look at
safety. It's important. But the safety
standards of yester-year were lazy in operation. Mains motors and mechanical contraptions of
3 or more moving parts were not capable of reacting instantaneously to an
obstruction.
If your car was about to be thumped by a slowly closing garage
door you would be unlikely to prevent it unless you had a reliable remote control in your hand at
the time. You would be writing a substantial cheque to give to the repair shop. You surely would be
unable to prevent it happening.
You might think that security is more important than any other
factor. Maybe automatic garage
doors can leave you susceptible to intruders. That's the wrong choice. Your choice should, in every case,
be for a remote control system using the latest technology. "Rolling Code" is the
name.
How does Rolling Code
Work?
Let's keep it
simple. You press the
button on the remote control and it "says" to the receiver in the control box "HELLO YOU This
is ME, OPEN THE DOOR. Next time I contact you I will say this " secret code" The receiver will
only react to this - changed code - signal sent by this remote
control. And so on and so forth.
Constantly changing the code every time the the garage door opens and closes. Pretty cute
stuff?
Is it any wonder that more folk than ever are snapping them up.
Automatic garage doors are more popular than ever before. These garage door openers are now at
their lowest cost ever offering better security, while adding a little more automation to your
daily routine.
Automatic Garage Doors are often thought of as a non essential luxury for only
the most wealthy. This certainly used to be true but it's all changed recently. Mainly due to new
manufacturers improving and developing less costly openers. We are now aware of the dramatically
reduction in cost of garage door automation. people have started to realise that an automatic
garage door is affordable.
There are two main ways to make automatic garage doors safer. The first and most
obvious is to install a modern system that meets current standards.
All modern automatic garage doors will be designed so as to reverse moving if
they find an obstruction. This feature helps to prevent damage to property. If you park your car
too close to your automatic garage door, you need the doors to halt before they can put a scratch
on your bonnet.
Avoid the more ancient models. You'll not find one to fit these
characteristics.
So when the heavens have opened and your about to get a good drenching. A modern
garage door opener means that you get only one drenching instead of two drenchings. If your garage
is integral with the main building then you avoid the kerfuffle of squeezing past the car to get to
close the garage door. Neatly doesit.
What about the running costs? Yes - what
about the running costs? How acceptable is negligible?
Himataz
11th March 2011
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