The right garage door opener for the door you have

It comes down to the size and weight of your door and whether it is sectional or roller. We measure and weigh the door on site rather than guessing, because an underpowered motor wears out both the opener and the door years early. Roller doors above 2.4m high can also take a chain drive, which is a different specification again.

Usually yes, provided the door itself is sound. The check worth doing first is the springs, rollers and tracks, because automating a tired door pushes all that strain onto a new motor, which is how people end up buying two openers. We look at the whole door before quoting the automation and tell you honestly if it needs work first.

It depends far more on how often the door cycles and how well the door is balanced than on the age of the motor. An opener working against a poorly balanced door will fail years early, which is why we rebalance as part of every install. Noise, hesitation and intermittent operation are the usual signs one is nearing the end.

It depends on the model. The SD1500 Pro sectional opener has a 7 year motor warranty, and the RD1500 roller door opener has 3 years or 15,000 cycles. We confirm the warranty on the model we quote, so you know what you are getting before you commit to it.

Every opener we fit has a manual release, usually a cord hanging from the motor rail. Pull it and the door disconnects from the motor so you can lift it by hand. It is worth practising once while the power is on, because the moment you actually need it is not the moment to be working out how it operates in the dark.

Modern openers have a safety beam across the opening that stops and reverses the door if anything breaks it, and they also reverse when the door meets resistance on the way down. Both are standard on every opener we install rather than optional extras. Test the beam every few months by breaking it while the door closes, and call us if the door does not reverse immediately.

Yes, on the SD1000 Pro, which has Wi-Fi built in. You get an app that opens and closes the door and tells you whether it is currently open, from anywhere with a connection. That is useful for letting a tradesperson in while you are at work, or checking from the road that you did not leave the door up. If phone control matters to you, say so when we quote and we will spec an opener that does it.