Archive for January, 2009

Garage Door Opener Parts Needed Advice

Wednesday, January 28th, 2009

There are many places that you can buy quality garage door opener parts.  Many times something will go wrong with your garage and you will not know what to do.  I can tell you that this used to happen to me many times.  In fact, due to everyone going in and out of my garage door, mine used to break all the time.  It was not until later I found out how to maintain my garage door and when it breaks find the parts I need to fix it.

When you need parts you generally need to know what parts you are looking for.  Is it a track?  Is it a bearing?  If it is a bearing what type of bearing do you need.  There are many out there.  You need to know what type of garage door you have.  Many people do not know the brand of the garage door they have.  It could be a Stanly Garage Door, Genie, Overhead, Craftsman, ect.  My point is that you have to know what you are dealing with before you go to the store or online.  Otherwise you are going to be blindly looking for parts you either don’t need, may not exist any longer, or the wrong part all together and when you  buy a part on the internet it is usually harder to take back.

Once you know what part you need you need to know where to get it.  I have highlighted many sites which you can find garage door opener parts in earlier posts so you can look there if you please.  As I stated you can go to a department store like Home Depot or Lowes or Aces Hardware and find the parts you need but they are going to cost you more.  When you go online they are going to be considerably less but the only problem is that a) you have to wait and b)if you get the wrong part its going to be harder to return it.  If you know the exact piece that you want then maybe online is the way to go.  But I am not going to specifically tell you to do one or the other.  Some have worked both ways.  The question is how quick do you want it and how much trouble are you willing to take on to get it at the best price.

Be carefull of a lot of “universal garage parts.”  A lot of universal parts that I have bought have not fit.  Genie makes a lot of these and I have had to take them back.

Last the advice I am going to leave you with is don’t get the cheapest part.  It will break on you and you will be looking for that same part again in the not so distant future.  You do not have to pick the most expensive one because a lot of the times you are just paying for the name but I usually go with the middle of the road.  The middle price usually works the best for me.  If part A costs $5 part B costs $10 and part C costs $20 I will usually go with part B.  Not too cheap and not too expensive.  Hope this helps and good luck!

Garage Door Opener Parts: Liftmaster

Thursday, January 22nd, 2009

You need to buy a Liftmaster if you are going to buy a safety sensor for your garage door.  You can install it yourself in 10-15 minutes.

It is highly recommend that your purchase a  liftmaster safety sensor for your garage door opener. Liftmaster safety senors are some of the best sensors you can buy.  I have used them and have heard nothing but great reviews about them. They are compatible with all fail safe units.  You might want to think twice about getting a Genie Universal product at Lowes or Home Depot.  They do not match everything and you may run into problems..

You can pay a garage door repair service to come and install it for $80 or you can do it yourself.  It will take you 10-15 minutes max.  You will have to use the supplied wire splicers to replace your old sensors but it’s not difficult. Align the sensors using the alignment indicator lights.   Then throw away the old sensors.
Really simple to install.  Purchasing this lit and spending about 15 minutes in the garage is well worth the savings

Garage Door Opener Parts Strange Happenings

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

A series of automatic garage door openers in Sarpy County malfunctioned over the past few days and some residents are suspecting that  Offutt Air Force Base is responsible.

“It didn’t work,” said Terry Labedz. “Nothing happened. Nada.”

Her garage door opener is working now, but it was out for most of the week.

Many people in Sarpy County reported their doors weren’t opening. Labedz charged her battery and called the manufacturer and a local repair service.

“This has been an ongoing problem for several years,” said Lee Pounds of Norm’s Door Service. “We may go through six months where nothing occurs and then we go through a time when everybody is affected.”

Pounds said the problem is that something or someone occasionally broadcasts a signal that overpowers the openers. He suspects the signal comes from Offutt Air Force Base.

“Because of the strength of the signal Offutt is beaming out, it’s going to negate your garage door systems, rendering them ineffective,” Pounds said.

Offutt didn’t comment on the situation, but Labedz thinks Pounds might be right. When she called the base and asked, she said the person who answered suggested several repairmen who would understand her problem. She said the people on the base were polite, but didn’t explain the source of the problem.

“I think the problem is Offutt,” she said.

Labedz has lived in Bellevue for decades and knows that the interference that blocked her opener may come back. Still, she said she’s pleased to have the base as a neighbor.

“I love hearing those planes go over,” she said. “I love our military. They have to do what they have to do.”

Offutt told KETV NewsWatch 7 that it was investigating whether the base was the source of the signal and that the wing commander is always concerned if base activities affect the community.

Several other experts said that the federal government controls all radio frequencies and can do whatever it wants with them.

This has nothing to do with the Garage Door Mystery in Virgina.