The garage door opener is the mechanics behind the door itself, the motor and engine that get your door from point A to point B. Without a working garage door opener, your garage door is just a glorified wall. Garage door openers that have been properly maintained can last a decade, easily. That lifespan begins to shorten if the opener has not been properly maintained—or if something goes wrong.
In 2020, it might be time to invest in a new garage door opener. They aren’t too expensive, and can bring a lot of benefits and peace of mind.
1. Breakdowns
Obviously, if your garage door has broken down, it’s time to get a new one. New openers are not too expensive and can give you a whole list of new features. Alternatively, you can replace your garage door opener long before it ever breaks down. These things tend to go wrong at the worst possible time—like right when you need to leave for soccer practice or the big meeting, so staying ahead of the life cycle ensures you have minimum stress over your garage door opener!
2. Strange Noises
If you get into your car, crank the music, and then open your garage door, you might be missing a lot of information about the way that things are functioning. Strange noises or loud vibrations might mean that something is bent out of shape or rubbing up against another part. In that case, it might be time to get repair on your opener or to get a new opener altogether.
It’s a good practice to listen to your garage door going up and down every single month. That will help you catch problems before they become worse, allowing you to know when to get a new garage door opener.
3. Unresponsive Opening
Unresponsive opening might be a problem with the remote, and we’d definitely recommend trying this solution first. It’s pretty cheap to just get a new compatible remote and extend the lifespan of your opener by years. But on the other hand, problems with the signal sometimes originate with the opener itself, in which case your only solution is going to be to repair the electronics in the opener or to just get a new opener. Openers that are decades old often have really old parts and systems, and it will usually be much easier (and possibly cheaper) to just get a new opener with new electronics.
4. Keypads
Garage doors have signal remotes that allow you to open them up with the touch of a button when you come home with your car. But sometimes you want to enter and exit the garage on foot, without the use of a remote. Modern garage doors offer solutions for this in a couple of different ways. First of all, there’s the keypad, which allows you to punch in a PIN on the outside of the house to gain access to the garage door.
A more modern solution would be a smartphone app that allows you to enter and exit the door with ease. Most modern garage doors won’t even require a remote in your car anymore. The whole family can download a simple app and use it to gain access to the house.
5. Get a Safer Door
Older garage doors generally us a fixed code in the remote control, which allows someone looking to rob your house to use a device that quickly runs through different codes. If their device stumbles across the code, they now have the code for your door and can come back to open it up whenever they’d like to. Modern garage doors don’t use a static code, they use a more secure solution, dynamic codes that change every time you use your garage door. That means that someone can’t bank your code and come back to rob your house.
6. Smart Door
We’ve referenced this already, but many modern, 2020 garage doors are smart doors that can connect to other smart home functionality. This means no more remotes in the sun visor of your car. Simply download the app and use your phone to open and close the door. Additionally, many smart hub apps can load in your garage door as one of the connected things, which means if you’re worried that you forgot to close the garage door by the time you hit the office, you don’t have to drive home. Simply pull up the app and close the garage door from your phone.
7. A Quieter Door
Yep, new garage doors are quieter too. With reduced friction in the engine and in the gears of the opener, you won’t hear the loud whirring noises every time you come home or leave. It’s a small touch, but it adds an extra sense of class and luxury to your garage. If you’re embarrassed by the groaning of your decades-old opener, a new one can quietly start and end your day.
8. Battery Power for Backup
On older models, if you unplug the opener, it isn’t going anywhere. You would have to manually pull the cord and get things to move up and down. And if any of the balancing springs or tension cords are damaged, this can be really difficult or even dangerous. Newer models provide you with a built-in battery that acts as a backup reserve. If main power is lost to the opener, you’ll be stuck.
9. Peace of Mind
Finally, the biggest reason you should replace your garage door opener in 2020 is peace of mind. If you have an older model, you’re likely lacking the stability, safety features, and smart features that newer models bring to your garage. For just a small investment, your entire house becomes easier to access and a lot safer to access. After all, why wouldn’t you want to enter and exit your garage with your smartphone? It’s the most convenient, safe way for you and your whole family to always have access to the house.
