Most people wait for their garage door opener to stop working to replace it. Unfortunately, a failing opener can disappoint you when you need it to work, for example, when parking your car at night. It may also fail to close the garage, leaving your home vulnerable to a break-in. You can prevent these mishaps by replacing your garage door opener before it shows signs of failure. With this in mind, here are three signs that indicate it's time to ditch your garage door opener for a new one.
Your opener uses old technology.
When is the last time you replaced your opener? If you've had it for a decade or more, it must be using an old technology that's possibly obsolete. Traditional openers only had one job—to open and close a garage door. However, over time, new ones emerged with advanced features that go a long way in promoting safety and convenience. Some of these features include the following:
If you have an old opener with old tech, you could benefit from an advanced one with these additional features.
Your garage door opens slowly.
When your garage door starts to operate sluggishly, it's reasonable to assume that its components are faulty. Most people turn to the torsion or extension springs and other hardware to troubleshoot the problem. However, the issue could be your opener. When openers start to age, they may have trouble lifting the door as efficiently as they used to.
Now, instead of waiting for the inevitable to happen, it's advisable to replace the garage door opener before it fails altogether. Remember, if your opener doesn't have a manual release function, you won't be able to operate the door once it fails.
You have upgraded your garage door.
In a bid to save money, some people use the hardware in their old garage door opener to operate the new one. Even if the design is the same, avoid using old hardware components such as mounting hardware, wired door controls and remote wireless. First, using old parts can make the installation process lengthy and complicated. Also, an old opener is likely to fail fast. Therefore, save yourself the trouble by buying a new opener for your new door.
As you shop around for a garage door opener, remember to find one with advanced features, such as a MyQ garage door opener, so you can get the best value from it.