On 5 Sep 2008 10:37:30 -0400, (Rich Greenberg) wrote:

I would appreciate some opinions on garage door openers.

I presently have a genie of indeterminate age that is starting to fail.
Its a screw drive consumer model with the three part track bolted
together.

The local door service I called suggests replaceing it with a
Liftmaster, either chain or belt driven. They tell me that the quality
of the Genie has gone down in the last few years and they no longer
carry Genie.

Questions:

1) Is the motor on the Genie (which seems to have become intermittant)
easily obtainable and easily replaceable? Should I first replace the
starting capacitor? It seems to start OK, raises the door a foot or two
and stops. The adjustment for sensitivity (is that the right term) is
at max.

2) Whats the dependability of Liftmasters in general? Between screw
drive, chain drive & belt drive which is the best and most relieable?
I only have experience with screw drives.

Thanks for you help.

First make sure the door operates reasonably without the opener. (ie,
make sure a spring isn't broken). If all is OK, older genies had a
clutch adjustment on the back of the screw. If so, tighten it
slightly until the problem goes away. You said the you set the
sensitivity adjustment for max. It seems like max sensitivity is the
opposite of what you want. Maybe you just worded it incorrectly.
Good luck.