Low overhead garage door opener
 

I'm installing a new wood garage door in a small, low-ceiled garage
and want to install an automatic opener.

A garage door installer came by for an estimate yesterday and told me
that I didn't have enough ceiling height for my existing door and that
the opening would have to be shortened to six feet to accomodate an
opener. I'm six feet tall and with a door sitting even lower than me
I can see some serious skull cracks from that.

The installer said he needed a minimum of 6" overhead clearance
between the rails and the ceiling. No exceptions. I googled around a
bit and found a zero-clearance opener, albeit a bit pricey:

http://www.aaaremotes.com/miaugadoop601.html

Currently I have about 3" of overhead clearance.

Does anyone know of any other low-clearance openers or any experience
with the Miracle(tm) opener above?

Thanks.

Steve Manes
Brooklyn, NY
http://www.magpie.com/house

On Wed, 07 Sep 2005 20:46:54 -0400, Steve Manes
wrote:

snip

Does anyone know of any other low-clearance openers or any experience
with the Miracle(tm) opener above?

Thanks.

Steve Manes
Brooklyn, NY
http://www.magpie.com/house

Two suggestions.

Quick turn brackets, which are designed to make the door edge turn
sooner, might buy you enough clearance, but doubtful.

Look at the Wayne Dalton IDrive opener. It mounts to the torsion
spring shaft above the door (if you have extension springs you would
have to convert). There is no track above the door, so it will work
in very low clearance situations. But it's a bit pricey too.

HTH,

Paul

"Steve Manes" wrote in message
...
I'm installing a new wood garage door in a small, low-ceiled garage
and want to install an automatic opener.

A garage door installer came by for an estimate yesterday and told me
that I didn't have enough ceiling height for my existing door and that
the opening would have to be shortened to six feet to accomodate an
opener. I'm six feet tall and with a door sitting even lower than me
I can see some serious skull cracks from that.

The installer said he needed a minimum of 6" overhead clearance
between the rails and the ceiling. No exceptions. I googled around a
bit and found a zero-clearance opener, albeit a bit pricey:

http://www.aaaremotes.com/miaugadoop601.html

Currently I have about 3" of overhead clearance.

Does anyone know of any other low-clearance openers or any experience
with the Miracle(tm) opener above?

Thanks.

Steve Manes
Brooklyn, NY
http://www.magpie.com/house

The miracle operator isn't that good, especially if you have extension
springs. The thing opens and closes the door from one side of door nnd if
your door is not working perfectly the thing will not function correctly.
This opener is prone to many trouble calls once it starts "slipping" in the
track..

Read and heed:

"The Miracle opener was designed with the installer in mind."

But in the long run the home owner is going to get the headaches (and the
bills).

How much room do you have from the floor to the ceiling? Do you have
extension or torsion springs?

http://www.miracleinstrument.com/garage.html would be the people to contact
if you insist upon getting one of these things.


"Steve Manes" wrote in message
...
I'm installing a new wood garage door in a small, low-ceiled garage
and want to install an automatic opener.

A garage door installer came by for an estimate yesterday and told me
that I didn't have enough ceiling height for my existing door and that
the opening would have to be shortened to six feet to accomodate an
opener. I'm six feet tall and with a door sitting even lower than me
I can see some serious skull cracks from that.

The installer said he needed a minimum of 6" overhead clearance
between the rails and the ceiling. No exceptions. I googled around a
bit and found a zero-clearance opener, albeit a bit pricey:

http://www.aaaremotes.com/miaugadoop601.html

Currently I have about 3" of overhead clearance.

Does anyone know of any other low-clearance openers or any experience
with the Miracle(tm) opener above?

Thanks.

Steve Manes
Brooklyn, NY
http://www.magpie.com/house

I had a WD IDrive installed in my parents townhome 2 years ago. Nice unit.
It is used with a Wayne Dalton door. I believe now they have a model with
battery backup.


"Paul Franklin" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 07 Sep 2005 20:46:54 -0400, Steve Manes
wrote:

snip

Does anyone know of any other low-clearance openers or any experience
with the Miracle(tm) opener above?

Thanks.

Steve Manes
Brooklyn, NY
http://www.magpie.com/house

Two suggestions.

Quick turn brackets, which are designed to make the door edge turn
sooner, might buy you enough clearance, but doubtful.

Look at the Wayne Dalton IDrive opener. It mounts to the torsion
spring shaft above the door (if you have extension springs you would
have to convert). There is no track above the door, so it will work
in very low clearance situations. But it's a bit pricey too.

HTH,

Paul

Art wrote:
I had a WD IDrive installed in my parents townhome 2 years ago. Nice unit.
It is used with a Wayne Dalton door. I believe now they have a model with
battery backup.


"Paul Franklin" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 07 Sep 2005 20:46:54 -0400, Steve Manes
wrote:

snip

Does anyone know of any other low-clearance openers or any experience
with the Miracle(tm) opener above?

Thanks.

Steve Manes
Brooklyn, NY
http://www.magpie.com/house

Two suggestions.

Quick turn brackets, which are designed to make the door edge turn
sooner, might buy you enough clearance, but doubtful.

Look at the Wayne Dalton IDrive opener. It mounts to the torsion
spring shaft above the door (if you have extension springs you would
have to convert). There is no track above the door, so it will work
in very low clearance situations. But it's a bit pricey too.

HTH,

Paul

Another vote for IDrive, they work ok, remotes are weak, and slow; and
when you cross safety beam lights won't turn on ... but Idrives are
also pretty darn fast and allow low clearance.

On 8 Sep 2005 03:33:42 -0700, "Brian" wrote:
Another vote for IDrive, they work ok, remotes are weak, and slow; and
when you cross safety beam lights won't turn on ... but Idrives are
also pretty darn fast and allow low clearance.

Thanks for the tips. Googling around though, I found a whole nest of
nasty comments about iDrive, from installation nightmares to flakey
performance to poor customer service. Here's one such thread:

http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load...317346904.html

The principle behind iDrive seems great and, in theory anyway,
nonproblematic. But after reading this stuff I'm reluctant to try it
given my luck with such things. If there's a bug in something, I
usually tend to find it.

Are these just older, dot-oh models and Wayne Dalton has since cleaned
up its act?

Steve Manes
Brooklyn, NY
http://www.magpie.com/house

On Thu, 08 Sep 2005 03:09:00 GMT, "Rich" wrote:

Read and heed:

"The Miracle opener was designed with the installer in mind."

Yeah, that and the fact that I saw about a hundred "affiliates"
selling this opener but no product reviews of it made me skeptical,
which is why I asked about it here. It looked like it might be one of
those Chinese MLM products.

How much room do you have from the floor to the ceiling? Do you have
extension or torsion springs?

At its lowest point, I have 79" from the floor to the bottom of the
exposed steel 8" joists under the concrete deck above. The current
door has extension springs but I'm replacing all of this and widening
the opening to 9' so it could be either.

Steve Manes
Brooklyn, NY
http://www.magpie.com/house

On 09/08/05 07:22 am Steve Manes tossed the following ingredients into
the ever-growing pot of cybersoup:

How much room do you have from the floor to the ceiling? Do you have
extension or torsion springs?

At its lowest point, I have 79" from the floor to the bottom of the
exposed steel 8" joists under the concrete deck above. The current
door has extension springs but I'm replacing all of this and widening
the opening to 9' so it could be either.

Our garage door has torsion springs, but the tops of the pulleys are
already more than 6 inches above the top of the door opening. The newly
installed iDrive did not add anything to that height.

IOW, the balancing mechanism alone took more than 6 inches above the
door opening, even without any kind of mechanical opener. Are there
balancing mechanisms that need less than that?

Perce

Low overhead garage door opener
 

replying to Steve Manes, sully wrote:
I have used one for over 10 years. You need to replace the roller every few
years and replacement parts are over priced but all and all a good product

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Low overhead garage door opener
 

replying to Rich, sully wrote:
The rollers only spin when the wear down. I have had few problems over the 10
plus years I have used it

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