Do the diy retro fit automatic garage door openers work well ? Am
considering the Motor Lift from Chamberlain from screwfix @ £185.99inc
vat. Any pointers of any difficulties experienced would be appreciated
or any other better value mnufactures to consider ?

On 17 Jul 2003 15:59:31 -0700, (dave) wrote:

Do the diy retro fit automatic garage door openers work well ? Am
considering the Motor Lift from Chamberlain from screwfix @ £185.99inc
vat. Any pointers of any difficulties experienced would be appreciated
or any other better value mnufactures to consider ?

I've been looking at this option too. I've got an up-and-over door and
I can't quite figure out how the auto-opener could open/close the
door.

Andrew

Do you need a handyman service? Check out our
web site at http://www.handymac.co.uk

On 17 Jul 2003 15:59:31 -0700, (dave) wrote:

Do the diy retro fit automatic garage door openers work well ? Am
considering the Motor Lift from Chamberlain from screwfix @ £185.99inc
vat. Any pointers of any difficulties experienced would be appreciated
or any other better value mnufactures to consider ?

I have two of these and they work fine.

The main issue I found was organising a secure mounting above the
doors to take that end of the rail. I have a concrete lintel running
across and above the doors, so found it necessary to create a fixing
in the right spot by using an additional timber secured to the nearest
joist plus a steel bracket. That is installation specific, though.

The information in the picture and with the product as to whether an
extension arm is needed is confusing. I have one of the door types
that they list as needing an arm and I didn't. Therefore I would
suggest buying the lift and checking when you install, then buying the
arm if you need it.

The rest of the installation is uneventful. A bracket fits to the
wall above the door. There is a steel rail which comes in sections
that you bolt together and then onto the motor. There is a carrier
which runs along the rail and is moved back and forth with a tensioned
chain around a sprocket on the motor.

The assembly is then fitted into place and the motor unit attached to
the ceiling or to a joist using steel straps. You may need to do
some organising of fixings here as well, although I didn't. Mains
power to the motor is needed as well of course.

If you have the type of door with latches on the sides operated by
cables or rods, these need to be disabled. The door is held in
place when closed by the arm and the chain. The motor drive is via a
worm gearing arrangement so that short of very heavy heavy forcing of
the door by a gorilla it won't open. Nevertheless, I re-incorporated
the latches using a mechanism specifically for the job:

http://www.amourelle.co.uk/securidor.htm

This makes the locking a bit more substantial - at least as good as it
was.

This company also sells replacement bits for doors, such as springs,
which you may need if yours have become tired.

I also added some additional locking and security features to beef it
up even more.

There are then limit and force adjusters which need to be set up.
The force setting is adjusted so that there is comfortably enough to
open and close the door.

There is a built in safety mechanism whereby if the door closes onto
an object, it is detected (by resistance to travel at the motor) and
the door opens again. However, the force can be quite a bit
(although probably not enough to cause injury) before it detects and
reverses, so if you have small children etc., the manufacturer makes a
photoelectric beam accessory which will detect things in the way and
reverses the door. B&Q stock these as well as other accessories
like remote keypads etc.

After a bit of adjusting over the first few days, both systems have
performed faultlessly.



..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

dave wrote:
Do the diy retro fit automatic garage door openers work well ? Am
considering the Motor Lift from Chamberlain from screwfix @ £185.99inc
vat. Any pointers of any difficulties experienced would be appreciated
or any other better value mnufactures to consider ?

I've got two of those, I installed them both myself on different sized
garage doors. Both have been giving sterling service for several
years now (three or four years I think). No problems at all really,
I've just greased one of them recently because it wasn't quite making
it to fully open and the safety switch was stopping it due to excess
friction. Installation was pretty easy, just take your time and make
sure you understand what goes where and how it works, the instructions
were OK but not brilliant if I remember.

I was lucky because both garages have alternatice entrances so I
didn't have any worries about locking myself out, the installation
manual warns repeatedly about that! :-)

--
Chris Green )

Andy Hall wrote:
On 17 Jul 2003 15:59:31 -0700, (dave) wrote:

Do the diy retro fit automatic garage door openers work well ? Am
considering the Motor Lift from Chamberlain from screwfix @ £185.99inc
vat. Any pointers of any difficulties experienced would be appreciated
or any other better value mnufactures to consider ?

I have two of these and they work fine.

Like me! :-)


The main issue I found was organising a secure mounting above the
doors to take that end of the rail. I have a concrete lintel running
across and above the doors, so found it necessary to create a fixing
in the right spot by using an additional timber secured to the nearest
joist plus a steel bracket. That is installation specific, though.

Agreed, in ne of my installations the trusses across the garage were
lowere than the rail for the door needed to be so I actually had to
remake the bottom piece of the truss with an offset centre section to
allow the rail past.


The information in the picture and with the product as to whether an
extension arm is needed is confusing. I have one of the door types
that they list as needing an arm and I didn't. Therefore I would
suggest buying the lift and checking when you install, then buying the
arm if you need it.

That was OK for me but I do agree that the pictures are rather small
and not too clear. I did need the arm for both my garages.

--
Chris Green )

wrote in message
...
dave wrote:
Do the diy retro fit automatic garage door openers work well ? Am
considering the Motor Lift from Chamberlain from screwfix @ £185.99inc
vat. Any pointers of any difficulties experienced would be appreciated
or any other better value mnufactures to consider ?

I fritted one of these 8 years ago. works perfectly every time (twice a day
most days) I haven't even had to fit a new remote battery yet after nearly
3000 presses. I checked the adjustment of the chain but it didn't need
touching


Mine came with a remote keypad which is really useful if you get locked out
or you need to leave something valuable for a friend to collect while you
are out. Just tell them the code, or set them a one off code then change it
back after they have been


Very reliable


David

I fritted one of these 8 years ago. works perfectly every time (twice a
day
most days) I haven't even had to fit a new remote battery yet after nearly
3000 presses. I checked the adjustment of the chain but it didn't need
touching



David


My mistake


6000 presses twice in the car per day the other two from inside the garage

door has opened or closed over 11600 times


David

You need to know if your door is a canopy or retractable,a canopy door would
normally have about one third of the door protruding past the frame,this
type of door requires a conversion arm for proper operation.A retractable
door works with a pivot action and are best suited to automatic operation.If
you have a separate entrance to the garage fine if not you will require a
emergency unlocking kit incise of power or unit failure.

lastly have a look at Henderson,s Duo range very up todate and very reliable
and no moving chain,also very simple to install. www.pchenderson.co.uk

Alex

Do the diy retro fit automatic garage door openers work well ? Am
considering the Motor Lift from Chamberlain from screwfix @ £185.99inc
vat. Any pointers of any difficulties experienced would be appreciated

Fitted one to a canopy door with the 'Chamberlain Arm'. Extra £45. When
it's up, the lowest point of the arm brushes my scalp. Might make all the
difference if you are parking something tall.
Because the brickwork over the opening was fullbrick depth ~220, needed to
chisel into this in order to get the track close enough to the door. If
there had been a box section lintel on the inner face this would have made
it impossible to fit.

Works a treat my 72 yr old mum wouldn't be without it.

Toby.

On Sat, 19 Jul 2003 15:46:47 +0100, "Toby"
wrote:

Fitted one to a canopy door with the 'Chamberlain Arm'. Extra £45. When
it's up, the lowest point of the arm brushes my scalp.

I'm getting seriously worried if you are a midget

Andrew

Do you need a handyman service? Check out our
web site at http://www.handymac.co.uk

On Fri, 18 Jul 2003 01:28:08 +0100, Andrew McKay
wrote:

I've been looking at this option too. I've got an up-and-over door and
I can't quite figure out how the auto-opener could open/close the
door.

Thanks to all the positive comments on this thread I've just ordered
the door opener + canopy accessory from Screwfix.

Thanks to everyone who contributed comments!

Andrew

Do you need a handyman service? Check out our
web site at http://www.handymac.co.uk

I have two garage door openers, on double garage doors, that I
installed myself. I found the instructions clear and accurate.
Particularly regarding dimensions and location of the drive "bar"
above the front of the up and over door. This location can be
critical.

Mine have run for three years now, but I have no doubt that they'll
continue OK. At a guess, 75% of all garages in the USA have these
devices - the kinks have been all worked out. I bought "Genie" type
openers that use a screw drive. If I was doing it today I'd but Bosch
units that use a chain drive.
One thing the US units have going for them, they have IR beams across
the opening, to prevent the door closing on little kids and animals.
They also have torque sensors, which when set, will back up the door
action, if the door hits an obstruction - like you or the car!

Openers 'usually' have no problem opening the door - the trick is to
get them to close it! If the door has been opened to a position
parallel to the garage floor, or even tilted slightly toward the
closed position, then it will likely close easily.
However, if the door is pulled open so that [ what would be the top
edge, when closed ] is below the level of the lower edge of the door,
you will have a problem. The normal hardware supplied with the opener,
will only push the door back into the closed position. If the top edge
is lower than the front, it will just keep pushing that edge down, and
jam up the closing action.

The cure is either a fancy dancy sliding bracket fixed to the inside
of the garage door, or, a U bracket that my buddy came up with, that
prevents the closer pushing the door down.

If you only have one door to the garage, then you should fit a safety
mechanical override. This is a lock on the front exterior of the
garage door, you insert a key, pull the device, it then pulls the
mechanical release inside the garage that disconnects the drive fro
the door. Bingo you can get into the garage, without the opener.

Good luck


On 17 Jul 2003 15:59:31 -0700, (dave) wrote:

Do the diy retro fit automatic garage door openers work well ? Am
considering the Motor Lift from Chamberlain from screwfix @ £185.99inc
vat. Any pointers of any difficulties experienced would be appreciated
or any other better value mnufactures to consider ?

Email address omitted contra Spam.

John Hewitt, Malaga.

On Sun, 20 Jul 2003 20:12:23 +0100, Andrew McKay
wrote:

Thanks to all the positive comments on this thread I've just ordered
the door opener + canopy accessory from Screwfix.

Arrived yesterday and I spent a grand day installing it. For anyone
who might be interested here's my experience.

About 6 hours effort all told. Some of that was because I had to make
special provisions for the rail mounting - I've got an RSJ running
over the door and although that's nice and solid as a potential
mounting point I was slightly less sure of its ability to remain in
place over the longer term - it's literally just gravitationally held
in place, obviously with the weight of the roof bearing down on it
(but I didn't want the RSJ "walking" over a period of years as the
door opener pulled and pushed).

Solved that problem by using a couple of heavy duty angle brackets to
hold a short wooden beam, screwed into the rafters just above.

At the other end I had another problem holding up the motor end of the
rail. Had to fashion another improvisation there.

Then had some fun and games with the canopy arm accessory, mounted to
the door. But fairly straightforward all the same.

Door wouldn't initially open the full way. Got around that by
judicious adjustment of the pots on the drive unit.

Finally, that canopy arm sticks out rather a long way as the door is
rising and lowering - it's going to clobber the back end of my
Freelander if I continue to park where I have got used to. Solved by
taking the car forward another foot.

Overall I'm very pleased. The one significant downside for me is that
the installation kit does not come with key fobs - you instead get a
couple of wallet-sized buttons which are hardly convenient for
carrying with the car keys. Looks like I'll be placing an order for a
key fob from these people:

http://www.easygates.co.uk/remotes.asp

Unless someone can suggest an alternative.....

Andrew

Do you need a handyman service? Check out our
web site at http://www.handymac.co.uk