With use, our garage door openers get clunky, and some time in the near future, we will need to replace it. Sometimes when a garage door does not operate as it should, it is because of the opener, and for that you don’t normally need to call an expert. Today there are garage door openers which can be installed by the home owner himself, and replacing a garage door is not as difficult as it sounds.
Here are some easy steps in which the process can be completed.
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Take a tape measure and figure out which is the center of your garage door. Since most garage door openers go onto the center of the door, this will make your installation perfect. At the halfway point, draw a line so you can affix the drawbar at that point.
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Open your garage door and mark the highest point of its travel. When installed, the opener rail should be higher than the highest point of your garage door’s travel point so it won’t strike it.
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At the line you drew, check whether there is enough support for the garage door opener. If no, fix a wooden plank with screws, and that plank will act as a support structure.
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Take the motor unit of your garage door and attach it to the rail. This is to be done on the floor of the garage – obviously! For this, your garage door opener manual will come in handy. Most openers come with a rail bracket, and it should not be too difficult for you to install it securely to the rail.
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Raise the rail with the motor unit and fasten it to the garage. For this, there are metal brackets which come in the garage door opener kit, and you can use them. Depending on the kind of a garage door and garage finishing you have, you can read the kind of installation you need to do (from the manual), and do it. For instance, if your garage door ceiling is already finished, you need to put up a wooden plank for support and then connect the railing and the motor unit to the roof of the garage. Your door opener manual will also have diagrams of how you can install the garage door opener if your door is horizontal or vertically opening.
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Attach the rail carriage to the drawbar and move it to the ‘closed’ position. Drill screw holes in your garage door at that point, and fasten the drawbar to the door using those screw holes you just drilled.
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Adjust the drive chain and the lead screw, and check for the wiring arrangement that your manual shows you. Especially see the positions of the black and the white wires and see that they lead to the correct screws.
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If you have a wireless garage door opener, you will now need to install a radio receiver. Else, you will install a manual push button. Some garage doors also give the provision of installing an optional key switch.
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Connect the drive assembly into an extension cord and plug it in properly.
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Activate the manual push button and see whether your garage door is opening normally. Else, make the necessary adjustments.
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Operate your garage door now with the wireless radio receiver and see how far it is catching. If needed, you can tweak that too. Here is an earlier article we wrote about Programming your Garage Door remote.
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Once you feel that everything is fine and satisfactory, disconnect the extension cord and plug in the drive assembly cord to its permanent outlet.
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Connect an overhead garage light socket and connect the drive assembly cord through it, so that the bulb activates automatically when you open or close the garage door.
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That’s it!
As you see, it is not too difficult; but it is not too easy either!
A garage door opener is one of the most important gadgets at home, and it makes life quite easy when installed properly. Today, there are multiple options in the kinds of garage doors that are available, and if needed, you can call in a garage door expert to help you with the installation. Some of the most reputed garage door openers even offer free installation when you buy them, and then you don’t need to worry about the installation process!
