Should You Keep a Low-Technology Garage Door Opener?
Garage door openers are motorized devices that help people close and open garage doors. The devices are beneficial since when you have them, you will not have to get out of your car whenever you need to open or close your garage door. A garage door opener will also help ensure that your garage remains secure all the time.
When in need of a garage door opener, you can decide to buy a low-technology door opener. Below is a discussion on whether you will experience any benefits if you invest in this garage doorway opener or not.
The Benefits of Having a Low-Technology Garage Door Opener
Some of the people who use low-technology garage door openers claim that they can never replace these door openers since they work just fine. These people also claim that installing these door openers is cheaper than installing the newer models of garage door openers. These garage door openers are designed to withstand heavy objects. Therefore, regardless of how heavy your garage door is, this system will handle it. However, when you have these garage door openers, you will spend a lot of money maintaining them. That is why you should consider replacing them.
Low-Technology Garage Door Openers Do Make Use of Outside Keypads
Low-technology garage door openers do not feature a keypad that is located outside the garage door. Therefore, to open the garage door, you need to use a key. That means you can only open the garage door when you are home.
That is not usually the case with the newer models of garage doors since they feature an outside keypad. With this keypad, you can open the garage door even when you are not home using your phone or laptop.
Why You Should Replace Your Low-Technology Garage Door Openers
Although some benefits associated with low-technology garage door openers, their demerits outweigh the merits. Replacing these door openers will help you reduce the amount of noise that comes out of your garage door when you are opening or closing it. Anyway, low-technology garage door openers usually generate too much noise. New models of garage door openers, on the other hand, do not generate loud noise. They use rubber belts reinforced with metal fibers. Therefore, they are the perfect garage door openers to go for, especially if your garage is attached to your house and the room next to it is your bedroom or lounge.
You should also replace your low-technology door opener since such garage door openers do not work as efficiently as other garage door openers. For instance, these garage door openers do not work during a power outage. The new models of garage door openers, on the other hand, usually work even when there is a power outage since they have backup batteries. Below are other reasons that should make you replace your low-technology garage door openers.
These Openers Lack Several Automatic Reversal Systems
Low-technology garage door openers only have one automatic reversal system, popularly known as the mechanical reversal system. A garage door that has this reversal system reverses its direction after coming into contact with a person or object. That means if a person accidentally stands in the garage doorway when the door closes, that person will be hurt. That is why there were so many garage-door-related accidents involving children reported before introducing the newer models of garage door openers.
When you replace these door openers with the new models, you will not have to worry about such accidents since the new models of garage door openers have at least two automatic reversal systems. These systems are usually placed on the two sides of the garage door, and one of them sends a beam of light to the second reversal system. If anything, either an object or person, breaks this beam, the garage door usually reverses its direction.
They Can be Used by Intruders
Low-technology garage door openers do not use the rolling code technology. Instead, they use the DIP switches that are set in either minus, plus, or zero position. An intruder can easily get into your garage if the garage doorway opener uses this locking system.
The newer models of garage door openers, on the other hand, use the rolling code technology. Anytime you press your door opener remote system, the lock system generates a new code. It is hard for an intruder to guess this code since the door security system can offer more than one billion codes.
Low-Technology Garage Door Openers Do Not Have So Many Features
Nowadays, people use laptops, tablets, and smartphones to close and open their garage doors. That is usually possible due to the features that the new models of garage door openers have. Some of these smart garage door openers even have WI-FI technology. With such technology, one can close and open their garage doors using their voices regardless of their location. To enjoy all these features, you need to replace your low-technology garage door openers with the newer models of these openers.
These Door Openers Usually Pull Garage Doors at a Slow Rate
Many low-technology garage door openers are usually chain drive garage door openers. Therefore, during their operation, there is usually metal-on-metal contact. If the chain is not well lubricated, the door opener will pull and push the garage door slowly. That will not be the case when using a belt drive garage door opener. That is why it is advisable to use belt drive garage door openers in hospital garages and other places where people need to open garage doors fast.
If you are using a low-technology garage door opener, you should consider replacing it since the demerits associated with it outweigh this door opener’s merits. For instance, these garage door openers do not have as many features as the newer garage door openers, and they do not have automatic reversal systems. They also need a lot of maintenance, and they pull and push garage doors at a slow rate.
