Need advice on a "SILENT" garage door opener

Hi guys,

With all this talk about cancer, being burned, people's dogs dying... etc... how about something a little lighter???

Right now I have a one year old garage door opener, a Genie screw-drive. It's bolted to the garage ceiling, which happens to also be the floor of the master bedroom above.

I leave for work at 5:30 am when the wife is still sleeping and hate, HATE, to wake her with that loud 60 Hz BUZZZZZZZZZ! that comes from the motor like you might've heard from the old Family Feud TV game show. I've heard it from the master bedroom and it's really heart-stopping.

Not knowing much about automatic garage door openers, I don't know if the noise is generated principally by the AC motor or ??? The door moves slowly enough to where I don't think metal wheels rolling up and down a metal track are much of the noise issue. They just sort of clink along.

Would a belt-drive opener eliminate much of the 60 Hz noise? Or would I be better off doing something like converting the opener to use a DC motor?

Just a hunch (know absolutely nothing about the latest models); yet I think you're going to find that a direct-drive gear-type unit from whoever is the leader in the industry will be quieter (in the long run) regardless of the motor used. One other trick I use to quiet mine down is spray (liberally) all moving parts of the system with this: http://www.blastergroup.com.au/Track-cable-lubricant.html

Again, this may not be the best solution today; merely what I believed to be true many years ago.

I deal with a lot of garage door openers on rental properties. They're right up there with fridge ice makers on the landlords PITA list.

Sounds like (no pun intended!) the motor is stressed by some kind of binding in the lift system -- and that could be any of a number of things. A correctly functioning and lubricated Genie screwdrive opener should only have a light motor "hum" and the mechanical noises from the hinges, rollers, etc.

First thing I'd try is to lock the door down and then operate the opener. If you get the same noise, it will pretty well indicate the motor is being stressed. Obviously, don't run it for more than a couple of seconds. If your door doesn't have a manual lock, Visegrips clamped on the track just above the top roller will hold the door.

Did you install the opener yourself? If so, you might want to review the installation to make sure all measurements and assemblies are correct.

There's several good garage door lift websites. I think Chamberlain has a good one for trouble shooting.

Good luck, this kind of stuff can be really frustrating.

I used to work for a garage door company and installed and serviced quite a few different brands of openers. The Genie screw drive openers are some of the quieter ones available, but having it mounted directly below a bedroom could transmit more noise and vibration than normal.

Before ditching it for something else, I'd recommend lubricating the hinges and rollers and spring of the garage door very well, and make sure the springs have enough tension on them to easily lift the garage door without the opener. Also lubricate the screw drive of the opener with the correct lubricant (we used Lubriplate grease specifically for the Genie openers). Using the incorrect grease/lube on the screwdrive can actually clean out the original grease and make it noisier and have more wear. If that doesn't help enough, try to isolate it somehow so it isn't screwed directly into the floor studs.

If all that fails and you want the quietest opener available, we installed a few of the Liftmaster belt drive models that used a rubber drive belt that is designed to be the quietest available. They tend to be available only through Garage Door companies, and not at a place like Sears or a DIY center:
http://www.liftmaster.com/consumerweb/products/pflBelt.htm

Thanks all around for the advice guys, I appreciate it. A little more background information: The opener was installed when the house was built, and the house is now 10 months old. The opener has always been noisy. I live in a four-unit development and the running joke between neighbors is we can tell who's coming and going by the noise of the garage door openers.

I've been horsing around with the garage door on-and-off for the past four months or so. Last time I raised and lowered it by hand, I could do it with one finger. It's a thin-gauge aluminum sectional door with plastic windows up top.

The screw-drive opener at my last condo was nearly silent... I'll check the lube on mine and report back.

PS: Any opinions on the Liftmaster 3800? Even if I don't "need" a new opener, during my Google research I saw and instantly fell in love, er, LIKE.

My garage door spring snapped earlier this year. It's a chaindriven Chamberlin. When buddy came to replace the spring he also suggested new rollers (sales pitch) and replaced the metal rollers with nylon ones. Man I tell ya, what a difference in noise reduction !!! Literally silent ! The noise problem could be the metal on metal contact between the track and the usual metal type rollers.

Hope this helps...

You might try an experiment if you haven't already. Have someone go up in the bedroom as you raise and lower the door by hand a half dozen times or so. See what the noise level is like. Then with the door disconnected, run the garage door opener a half dozen times and see what the noise level is like. Then hook the garage door up and run the opener normally a few times to compare the noise levels. That may help isolate the problem and help you decide if some noise isolation and lubrication will do the trick, or if you want that quiet new Liftmaster opener. Another thing that may help quiet things is that there are nylon or plastic rollers available to replace the standard metal ones that help reduce noise too. You could wiggle your Genie opener around some too and see how securely it is mounted. Really thin punched angle is sometimes used as a cost-saving measure, and could allow the unit to vibrate more than it should.

Also a chance you might have some type of warranty recourse from the builder if your home is less than 1 year old. You surely have some coverage on the opener itself if it is faulty.

I have a beltdrive chamberlin door opener that is extremely quiet. Would buy another in a heartbeat.

As you're trying the advice listed above, try using some white lithium grease. It's cheap and tends to stay put a little better than other lubes for this. Lube the tracks and rollers as well. Also be sure the adjustments for the up and down force are correct.

If the noise remains with the drive disconnected and the tracks and wheels lubed you might want to try to isolate the ceiling mounts. Sound and vibration get transmitted through the mounts and into the house construction. Isolating the mounts helps diminish this.

chmsam said:

As you're trying the advice listed above, try using some white lithium grease. It's cheap and tends to stay put a little better than other lubes for this. Lube the tracks and rollers as well. Also be sure the adjustments for the up and down force are correct.

Click to expand...

White lithium grease might be ok on the rollers and hinges, but I'd definitely recommend using it to lube the screwdrive of the opener, FWIW at the company I used to work for, we used motor oil to lube the rollers and springs, and the hinges too if they were exceptionally noisy. I had quite a few service calls to repair Genie GDO's that were lubed by the owners with the wrong stuff.

Did you try waking up the wife to cook you breakfast before you leave :devil:

then you have the added bonus of her opening the door for you and saving all that expensive electricity

The past 2 houses I have lived in both had Genie belt drives, and they are very quiet. I don't know how it compares to a screw drive, but compared to the old chain style the diference is night and day.

If you can get some rubber washers between the bolt heads and the metal straps that hold the motor unit to the ceiliing. Also you will need to add rubber washers between the metal strap and the ceilinig. That should hepl a lot.
Oh, and do the same with the bolts that hold the end of the track to the header above the door. Remember you are trying to prevent metal to metal contact as a pathway for sound/vibartions. good luck.

I had a older Genie screw drive which worked great for about 10 years but then started acting weird afterwards (door would open but not close unless I cycle the breaker to it; then it would work once or twice then do the same thing)

Mom replaced it with a Genie Excelerator screw drive that used a high speed DC motor instead of the AC induction motor in the regular screw drive. The noise is a lot less than the "Burrrrr" of the old opener and the loudest thing I could hear now in the master bedroom above our garage is the squeaking and rattling of the door when it is opened or closed.

Recently replaced both openers with sears models. While both are quiet, I got one of the ones with the battery backup, but cheaped out on the other one - I wish I hadn't - the one with the battery backup is much quieter (whether or not it is running on the battery). If quiet is important to you, it is in my opinion worth the extra $. -Tom

My dad has a garage door service company...

I highly recommend Liftmaster Belt Driven models

Shoot if you get one of the Estate models I'll give you an emergency battery back up battery thats just sitting in room. Not sure if the battery holds a charge but its NIB. I'll also toss in a Keyless entry remote, and a garage door opener surge protector if you donate to CPF.

I work in LA, and you can pick these up in the Fashion District.

One reason some may have experienced different noise and quality levels from the same manufacturer of openers is that they all offer different levels of quality/performance/features/price. Some of the GDO's here are also basically the same, for instance Liftmaster, Chamberlain, and Sears Craftsman GDO's are all made by the same company. One of the differences is that the ones you can go and buy in a store have multi-piece rails that bolt together while the "pro" models typically only available through garage door service companies, are sold with one-piece rails which are sturdier and don't flex as much as the ones that are bolted together. I've serviced both types and the one piece rail models are definitely superior. The main reason the smaller multi-piece rails are sold is so they fit in a nice little box that will fit in most vehicles. The one piece rails are usually 10' long.

Forget all those other posts. I have one of these:

http://www.wayne-dalton.com/idrive_Torsion.asp

They CANNOT be heard from anywhere in the house. It is HANDS DOWN the quetest of any of the garage door openers I have ever had. Like 1/10 as much noise. It sits on the torsion bar and turns the bar with a motor. This is what you need.