New Garage Door Opener Benefits and Cost-Saving Features

When people think about the garage door they think of its practical function as that part of the home’s exterior which opens and closes to let the car in and out. But garage doors actually do a whole lot more than simply rise and fall to accommodate the car. Being the largest single component of the home’s exterior they fulfill an enormous aesthetic role. Being a potential target for crooks they need to fulfill an important security role. And being the largest opening on the house they also have an impact on your home’s energy profile. The modern automatic garage door however wouldn’t be worth much without the garage door opener. Which leads us to the point of this post: the ways in which installing a new opener can save you money.

The Garage Door Opener: More than Just a Motor

If the garage door is an afterthought for most people then the mechanism that makes it tick is the great, unheralded component of any contemporary home. Think about all the ways your life is more difficult when the garage door opener fails. You’re less safe, your life is less convenient, you have to subject yourself to the elements every time you want to get in or out of the garage and the list goes on. Replacing your old opener before it fails then is crucial, not only for safety and convenience but for a number of financial reasons as well. Below are 4 of those reasons.

1. Save on Heating and Air Conditioning - An old opener rarely does its job the way it did when it was first installed. If it’s no longer returning your door to a completely closed state for instance - even if the gap it leaves is small - it can have a substantial impact on how much it costs to heat or air condition your home. A garage that is essentially the same temperature as the outdoors in winter is going to impact every part of the house it comes in contact with. If there’s a room over the garage it will cost far more to keep it warm. If the garage and kitchen share a wall the icebox garage will suck heat out of the kitchen and add substantially to the cost of keeping it warm. The same is true when it comes to a hot garage and air conditioning.
2. Save on Electricity - Old garage door openers are nowhere near as energy efficient as today’s openers and this is important because garage door openers are always on. They have to be. They need to be ready when that signal comes that it’s time to open. As a result a dormant garage door uses several times as much electricity doing nothing as it does actually opening and closing the door. This “phantom load” has been estimated to cost the average household as much as $200 per year. For nothing. Many new garage door openers are engineered in a way that shuts down most aspects of the mechanism during the long dormant hours. These advances can reduce the phantom load of your opener by 50% or more.
3. Save Your Stuff - Let’s say you’ve gone to the airport to catch an overseas business flight. You’re waiting for your plane to board when the neighbor calls and says you left your garage door open. It won’t be long before enterprising criminals realize your mistake and help themselves to your stuff. Many new garage door openers can be integrated into the Internet of things. This means that once you realize you’ve left the door open you simply send it a command from your smartphone to close. This will secure your home from intrusions while you’re away and keep your valuables in the house where they belong.
4. Save Your Car - If your garage doors aren’t closing all the way because the garage door opener is old and acting up there may be no difference between the temperature outdoors and the temperature inside your garage. This can have a negative impact on your wiper blades and the ability of your engine lubricants to do their job, it can cause your tire pressure to drop which can result in damage to the tires and it can kill your battery. Add in the cost of calling for a jump start in Erie or Denver and you have an idea how a frigid garage can cost you money.

Opener Replacement in Commerce City and Denver

It’s crucial to replace your garage door opener when signs of trouble first rear their head. By simply allowing your old opener to deteriorate you’re risking the smooth functioning of the door and that opens you up to all sorts of unexpected and unwelcome expenses. Remember, everything in the home is interconnected, including the opener. Talk to the pros at A Better Garage Door for more information.

Garage Door Openers: Why You Need One for Your Home

The garage door opener has become such a familiar item in so many North American homes that it can almost seem like they’re mandatory; as though garage doors are required by building codes. Unfortunately for garage door opener manufacturers that is not (yet) the case and there are still plenty of homes where openers have never been installed or where the existing motor has broken down. If yours is one of those homes you may be debating whether you should go ahead and take the plunge. Here are some reasons why we believe you should.

Garage Door Openers: Why They Make Sense in Any Home

There’s a reason why garage door openers have become so popular; in fact, there are quite a few. Here is a sampling of just some of the many reasons to own a door opener.

• Convenience - The entire reason this piece of domestic tech was invented 80 years ago was to provide a convenient way for people to access their garage. Before garage door openers, your car would get you from wherever to the outside of your home in fine shape, but once there you’d have to leave the car and venture out into the weather mess you’d been trying to avoid. Cold, wind, sleet, snow, driving rain, it was all there waiting to give you a good slap in the face during the last few feet of the journey home. No more. The garage door opener put an effective end to that particular kind of torment and people have been warmer, drier and healthier ever since.
• Safety - Contemporary openers not only handle the opening and closing of the door, they also provide rock solid locking mechanisms as well. Early versions of the automatic garage door all featured the same sets of codes, or toggles, which was a problem as doors often responded not just to your ‘open’ commands but to your neighbor's or to clever crooks who would try all the various combinations. Today those problems are the thing of the past as most contemporary openers, including the Linear models we sell, utilize rolling code technology where a new code is generated for each use. Once the door closes your car, your valuables and , most of all, your family are safe and secure.
• Affordability - A new garage door opener could cost you as little as $200 to install. Some will cost you a little more, but even if the price was twice as high wouldn’t it be worth it for the convenience alone? Think about it: for the price of a dinner for two at a fancy restaurant, or a pair of high-end athletic shoes or less than the cost of taking the family to a single Broncos game you can provide that family with years of safety, security and convenience when they get home after work or school or a night out with friends.
• Adding Value - A garage door by itself could turn out to be a drag on your ability to sell your house if a mechanical opener is not installed as well. No one wants to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars or more for a home only to find they have to open the door manually. Sure they could install the opener themselves, but the fewer negatives attached to a house to begin with, the more likely it is to attract a buyer. So by spending the couple of hundred dollars mentioned above and installing a garage door opener you could make the difference between finding nibbles and finding a buyer. That’s a few hundred bucks well spent.

Additional Garage Door Opener Features

Today’s garage door openers have a slew of innovative options available that make them smart, cost effective purchases. A few of these features include:

• Battery Backup - All too often the power will go out right when you're trying to leave, or return, from your garage and home. Because the of the low power consumption of the Linear DC motor we're able to offer an effective battery backup solution so that you car is never stuck out, or in, your garage because of a power outage.
• Remote Access - Some garage door opener systems can be connected to the internet. If you are expecting a delivery while at work the delivery person can call you when they arrive. You then send the ‘open’ command over the internet so that they can drop the merchandise in the garage and then close the door after they’ve left. If you have a CCTV camera in your garage that can be integrated as well so you can monitor the entire delivery from work.
• Motion Detectors - Some garage door openers come with a built-in motion detector that turns on the garage lights when it senses a person has entered. This can have two distinct advantages. First, you never have to enter a dark garage ever again. And second, should an intruder find their way into your garage, the automatic ‘lights on’ is usually enough to scare them away. Plus, if you have CCTV in the garage, you’ll have a nice clear video to show police.
• Lockout Options - Garage doors today also come with remote lockout features. This turns off the door’s receiver while you’re away to prevent accidental opening or malicious attempts by would be intruders to hack your door mechanism.

As the relative cost of garage door openers has come down in recent years the arguments for not having one carry less and less weight. Considering all the practical and security benefits alone that you get for the price, not having a garage door opener today is like not having a mobile phone.

If you’re interested in having a garage door opener installed in your Westminster or Thornton home, talk to the experts at A Better Garage Door on (303) 920-2267. We’ll explain all your options to you in a clear, concise way so that you’ll be able to make an informed decision regarding this important home enhancement. We’ve installed hundreds of openers in our more than 19 years in business and in that time we’ve seen them evolve into high tech conveniences of the highest order.