Electronic garage door openers became popular in the 1970s and have developed into a significant market with a plethora of different sorts of automated garage door openers for residential and industrial garages. Automatic garage door openers took the trouble out of having to get out of the car to personally open the garage door.

There are four styles of overhead door openers: chain drive, belt driven, screw driven, and jack-shaft. Each kind operates differently and your particular needs will guide you to the most suitable opener for your garage door.

Points to think about when purchasing an opener:

Do you prefer additional safety capabilities for your opener? If you have kids, this is especially important.
Are you shopping for a very quiet opener?
Do you live in a climate with harsh temperature levels (in which a screw drive opener would be optimum option)?
Do you need remote control access?
Does your garage facilitate ceiling mounting of the opener, or do you have cathedral ceilings (which would make a jack-shaft the best option)?
What is your budget? Chain-drive openers are the least pricey of the four choices.
Chain Drive
Chain-drive overhead door are among the most popular of the four kinds of garage door opener. They are the least expensive. Even though they are the noisiest of the four types, they are very durable and are a solid overhead door opener choice.

Belt Drive
Due to the fact that they use rubber belts, belt-drive openers are quieter than chain drives. They cost a bit more than chain-drive openers and are best for people with living spaces at the top of or next to the garage. There are also limited vibrations related to this opener type.

Screw Drives
This garage door opener style is frequently used in environments with extreme temperatures since they are designed to hold up against temperature changes. Screw-drive openers won't struggle with frozen chains or other weather-related problems. The tracks are plastic-lined and there is very little servicing involved.

Jack-shaft
Jack-shaft drives are good for eliminating that massive garage door opener box on the ceiling of your garage. Jack-shaft openers are attached on the side wall of your garage and are ideal for garages with high ceilings. Another benefit is that they are extremely quiet.

In case that you are uncertain about whichever garage door opener is most ideal for your garage, then choose a local garage door specialist who can assist you choose.


Automatic garage door openers became popular in the 1970s and have evolved into a huge market with a plethora of different kinds of automatic garage door openers for commercial and residential garages. Automatic garage door openers took the inconvenience out of having to get out of the car to manually open the garage door. When safety is such an important issue, as it is read more with garage doors and garage door openers, it's simply better to leave it to the experts.