wall mount garage door openers

RatLabGuy

RatLabGuy

You look like a monkey and smell like one too
Joined
May 18, 2005
Location
Churchville, MD
Holy crap, I must have been living under a rock - TIL there are such things as wall-mounted garage door openers.
I have a 9' ceiling and this would make a huge difference on overhead space to hang a 4runner or Bronco top.

Has anybody converted rom a traditional style? And... is it DIY possible w/o having to mess w/ the torsion springs? Then tension on those is not something I want to mess with.
 
My neighbor (same guy who DIY'd the amazon mini split in his garage) installed two of those in his garage. I'll ask him when I get home.

I want to convert mine as well, but I'm a tightwad
 
Torsion springs are not that bad to deal with. I’ve replaced mine and it was silly simple. From what I’ve seen yes it is DIY install
 
I actually just ran across this as well, because I'm looking at raising the top of the entrance of my garage 18”, and a wall mount unit would come in clutch.
 
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I've replaced my screw drive genie carriage 4 times in the last 4 years and it just broke again last week. Steel screws and plastic carriages dont play well especially with an oversized 2 car door. I've also been wanting to convert mine to a wall mount style.

Liftmaster is a popular brand but I'm still shopping around.
 
I’ve got two wall mounted openers on my 3 car garage. I have 15’ ceilings and wanted to stack cars inside (was able to get 6 inside with 4 post lifts)

I hired a crew to do it for two reasons

1. after having a spring break and shake the whole house years ago I said hell no to that

2. you have to also change the track system so the doors go all the way to the ceiling and hug it. You’d need at least a 2nd set of hands if not a 3rd to do it easily and safely. Also this step requires new tracks/brackets for the door to work. Since it’s not a common modification to garages your average supply place won’t have them.

as with anything it can be DIY but for me the peace of mind it was done by someone who does it every day was worth my safety and the safety of my cars later
 
RatLabGuy said:
Holy crap, I must have been living under a rock - TIL there are such things as wall-mounted garage door openers.
I have a 9' ceiling and this would make a huge difference on overhead space to hang a 4runner or Bronco top.

Has anybody converted rom a traditional style? And... is it DIY possible w/o having to mess w/ the torsion springs? Then tension on those is not something I want to mess with.
Click to expand...

Unless you are talking about a roll up door... how are you going to be able to hang a top there? The garage door still opens into the garage
 
braxton357 said:
Unless you are talking about a roll up door... how are you going to be able to hang a top there? The garage door still opens into the garage
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Eliminating the center belt/bar section and motor assembly, and then not opening the door too far.
 
I want to convert mine over. Somehow the previous owner of my house found the loudest screw drive humanly possible, and dumped marbles into the motor to make it even louder. I swear that bastard is like 150db when opening. So I want to replace that and may as well get some extra overhead space in the process.
 
I installed three of the wall mount openers in my garage. I didnt mess with the torsion spring, you still need sufficient spring force to balance the door.
 
braxton357 said:
Unless you are talking about a roll up door... how are you going to be able to hang a top there? The garage door still opens into the garage
Click to expand...
The door is 7' tall but the garage is 22' deep. So there's space right in front of the door when it is up.
Plus I could theoretically fit it above the door even when it is open. Ned to check math on that.
The reality is since I got a soft top my hard top permanently lives in a shed, but this might be needed for the bronco top, or adding a gantry for moving stuff around.

Plan B is to instead use the space to fit in a lift, and only lift a vehicle really high w/ the door closed.
 
I used the Liftmaster 8500 on my garage, when I bought them it was the only ones that I could find. I put the first one up in 2016 and the other two in 2017 and they have worked well. I thought that the encoder had gone bad in the oldest one, but after resetting the limits it started working properly again. My main complaint is the range of the opener. My old chamberlain would open if you were in within a couple hundred yards. The Liftmaster openers I have to be within a few yards of the garage if all of the doors are closed.
 
thecj3man said:
My main complaint is the range of the opener. My old chamberlain would open if you were in within a couple hundred yards. The Liftmaster openers I have to be within a few yards of the garage if all of the doors are closed.
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You can help that a little by finding the antenna connection and adding a wire. Guessing that being flush up against the wall is attenuating a lot of the signal. Could also get a replacement fob but unless you can get the specs on the one you have it's a gamble whether another would be better.
 
You obviously don’t have to change the tracks for the doors but in doing so you gain so much more height assuming you have it to spare. Here’s the only pic I have on my phone that shows how the doors work now. Again this is with 15’ ceilings
F200089A-9E94-4E03-A7CF-4789560F5AF3.jpeg
 
orange150 said:
My neighbor (same guy who DIY'd the amazon mini split in his garage) installed two of those in his garage. I'll ask him when I get home.

I want to convert mine as well, but I'm a tightwad
Click to expand...
Just to follow up here. Neighbor didn't do it, he needed new doors and it was only $150 extra at the time.
 
YJJPWrangler said:
I've replaced my screw drive genie carriage 4 times in the last 4 years and it just broke again last week. Steel screws and plastic carriages dont play well especially with an oversized 2 car door. I've also been wanting to convert mine to a wall mount style.

Liftmaster is a popular brand but I'm still shopping around.
Click to expand...

Sounds like not enough spring tension assisting the motor
 
I have 5 Liftmaster 8500W openers. Started with two and loved them so much added three more to new garage build. They work perfectly, are quiet and very easy to install. The only thing that most garages may not have is an outlet adjacent to where the lift mounts. Other than that they are easier to install than an overhead opener, s they just mount to the spring bar and a bracket on the wall.
 
Futbalfantic said:
Sounds like not enough spring tension assisting the motor
Click to expand...

Plenty of spring tension. However, its an oversized and insulated two car door. The current system has a metal screw drive with a plastic carriage that rides on the screw drive. That has stripped the carriage twice. The other two times, the screw drive "connectors" i.e thing gauge round steel rings that hold the individual screw sections together just explode.

For the people with liftmaster 8500w, did you order directly from a certified dealer or through amazon? I've heard that any warranty issues if bought from amazon are null since they are not an authorized reseller.

Amazon has them for $550

Liftmaster 8500w
 
I ordered my LiftMaster 8500 through Amazon for $270 and installed it myself with no issues in 2016. I did not touch the torsion spring or alter the track. I noticed that they have increased in price...but what hasn't? Regarding warranty, you are probably correct that they will not consider Amazon an authorized dealer. I see that Lowes and HomeDepot carries Genie and Chamberlain at similar prices. Chamberlain and LiftMaster are part of the same company.
 
My dad installed a Wayne Dalton in the mid-2000s on his extra-large two-car garage with a 16x9 door (these installed near the middle of the torsion bar). It finally quit a few years ago and I converted his to a side-mount Chamberlain RJ020 which seems to be the same as the LiftMaster. I really like the automatic dead-bolt feature on both of them. Installation was fairly fast and easy and it has been reliably hoisting their door ever since I set it up. You can even get a battery backup unit for either one so it works if the power is out.

One of these days I want to convert both my doors from extension spring to torsion bar and put these on so I can put some shallow overhead racks for storage above the vehicles in my garage.
 
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OnlyOneDR said:
My dad installed a Wayne Dalton since the mid-2000s on his extra-large two-car garage with a 16x9 door (these installed near the middle of the torsion bar). It finally quit a few years ago and I converted his to a side-mount Chamberlain RJ020 which seems to be the same as the LiftMaster. I really like the automatic dead-bolt feature on both of them. Installation was fairly fast and easy and it has been reliably hoisting their door ever since I set it up. You can even get a battery backup unit for either one so it works if the power is out.

One of these days I want to convert both my doors from extension spring to torsion bar and put these on so I can put some shallow overhead racks for storage above the vehicles in my garage.
Click to expand...
I have wayne dalton doors with the torsion spring and according to liftmaster they will not work with wayne dalton. Any insite on how to do that? I would LOVE to use the wall mounted openers
 
There were two versions of the Wayne Dalton IDrive, the "Torquemaster" and the "Torsion." The Torquemaster used a Wayne Dalton specific bar but the Torsion (that my dad had) used a standard 1" torsion bar. Here is a link that discusses the differences: Garage Door Parts, Torsion Springs & Garage Door Openers

The side mounted Liftmaster and Chamberlain only needs a short piece of torsion bar sticking off the side past the bearing plate. The bar diameter must be 1" and it needs 1-1/2" of stickout to slide into the bore on the opener and make contact with the two set screws.

Here is the link for the Chamberlain instructions, requirements on page 4: https://cgi.widen.net/content/ykyxomskpr/original/114-5742-000.pdf

So in short if you have the Torsion style IDrive with the 1" bar you can swap it over.
 
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