Garage Door Openers

One of the big things I saved for last was installing garage door openers.  I diverted that money to other more pressing projects.  I’m glad I waited.  I recently came upon a really cool opener that breaks all the rules.  It’s the Liftmaster 8500.  What’s really unique about this opener is that it does not operate with a track and chain/belt/screw like traditional openers.  This one mounts to the header beside the garage door and then to the torsion bar of the door hardware.  It essentially turns this bar into a driveshaft.

I installed a traditional opener about 25 years ago.  I don’t know if it was because of my youth and inexperience, but that installation gave me a fit.  It took forever and and was a real pain.  It worked okay once it was up but I had my doubts along the way.  Since that bad experience, I have been a little intimidated to try that again.  I was pretty excited to find this Liftmaster product.  Overall, I would rate it very high on the easy scale.  There was really not much to it.  The first one took about four hours to install only because I was going step by step very carefully through the instructions.  The second one only took a couple of hours.

I have no hesitation in encouraging anyone who is the least bit handy to try this themselves.  Still not convinced?  Watch my videos and work up your courage.