Garage Door Openers Also Known As Garage Door Operators

A1 Garage Door Repair Podcast

Why is your garage door opener / garage door operator so important? Jon Phillips from A1 Garage Door Service joins Check A Pro Joe on this episode of Check A Pro Radio to explain. Jon goes into the nitty gritty of the importance of the proper garage door operator.

A1 is a leader in the garage door industry! Check out this episode to learn how the A1 team delivers the best service in the industry.

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Transcript of podcast:

The garage door is important to our home everybody and we don't think a lot about it when we press the button I asked my good friend John Phillips from A1 Garage Door Service to join me on the program today to talk about something that we just don't think a lot about and that's the garage door opener also called the garage door operator and John is going to Enlighten us about the differences the importance of the balance door and so forth John welcome to the program Hey Joe how's it going thanks for having me back on it's great to have you here so the garage door operator or what some people call the garage door opener it's an important piece isn't it yes it is it's uh it's the the brain of the operations it's what automates your door to make it convenient from you from your car and nowadays even your phone to 1:04 where you don't have to get out and open 1:05 it manually you can just do it all at 1:07 the push of a button a lot of changes in 1:09 technology before we dive into that tell 1:12 everybody who's listening the importance 1:14 of the door being balanced first before 1:17 that garage door operator does its job 1:21 so a lot of people are under the 1:23 impression that the the operator is what 1:26 lifts the entire door and we've covered 1:29 this in other sections as well but it 1:31 just automates it that's all it does it 1:33 just tells the door to open and close a 1:37 good functioning door with good parts on 1:39 it that's balanced with springs at 1:40 proper tension good bearings drums 1:43 cables hinges rollers making sure the 1:46 door is installed Plumbing straight and 1:48 perfectly aligned if these things aren't 1:50 done then the operator is kind of 1:52 useless and people spend good money on 1:54 operators and to to have a door that's 1:57 lacking or faulty in any of these 1:59 mechanical functions uh you could be 2:02 just wasting your money and ruining the 2:03 motor 2:04 yeah absolutely I encourage people all 2:06 the time to get their doors maintained 2:09 on a regular basis to make sure 2:11 everything is bolted down properly 2:13 literally screwed down because things 2:14 can loosen up and to make sure that that 2:16 spring is wound properly that it's in 2:19 good shape everything's lubricated and 2:21 the balance is so key and this is 2:23 something we talk about John and the 2:25 average person can't really figure out 2:27 the proper balance you guys use 2:29 equipment to determine whether or not 2:31 any given door is properly imbalanced 2:33 and then once it is everything is nice 2:36 and straight and square and everything's 2:39 in balance that garage door without the 2:41 operator without it engaged should 2:44 simply go up and down with just your 2:45 finger it should just move nice and 2:47 easily because we don't want a lot of 2:49 wear and tear on that garage door 2:51 operator so once it's all balanced the 2:54 garage door operator does its job so 2:57 there's a lot of new technology today 2:59 you want to talk about the differences 3:01 and and the great options there are 3:03 right without nerding out too much the 3:05 most basic function now is obviously 3:07 moving up and down and those motors used 3:10 to be AC Motors so alternating current 3:12 the motors were a little bit big a 3:14 little bit louder and then slowly but 3:17 surely we're progressing over to DC 3:19 motors so that's direct current it's a 3:22 smaller motor but in the garage door 3:24 application it's actually more powerful 3:25 and the coolest thing about it is with a 3:27 DC motor you have higher speed function 3:31 and what that does for your garage doors 3:33 so when the door goes to lay on the 3:35 ground and shut as the speed option 3:37 where it slows down and Feathers the 3:39 door down and that's the same thing when 3:40 coming up so it's not this abrupt 3:43 stopped where the doors hit in the 3:44 ground so anytime that you can hear the 3:46 door closing and hitting the ground 3:48 that's not good that's a jolt to the 3:50 entire system and it's a wear on the 3:52 doors with these DC motors that are 3:54 coming out now it's nice and gentle 3:56 pulls the door gradually gets up to 3:58 speed so it still opens it just as fast 4:00 it's just at the very end of that 4:02 closing and the very end of that opening 4:04 it feathers it nice and neat and so your 4:07 door is going to last a lot longer 4:08 sounds a lot safer too for some reason 4:10 it just sounds safer is there any safety 4:13 benefits to this as well yeah so with 4:15 the slow start and stop without geeking 4:17 out too much so the travel modules and 4:20 the RPMs whenever they go into an AC 4:23 motor they're hard set they slip they 4:25 wear out over time with the DC motor 4:27 it's all plugged in and it's all 4:29 electronic so it's a lot more sensitive 4:31 and safe so things such as forces which 4:33 is what the door is wanting to push or 4:35 pull through that's a lot more 4:37 fine-tuned which is the biggest part 4:38 that can be the difference in between 4:40 hurting things that are at the bottom of 4:42 the door or the operator pulling the 4:44 door apart on the way up so it is 4:46 significantly safer times have changed 4:48 from when I was a young boy and I would 4:50 have my friend go over to the button 4:52 inside the garage and say okay press it 4:55 and as that door opened up I would rise 4:57 off the ground I was six seven years old 4:59 and I don't encourage Us by the way okay 5:02 so do not do this the reason why I bring 5:04 this up is back in the day for whatever 5:08 reason that garage door was able to lift 5:09 me up those garage doors were pretty 5:11 heavy too they were all wood today a lot 5:13 of the garage doors are actually a lot 5:14 lighter made of a metal type material so 5:16 things have changed a lot so do not grab 5:18 the garage door I don't have anything in 5:21 the way don't attach anything to it let 5:23 it go up and down easily and have it 5:25 balanced I recommend that you have a one 5:28 garage door service on a regular basis 5:31 come out to your home 5:33 regardless whether you have one or three 5:35 or four garage doors have them maintain 5:37 it on a regular basis because when they 5:39 come out and they lubricate it and they 5:41 tighten everything up and they basically 5:43 look at everything your garage door is 5:44 not only going to last longer but it's 5:46 going to be a lot safer you guys have a 5:51 great program that's not that expensive 5:52 for people to plug into where you guys 5:55 come out on a regular basis can you talk 5:57 a little bit about that yeah so we have 5:59 our worry-free membership and what that 6:01 is is garage doors need a maintenance 6:04 plan and we need experts to come out and 6:06 look at the door make sure everything's 6:07 okay we want it to be hassle-free for 6:09 our clients so we get on the membership 6:12 you get perks and discounts and safety 6:15 features such as surge protectors for 6:17 your operator maintenance plans as well 6:19 to keep it up to date and then also you 6:22 get discounts on any future work and 6:24 whether you have one door on your home 6:26 or 20 Doors which I haven't seen yet at 6:28 one single home we're going to take care 6:30 of all of them for 8.95 a month well you 6:32 apparently haven't been to Jay Leno home 6:34 so I don't know how many garage doors he 6:36 has but he's got a lot of cars I I do 6:39 know that 6:40 technology my cue that's a big thing 6:43 that people are getting involved with 6:44 now can you touch upon the MyQ system 6:47 yeah so the my queue is a Bluetooth and 6:51 Wi-Fi compatibility to where your 6:53 operator is hooked up to the Internet or 6:55 Wi-Fi of your home and then now you 6:57 control your garage door from anywhere 6:59 and it also has sensory on it to where 7:02 it can tell you if it's open or closed 7:03 and timed and stamped and the MyQ app is 7:06 perfect so you don't have to worry 7:08 anymore did I close the garage door 7:09 there's timers for that but you can 7:11 always check on it it'll give you alerts 7:13 you can know when your kids got home 7:15 from school if you're still working they 7:17 have camera options as well so you can 7:19 get a live video feed and a two-way 7:22 radio into the garage so that's super 7:24 fun and then also backup batteries as 7:28 well for in case the power goes out and 7:30 then probably my favorite feature is 7:33 probably the Amazon key that is so 7:36 Amazon can hook up to that one time they 7:39 don't step into your garage or anything 7:41 like that and they're able to drop off 7:43 packages straight into your garage and 7:46 then close the garage door and it's 7:47 complete secure no porch Pirates no 7:50 packages getting ruined from weather 7:52 your package is completely safe and a 7:54 secure dry place and who could ask for 7:57 anything better as far as Amazon 7:58 delivery what a complete package no pun 8:01 intended with the Amazon thing I'm 8:02 talking about the MyQ technology it's a 8:05 fantastic package all together even if 8:08 you have a garage door operator garage 8:10 door opener that's not that old it might 8:13 be a good time to swap it out because 8:15 you may have kind of a simple garage 8:18 door opener where you have a remote 8:19 control and yes you were able to sync it 8:22 into your automobile so you can just 8:24 press the button on the roof of your car 8:25 as you drive in some of us just have 8:28 that I mean that's it but when we can 8:30 talk back and forth when we can let the 8:33 package guy in from Amazon when we've 8:35 got cameras and we've got more safety 8:37 features it doesn't cost that much to 8:40 get a system like this installed uh John 8:43 could you share any of the costs at all 8:44 roughly of what it would cost to have a 8:47 system like MyQ installed in general 8:49 well the beautiful thing is my queue is 8:52 actually becoming the standard so you 8:55 can get it on the more economical grade 8:56 Motors or you can get it on a motor 8:59 that's going to last you for years to 9:01 come 9:03 so it doesn't really matter the budget 9:05 or the cost my queue is available 9:06 probably the coolest thing about MyQ as 9:09 well is also another problem is people 9:12 with security in their homes so people 9:14 don't like having remotes just out in 9:17 their garages in their cars they say 9:19 that that's a security risk and I agree 9:21 with them so if you have all of your 9:23 remotes just attached directly to your 9:25 phone which is attached at the hip you 9:28 don't have any remotes wandering around 9:29 you don't have to worry about losing 9:31 them you don't have to worry about 9:31 people stealing him and having access to 9:34 your home anymore it's all safe and 9:36 within your phone that's a good point I 9:39 control my thermostat and my lights and 9:41 a lot of other things with my phone may 9:43 as well do my garage door as well right 9:45 sync it up and John thank you so much 9:47 for joining me today here on the program 9:48 I really appreciate it oh I appreciate 9:51 you too it's always a pleasure to talk 9:52 and thank you for everything Checker Pro 9:54 is your local source for pre-qualified 9:56 contractors stay tuned for more of the 9:58 Check A Pro radio show.