[s-cars] NAC - Dream Garage Ceiling and Wall material recommendation

[Steve Eiche]

Ed,
I put in one of these openers a few weeks ago after the motor in my 17 year old Sears opener expired.  I have a few likes and dislikes about it.

First the good.  Very nice design.  It is quiet, fast and very compact.  It really opens up the garage when you don't have an opener hanging in the middle of the ceiling.  I have a 10' ceiling in the garage, and a normal opener hangs fairly low.

Now the bad.  Make sure that you have an outlet installed near the opener.  I didn't have one there, so I had to install a new box.  Not a big deal, but it added a couple of hours to the job as I had to cut dry access holes, run the wire, install a new outlet and patch everything up.  They sell an "extension kit" for it, but it really wouldn't work in my garage because of a support beam for the second floor that runs across the ceiling.  Not to mention it would look ugly, IMO.  Next, the light supplied works off of infrared signals.  You basically plug the light in and an infrared LED on the opener signals the light to turn on and off.  Nice idea. I plugged mine in where the original opener was plugged in in the middle of the ceiling.  Nice location, but that same beam that blocked the path of the wiring also blocks the IR detector, so the light doesn't work well.  This is an annoyance that I have yet to fix.  All of the remotes, including the wall switches are wireless.  It looks very clean, but there is an annoying delay between pushing the button and the opener operating.   I like to just hit the button and go, but with this you have to wait to make sure that it actually operates.  Lastly Wayne Dalton's customer support is HORRIBLE.  Probably the worst that I have ever experienced.  About two weeks after installation,  I had an issue where the opener basically "locked up".  It would just hum and beep.  After three phone calls over three days with waits averaging 1/2 hour (seriously) I finally got to speak with someone in customer service at Wayne Dalton.  I spent an hour on the phone as the nice woman read a troubleshooting script (check door balance, reset the unit, check sensors, etc.).  None of this worked, so she put in a request with warranty dept. to see if they could send me out a new control board.  She said it would take them a few days to approve or deny the request to send out the board, then it could take a week or more to get the part. Huh?  I said thanks, hung up the phone and then went to the garage with the intent of removing the unit and returning it for refund or exchange from Lowes (place of purchase).  While taking it apart, I decide to play with some of the "Don't touch these factory preset adjustments" and found that a very slight adjustment on the park position (not mentioned in the nice woman's troubleshooting script) got everything working properly (yes, I checked that all of the safety features were unaffected).  So I kept the opener.   Two weeks later a box with new electronics arrived in the mail with a very poor copy of installation instructions.  There is no way I would have waited that long without an opener.  Heck, I had the new opener within an hour of the motor burning up on my old opener. At least now I have spares...

Anyway... My recommendation is to have the opener professionally installed.  Not that it is difficult or that someone else will do a better job than you, but because they will have to warranty it.  That way you won't have to deal with Wayne Dalton if you have problems.  Do the prep work though, like making sure that you have an outlet within 6' or so of the opener.  

Would I get it again?  Probably, because I don't know of another company that makes a comparable design.  I really like the design, speed and quiet operation.  Now that I have spare parts and know how everything works on the opener, I shouldn't have to deal with the manufacturer anymore.  I hope.

HTH!

Steve



Oops, this is the garage door opener:

http://www.waynedalton.com/idrive_TorqueMaster.asp

And the framing has already been completed (pine 2x4 walls and pine 2x10
ceiling joists)