Electronic garage door openers became popular in the 1970s and have developed into a massive market with a wide variety of different kinds of electric garage door openers for domestic and commercial garages. Motorized 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 drive, screw driven, and jack-shaft. Each type works in a different way and your specific requirements will direct you to the very best opener for your garage door.

Things to think of when buying an opener:

Do you prefer additional safety capabilities for your opener? This is specifically important if you have little ones.
Are you looking for a very quiet opener?
Do you live in an environment with extreme temperatures (in which a screw drive opener might be the very best choice)?
Do you need to have remote 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 options.
Chain Drive
Chain-drive openers are probably the most preferred of the four types of garage door openers. They are the least expensive. They are the noisiest of the four website styles, they are incredibly durable and are a good overhead door opener choice.

Belt Drive
Belt-drive garage door openers are quieter than chain drives since they use rubber belts. They cost a bit more than chain-drive openers click here and are best for people with living areas on website top of or next to the garage. There are also reduced vibrations associated with this opener type.

Screw Drives
This overhead door opener kind is often used in environments with extreme temperatures since they are designed to withstand temperature changes. Screw-drive openers won't struggle with frozen chains or other weather-related matters. The tracks are plastic-lined and there is very little care involved.

Jack-shaft
Jack-shaft drives are great for abolishing that huge overhead door opener box on the ceiling of your garage. Jack-shaft openers are set up on the side wall of your garage and are most ideal for garages with high ceilings. Another perk is that they are incredibly quiet.

Find a local garage door professional who can assist you decide if you are not sure about which garage door opener is better for your garage.


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 residential and commercial 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 with garage doors and garage door openers, it's simply better to leave it to the experts.