I had a screw drive door opener.. it was noisy and frequently broke the little spring pins that bolted the screw to the drive coupler. Finally bought a genie nylon belt drive.. much quieter. Never had a problem with it.

One of my friends was there one day as wife pulled up or left and opened/closed the door and he was doing the Oh my gods I gotta see it.. he had chain drive and was amazed how quiet it was on a cheap roll up steel door.

We dont need insulated doors here in florida but imagine a heavier premium door would be more quite with less rattles all on its own.

Thanks Mikie! Do you have a room above the garage? If so, is it noticably quieter up there that the screw drive was?

Mikie the Craftsman door opener is made by Chamberlain and the key chain remote will work fine. The belt drive opener is the quietest on the market and was made for just the situation you describe.

I bought a Craftsman belt-drive GDO and my garage isn't even attached to the house (!). It's strong and it's quiet and I've been happy with it.

Keep in mind, though, that though Chamberlain makes the GDO for Sears, they do it to Sears' specs, which may change a few features (added or dropped) and that parts quality may be better or worse (I've seen both in Sears products from other companies).

Hey Steve o, thats the next thing I was going to ask. Far as I know, Craftsman GDOs are fairly reliable. But, does anyone know if the Craftsman made by Chamberlain is made to the same specs at theirs. How about the Liftmasters? $230 on sale is a pretty good price for the 53919. I don't necessarily need the battery back-up, but it could come in handy. And its only $10 more than the 53914 which looks like the same model, but without the battery.
But, I don't want to go cheap if I can get something better for a little more $$$. At the same time, I'm not planning to be in my place for too long (+-5 years) so the Craftsman should be ok. Kind of wondering about the warranty period though - 90 days for Craftsman and lifetime for Chamberlain.
Oh heck, I think I'll get that Craftsman before I start to analize it too much! :)

Just called Chamberlain customer service and was told that besides the obvious cosmetic, feature and warranty differences, all the inner components are the same and of the same quality between the Chamberlain, Liftmaster and Craftsman openers and all should work and last equally well.

If you took the cover off a sears machine and a normal chamberlain machine, and asked me which was which, I could not tell you. And I work on these, day in and day out. They are the same machine, so don't be concerned about buying it from Sears.
If noise if your major problem, then go ahead and buy the belt drive with the battery back-up. You will not be dissapointed. The Liftmaster model number for that same machine is the model 2500 and I am in awe of it every time I program one of them. They really are everything they are touted to be. However, the battery does have a definitive life, and will have to be replaced in a few years.

For many years, most garage doors came with steel rollers. Steel rollers running in a steel track is a very noisy combination. Nowadays, you can get nylon rollers, or even better, 10 ball commercial rollers with nylon outer cover. These are incredibly quiet while moving in the track and lowers the noise level of the door itself, considerably.
I mention this only because buying an incredibly quiet electric opener, and still having a door that creates a lot of noise is rather false economy.

Thanks for the info GDS! So what makes the Liftmaster 2500 so much different than the Chamberlain or Craftsman models?
I am going to have this professionally installed, not because I couldn't do it myself, but because I also want to have the door looked at at the same time. I am getting some side-to-side play. The door always wants to travel to one side while opening or closing and that leaves a gap on the opposite side. Also, you are correct, the rollers are fairly noisy, even though I don't think they are steel - I'd have to look to be sure. Can they be replaced or would that not make sence to do? I'm in a condo and don't want the hastle of trying to get an approval to replace the door and then try to find an identical one.

The rollers are easily replaced and can be done by the installer while he's there. You can replace most of them yourself, however the two that are at the very bottom, closest to the floor are very dangerous if you do it. Best to leave this up to a professional. Buy the rollers, put them all in except the two bottom ones, and ask the installer to install those for you. It will take him about one minute to do both. A cup of coffee while he's installing the GDO should about do it. If your not technically inclined then just have him do it when he's there. Unless he is a trained door technician, he wont know how to do it safely so if your getting a local handyman to install your GDO, then don't ask him to do it.
Whats the difference between the openers?
Chamberlain is the worlds largest manufacturer of residential garage door openers. They make units for Sears and then puts Sears Craftsman on the cover.
They sell units under their own name of Chamberlain at retail places such as HD.
They make a professional series of openers called Liftmaster and sell them to the door companys. These always have solid T rails as oposed to segmented tubes such as you would buy at a retail store.
If you have a really tight head-room situation , the Liftmaster can be squeezed into a much smaller space above the door because it still uses a T rail. The carriage assembly slides along the bottom of the T rail and doesnt touch the ceiling. The Chamberlain and Sears machines use a square tube that the carriage assembly wraps completely around. This means that the carriage assembly would scrape the drywall on the ceiling if it was used in a tight headroom situation.
Which one is better? Sort of like asking, which is better, Chev or Pontiac. Same company.
Really doesn't matter, they are all great.

Regarding Warrantys.
LIFE TIME WARRANTY ON THE MOTOR. That means exactly that, just the motor. Motors NEVER wear out. Thats why they put a lifetime warranty on it, cause they never wear out. All the other components in the unit, such as Logic Board, capacitor, nylon gears, all have a one year warranty.

So, If the garage door opener doesn't crap out on you in the first year of operation, chances are, it will go up and down like a yo-you for the next 10-12 years with nobody ever having to touch it.

Oh heck, I think I'm just going to go for the Craftsman. Too bad you're not in Cali or I'd have you do the work for me GDS! :)
Its funny you mention Chevy and Pontiac. I make cars for them where I work.
Thanks for the info!

Maybe Don could help you, he's in California, although I'm not sure where. You will find him up higher in this thread. You could e-mail him.

OK, I did it. Went ahead and purchased a Craftsman belt drive without the battery (model# 53914). On sale right now for $175 - usually $219. That should do the trick for my little 8' steel door. I figure I can do this myself, I'll probably have to learn sooner or later.
So, before I get started, besides following the directions, are there any tips or tricks, or anything else that I should know about or make this easier to do? Or anything that I should definitely not do? I know not to mess with the spring.
Also, I am getting a bit of side-to-side play in the door. If I grab the handle on the door while it is closed, I can take it and move it from one side to the other about half an inch. Is this normal or is there something I should check out?
Only reason I'm asking is because it wants to travel to the right when it is opening or closing. This leaves a slight gap, maybe a quarter of an inch or so, between the end of the wall and the beginning of the door. Just enough space for people to look in if they wanted to and for leaves and dirt to blow in and things to crawl in. Once the door is closed, I can pull on the handle and move it back to the left, but the next time it is opened and closed, it moves right back to the same place.
Thanks!!!

Well, I got it done . . . atleast installed and functioning. I just have to staple the wires down in the morning.
Just goes to show how stubborn I am. I wasn't planning to do it today, just buy it. Got it home and figured I'd just check out the instructions so I'm a bit familiar with all the parts. Assembly seemed fairly easy, so I told myself I'd assemble it so its all ready to go in the morning. I got done with that sooner than I thought, so then I thought I might as well remove the old one and use a padlock to lock up the garage so I'm all ready to install in the morning.
After that, there was no stopping me. :) Took about 7 hours including breaks for dinner and to watch tv and talk on the phone (all the important things!!! :) ).
I'm a bit disappointed though. Even though it is much quieter in the garage than my old Genie screw drive, its not that much quieter upstairs in the bedroom and it actually sounds louder upstairs than it does standing in the garage. Maybe just the sound waves and vibration traveling through the supports and into the floor. I'll play with it some more in the morning.

CaliforniaPlaya,

Sorry for digging up and old thread but it is almost the exact situation I am in with the baby's room above the garage.

Were you able to tweak it so that there were less vibrations? I don't want to go through the whole trouble of switching everything over only to find that the vibrations that attribute to some of the noise are still there.

markbr, the belt drive opener is the quietest on the market but there is also a vibration isolation kit you can purchase that will help. It is made by Liftmaster and should be available at your local dealer. The part number is G89LM. Hope this helps you.

Thanks Don for that helpful info.

I just wanted to run by all the info I gathered and was hoping you could point out if I am missing anything, or answer a question.

GDO should have these features:

- Belt Driven
- r16 insulated doors, anything better? we got very cold winters in Montreal.
- Battery Back up
- Outdoor Keypad
- Comes with 2 remotes that can open either door on the same pad,.
- Do I have to replace tracks because of the noise? heard about rubber tracks that are hung. Don suggest vibration kit, is this in addition to teh tracks or does this replace the tracks?
What about air that comes in from around the doors, will new garage doors fix that or does something else have to be done?
- What HP do I need? and will more HP increase noise?
- Lift Master vibration kit G89LM.
- How do I know what the current R value is of current doors, do I replace or insulate?
- Who makes the best unit and what is the model #?

Thanks very much

This has been most helpful. I have a 1/2 and a 1/3 hp Craftsman GDO and are looking to replace them. Does the 53914 model come with a keyless entry pad that is wireless ?

53914 doesn't seem to be a good number with Craftsman but any opener you buy from Sears has a matching wireless keypad.