sorry to be confusing--the first door opener quit working after I replaced the battery. I had a second opener which also quit after replacing the battery. I now have two openers that no longer work. If your theory is correct, can you advise how to fix it? Thank you!

jaansu, maddiemom6 is correct. There should be an emergency release cord which detaches the door from the operator mechanism. With the door fully open, pull the cord straight down and release. If the cord is pulled to one side it may have locked in the open position. Next you can operate the door electrically to engage the door to the operator. There is usually a piece on the moving mechanism (Chain or screw) which has to reengage with the operator (Emergency release). Hope that helps, Dan Martyn

The first place to start is to check the door itself. Disconnect the opener. The door should open easily and smoothly and be balanced. To check balance open the door (opener still disconnected) to about chest high. The door should stay there, if it doesn't then the springs need to be adjusted. If the door operates properly, then it doesn't matter what kind of opener you use. Belt drives tend to be a little quieter which is nice if you have living space above the garage. Generally speaking replacing an existing opener is pretty easy. It will probably take a couple of hours, including reading the instructions, laying everything out, and cleaning up.

chicagoans...thank you so much! And those pictures are great! I just realized the first picture I uploaded doesn't show the tape marks for the lights on the prow...oi :) The whole reason I posted....but, we have planned two up/down sconce type lights, about half way up, on the narrow vertical logs just to the left/right of the 3 vertical prow logs...so they'll shine up to the prow soffit (that we labored over staining/sealing for days..ha. We also plan for one above the garage door. Labor of love.) And LED sounds like the way to go cause they'll be up so high. Sure hope they last as long as they say they do :) The question I've been pondering is should we do the 'up/down', or just the 'up' lights? Im overly sensitive about not wanting to light it up too much out there..we'll have coach lights on the outsides of the middle two sliding doors on either end of the prow..matching the height of the garage door coach lights (on both sides of the garage door), at least that's the plan for now....wish I could put the sconces on a dimmer, but they're going to be on a timer, so the electrician said a dimmer wouldn't work unless we do a smart switch type thing-and we're all about not going the smart route--lol. Dumb lights, dumb switches...we embrace the dumb & thats how we roll...after my husbands flip phone finally died, not too long ago, he walked into the store and asked for the dumbest smart phone they had, lol. The poor young man who was trying to upsell him on the highest of high tech phones, didn't know what to say.