No experience with fiberglass doors. Looking at the vendor's web site, though, the warranty on the FG doors is noticeably less - 3 years vs. lifetime for steel. Also, comments like 'thermal bowing, etc.' aren't considered efects - sounds like they know the doors aren't absolutely stable. They do look nice in the pics! Very good R-value also. Although more plain looking, it appears that an insulated steel door will last much longer.

Stick with something you can get service on by more than one dealer. Clopay or Amarr are just two that parts and service are available from "any" door dealer. Overhead Door Co. is good but It is a McDonalds hamberger. You are really stuck with them for the rest of the life of the door. So if it was not a great experience, your stuck. You have a door installed, you decide your not really happy with the company, or the person that did the work, so you call someone else that also carries that door product for Non-warranty service couple of years later. With Overhead door co., you may not be able to do this. Your kind of "locked into them". Wayne Dalton is good but stay away from their, "Spring in a pipe" Lowes sells them too. They never work correctly. I get calls to service them often. I won't touch them anymore. You will have to contact them, (Wayne Dalton). Even they don't like them. They also came up with the "I Drive" door operator. That one was and Is still a big bomb also. Do your self a favor, stick with popular door names, with door openers also, otherwise no one will want to service them later... Dan

We purchased the Martin Pinnacle H Groove steel garage doors that look the most like wood of any faux wood doors I've seen, including Clopay. We had real wood doors prior to these that were damaged beyond repair due to the previous owner's neglect and didn't want to deal with the upkeep and maintenance of new wood doors; HOWEVER, in retrospect, I wish we had gotten real wood doors due to the following experience. The garage door installer ordered the doors through an authorized Martin door dealer. Martin sent the doors in the wrong color, but I actually liked the color, so we decided we would keep them if Martin would pay for us to repaint the trim on our house to match. They agreed. Once the doors were hung, we noticed MANY paint imperfections down to the metal on BOTH doors. I asked for replacement doors, but Martin would only offer a paint repair. I didn't like that answer because a dab-on paint repair is never the same as a factory finish and there were AT LEAST 20 spots needing paint. But we had no alternative so we scheduled one of their reps to come and do the paint repairs. The day after the install, we noticed a SIGNIFICANT difference in the temperature of the garage. It was about 10 degrees warmer than the day before. And this was only March in Phoenix. This was concerning because our summer temps are often in the 110 degree or higher range from July-Sept and we cool our garage. Martin's advertised R14 factor rating for these doors was completely misleading. When we inquired about the increase in temperature, we found out that the R14 rating is for the rails only, NOT the panels. The many panels on the door are only rated as R8! Being that we live in Phoenix and these doors face west, this was unacceptable to us. We knew that our AC bill would go through the roof come summer...and we were right; however, Martin was unwilling to remove the doors and refund our money. Our AC bill has been over $100 more per month this summer compared to last summer. So while the doors look nice, and even fool people who think they're real wood at a 5 foot distance, they are NOT what we expected for energy efficiency AT ALL! We are also disappointed in Martin Door. Even after speaking to the OWNER of the company, they were unwilling to help us. So if you're looking for the look of real wood garage doors, but don't want the real thing, and you don't care about energy efficiency, these are the doors. Nothing looks more like real wood.

The price is a matter only if the more expensive door has additional features as moisture-resistance, soundproofing and etc. But generally, all these things depend on the manufacturer not price. Yes, of course, there is a big gap between insulation types. You can visit this website and find more detailed information about the advantages of steel front doors here and read about the differences between cheap and expensive front doors here. I hope these articles will answer all your questions and help you determine what kind of door you need.