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There are at least a few different garage opener makes and models on the market today. The two main companies are Chamberlain Group and The Genie Company respectively. Both companies offer retail do-it-yourself models as well as professionally installed models. Chamberlain Group manufactures garage door openers for Sears and has for many years. Inaddition Chamberlain Group also has thier own brand of do-it-yourself models. Chamberlain Group's high end openers go under the name Liftmaster Professional. The Genie Company also offers thier own retail openers sold under the name Genie. The Genie Companie's professional openers are sold under the name Genie Pro and Overhead Door. Actually Genie was bought by Overhead Door in the early 90s and is now owned by Sanwa Holdings. There was another great company worth mentioning that went under the name of Allstar, previously Allister then bought by Linear Corp. Allstar and Allister were well known in the Midwest and Eastern parts of the United States, they were around for many years. Allstar ( now Linear Corp ) only offered professionally installed robust garage door openers. It should also be mentioned that Linear has thier on line of professionally installed garage door openers as well. In addition there are also other emerging companies within the industry, such as Marantec, Sommer, Rhine, Hormann, Dominator, Seip, Wayne Dalton, Raynor and others. Lastly the companies out of business are Stanley-Vemco, McKinney Electronics, Heathkit, Crusader, Montgomery Wards, Sioux, Moore-o-matic, Access Master, Scientific Detroit, Automatic-Doorman, Ambassador, DoorKing, Electro-Lift, Crawford, Doorkeeper and more. Liftmaster or Genie ?... Up until about 1999 we had exclusively installed Genie openers. We now prefer Liftmaster Professional for all the right reasons. Liftmaster has become known for thier reliablilty, serviceability, design, simplicity, features, looks, security, parts availability, quietness and more. Judge for yourself... Just checkout and compare the parts diagrams for Liftmaster vs. Genie by clicking here . Also see the comparison matrix below by clicking here . Chain, Belt or Screw drive ?... We install certain garage door openers for certain applications. For example: on steel sectional garage doors we usually recommend chain or belt drive openers. For your carraige house or wood sectional garage doors, the Heavy-duty Liftmaster model 3595 3/4 Elite Series chain drive is the opener perfectly suited for that application. For heavy one piece wood doors the model 3595 is also a perfect match. Not only because of the power and strength but also because of the dual sprocket. The smaller sprocket of the two, runs at a slower speed, which is desirable for smooth operation on one piece garage doors. Both screw drive or chain drive openers have proven to work well for the lighter one piece garage doors. 1/3 , 1/2 or 3/4 horsepower ?... 1/3 and 1/2 horsepower garage openers have been around for many years. The required horsepower really depends on the weight, balance and type of garage door. 3/4 horsepower residential garage door openers were introduced by Chamberlain Group or Liftmaster in 2001. 3/4 horsepower openers have been used on commercial doors and applications for many years. Some of the time 1/3 horsepower openers can do the job, but work harder and make more noise in the process. Openers with 1/2 horsepower motors were considered to be top-of-the-line with more power, features and warranty. Than there are the 3/4 horsepower monsters. The 3/4 hp. Elite Series is Liftmaster's quiet, powerful, state-of-art flagship. Our two favorite Liftmaster garage door openers are the 3595 Chain Drive and the 3585 Belt Drive. As of this writing in middle 2011 it should be mentioned that Genie released thier TriloG 1500 screwdrive garage door opener with a 1 HPc* motor. However when you read the fine print at the bottom of Genie's website description pertaining to the horsepower rating... This is what it reads... *1 Horsepower Comparable (HPc) designates that this garage door opener meets Genie’s lifting force. Even if the new Genie TriloG screwdrive is truely 1 horsepower, the rest of the opener itself doesn't appear to be very robust, especially the rail. You see the Liftmaster 3595 3/4hp chaindriven garage door opener is so robust that periodically the 290lbs owner of this website hangs on fully installed Liftmaster 3595 opener rails to prove a point to the customer. Not a good idea with the Genie TriloG 1500. It wouldn't survive even if you weigh considerably less than 290lbs. We don't recommend hanging off garage door opener rails by the way. So the point here is that without a robust garage opener, what good is alot horsepower. Retail vs. Professional ... The main difference between retail openers and professionally installed garage door openers are in the rail. Retail openers come equipped with multi-piece rail assemblies, where as pro model openers are installed with one piece rails only. Multi-piece rails make it possible for the retail consumer to fit a retail opener in the trunk of thier vehicle. It's pretty ingenious how these multi-piece openers are designed and packaged. However the problem with a multi-piece designed rail is the lack of strength and rigidity, in most cases they are downright flimsy. The pro model rails are far superior in strength and rigidity. With some makes and models there is not much difference between retail vs. professional other then the rail itself. Then there are the some professional models far superior in quality to retail openers. For the do-it-yourself customer, buying a retail opener can offer some savings if installed properly. Customers buying retail and then paying for installation may save very little. In some cases it actually ends up costing more then a professionally installed opener. Openers that are installed by a garage door contractor or professional can cost anywhere from a little less to a little more than a retail installed garage opener. Basically for about the same retail vs. pro price, a professionally installed garage door opener will be a superior product with an overall better value. Also the garage door itself should be balanced, safe and operate properly. The best garage door opener will not last as long and will not be safe, on a garage door that is not operating properly. The last consideration is the installation itself. You can have a good garage door opener with a bad installation or a bad garage door opener with a good installation. Why not have the best of both worlds ? Latest Generation Garage Door Openers ... In middle 2011 Genie has released thier latest line of professionally installed garage door openers. The technology and features appear to have some interesting attributes. Genie has designated thier latest offerings under the names IntelliG and TriloG. The owners manuals can be seen under the Genie section --> HERE. In the summer of 2011 Liftmaster released thier new generation of garage door openers. Liftmaster's latest offerings are the model 8360 Chaindrive and 8550 Beltdrive. This was not a reponse to Genie's latest offerings. Liftmaster spent years with the R & D before releasing these openers to the marketplace. The new 8360 and 8550 are both variable speed DC motors with battery backup and packed with all new standard features such as Security+ 2.0 remote controls, Timer-To-Close, Intuitive wall control and more. The most impressive new feature is Liftmaster's optional MyQ Technology. With Liftmaster's optional (828LM) MyQ Internet Gateway you can control and monitor your garage door opener or home lights from anywhere in the world via a smart phone or computer... It does require you to buy the APP and subscription from Liftmaster however. The new Liftmaster 8360 and 8850 openers are state of the art with or without the optional MyQ accessories. The standard factory owners manuals for the 8360 and 8550 can be seen under the Liftmaster section --> HERE. The past, present and future of Garage Door Openers ... Currently as of this writing in middle 2011 most of the latest garage door openers on the market utilize DC motors. Chamberlain Group which manufactures Liftmaster, Chamberlain, Raynor and Craftsman still manufacture many garage door openers with AC motors. Linear Corp also manufactures and sells a couple of garage door openers with AC motors as well. That's about it folks. To prove this point you can see the many garage door opener manufactures on this page --->LINK HERE. Not all the manufactures on that link to our Factory Manuals- Parts Diagrams page sell products in North America. AC motors have been used in the residental garage door industry far longer than DC motors in the garage door industry. Both Genie and Liftmaster has made a plethora of garage door openers with AC motors. However technology has progressed to the point where DC motors are more common place in the market as a whole. Chamberlain group didn't actually release thier first DC equipped garage door opener the Liftmaster 2500 Beltdrive until 2000. As of this writing Chamberlain Group manufactures five different DC powered garage door opener models. That would be Liftmaster models 3850, 3800, 3840, 8360 and 8550 garage door openers. Genie actually introduced thier first DC equipped garage door openers in about 1994. These models were the Stealth Beltdrive, GPS Chaindrive and Excellerator Screwdrive. Now Genie's latest line of garage door openers are all DC equipped. Most likely very soon all Genie's past AC equipped garage door openers will be phased out. Advantages of DC motor equipped garage door openers: DC equipped garage door openers consume less power, generate less heat, sometimes run quieter, small DC motors can provide the same or more torque as an AC motor of a larger size, smoother because DC motors are easier to control speed and phase. This control of speed and phase control is what allows for the soft start/stop upon opening and closing. Disadvantages DC motor equipped garage door openers: Possibility for costly repairs in the future, A little more complexity, requires a couple more components to power and operate the DC motor, No DC powered garage door openers appear to be as robust as most of the older legacy garage door openers. With the exception of Chamberlain Group ( Liftmaster )... The industry as a whole appears to lack long term parts or support with a replace-it-all throw away mentality. Chamberlain Group ( Liftmaster ) has proven to provide the most innovation, engineering, quality, simplicity, reliablity, parts, support and everything a consumer or authorized dealer would expect from a company. Hopefully Chamberlain Group ( Liftmaster ) will continue to manufacture the garage door openers that our company prefers to sell and install. Those can be seen here ---> LINK HERE. All the Liftmaster openers on our Garage Door Openers-Installed page have AC motors and are Chain or Belt driven. The Liftmaster model 1356 1/2hp, the very first opener on that page is Liftmaster's longest standing workhorse. It's the basic platform from which Liftmaster based thier AC motor equipped garage door openers. All the models on our Garage Door Openers-Installed page have proven themselves over and over as we have installed many of every model on that page. Hopefully Liftmaster will continue to manufacture thier AC motor equipped garage door openers. We've heard rumors that Chamberlian Group may someday discontinue all thier AC motor equipped openers for DC motor equipped openers. Thier support representatives claim that will never happen and we hope that's true. It wouldn't make sense because Liftmaster's current line of AC equipped openers sell very well, it's been thier bread and butter for many years. Now as far as DC powered garage door openers go, Liftmaster's latest 8360 and 8550 garage door openers are state of the art. We also know that Chamberlain Group tested those garage door openers for years before they put them out on the market. If Liftmaster ever does phase out the current line of AC motor equipped garage openers for DC motor equipped garage openers, maybe Chamberlain Group will build a super quiet smooth HEAVY-DUTY monster. Some of my colleague in the business including us feel that Linear-corp garage door openers may become the next big thing if Liftmaster blows it. Genie went in the wrong direction back in the mid 1990's. They chose not to listen to those in the industry. They thought they knew better than those that installed and repaired Genie garage door openers for many years. They thought wrong, Chamberlain Group and Liftmaster Professional took alot of Genie and Genie Pros market share in both the professional and retail markets. Times change and with a free market economy, the consumer will punish the company that doesn't deliver as promised by spending thier hard earned money on a product that does deliver as promised. So if Chamberlain Group or Liftmaster Professional slips, they will not be immune to the fate that Genie suffered and still is suffering. So far we installed one of those new Liftmaster 8550 garage door openers early October 2011. We got a call back on it two days later. It threw a control board code 1-5. We were ready to yank that new Liftmaster 8550 out and replace it with the tried and true Liftmaster 3585 3/4hp Beltdrive. Before we went back to our customer's location, our customer decided to call Liftmaster's excellent technical support and merely reset everything. Buggy beginnings. As of this writing it is now mid Nov 2011... so far so good. Well update this at a later date. With all that said, the Liftmaster 8550 was very easy to program and setup. Plus it operates nice and smooth but for or now we'll mainly stay with our tried and true Liftmaster work horses. For those interested in seeing Liftmaster's 8360 and 8550 owners manuals see --->LINK HERE |
| Liftmaster vs. Genie comparison matrix. | ||||||||||
| . | Posilock electronics * | Adjustable light delay | Motion sensor ** | Form fitted metal cover | Easy light bulb replacement | Protected compact clip-on safety-sensors | Long term parts availability | Ease of Service | Overall build quality | Modular design |
| Liftmaster | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes | yes |
| Genie Pro | no | no | yes | no | yes | no | no | no | no | no |
| * Posilock electronics will automatically push the door closed during forced entry attempts. |
| ** Liftmaster openers require 98LM or 398LM wall consoles. All Liftmaster Estate and Elite Series are equipped with the 98LM or 398LM wall consoles. Motion Sensor only available for Genie's latest TriloG or IntelliG openers. |
Did we mention the LCD wall console display for the Liftmaster Elite Series. |
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