Quiet Garage Door Openers

Quiet garage door openers come in three major flavors: from cheapest to most expensive, you have the chain drive, the screw drive, and the belt drive.

The advantages and disadvantages of each are discussed below.

Chain Drive Garage Door Openers

Chain drive models are the "McDonalds" of garage door openers.

I say this because they are cheap and they are everywhere. In fact, they account for about 65% of the marketplace.

Noisier Than The Others

Chain drive garage door opener prices are low partly because they make much more noise than the other two types of openers (see below).

This is because the chain rattles when it opens and closes garage doors. The quieter chain drive openers on the market usually have a separate compartment for each of the chains to ensure that the chains do not clink against each other. They also have an insulated (or enclosed) drive chain to reduce noise.

Less Reliable

In general though, chain drive models are less reliable than screw- or belt-drive models. This is because they have more moving parts.

$100 - $180 Price Range

Prices start at around one hundred dollars and go up to about $180. Discount models may only have a two year warranty on the motor, whereas the top of the line chain models would have a 4 year or lifetime warranty.

Screw Drive Garage Door Openers

Screw drive door openers use a turning screw to open and close garage doors.

Super Quiet

A high-quality screw drive opener can be extremely quiet (almost on par with the belt-drive models discussed below).

Reliable and Low Maintenance

Another advantage of the screw drive model is that it requires the least amount of maintenance because it has very few moving parts.

$150 - $200 Price Range

You can pick up a screw drive opener from around $150 - $200. The warranty is likely to be a lifetime guarantee on the motor. Well worth the extra money and my pick of the three types of openers discussed here.

Belt Drive Garage Door Openers

Belt drive models use a strengthened rubber belt to operate the opening mechanism.

The Quietest Of Them All

Because rubber is a virtually soundless material, these types of garage door mechanisms are the quietest of all. The noise you will hear usually comes from the springs or the door itself.

$200+ Price Range

You can get a belt drive opener for $200 upwards, although you may wish to consider a top-of-the-line screw drive garage opener instead if you don't like the idea of maintenance. Belt-drive motor warranties are also likely to be for the life of the product, although you should check this on a model-by-model basis.

Extra Features To Look For

What other aspects should you look at when in the market for an automatic garage door system?

Secure Your Home With "Vacation Mode"

If you go on vacation a lot or you have valuable items in your garage, you will want to be able to set your garage door remote control to "vacation mode".

Vacation mode basically disables the remote control system until you return from your vacation. The benefit of this is that thieves will not be able to enter your garage by sending a signal from a "fake" remote control.

Another Security Feature - "Rolling Code" Technology

Another security feature to look out for is what's called 'rolling code technology'.

These are basically fancy words for a system whereby the remote control sends out a different signal each time you use it. The benefit is that thieves will not be able to 'capture' your signal and then reproduce it and use it to enter your garage when you're not home.

Fast Opening Garage Doors

If you're after a fast-opening garage door, you may wish to consider openers such as the Genie Excelerator.

This model opens the door at 14 inches (36 cm) per second, which is twice as fast as most systems.

If you're impatient then you may appreciate getting into your garage a couple of seconds quicker.

A New Level Of Quiet With "Soft Open And Close"

Finally, if you're after an extra-quiet garage door opener, you may want a model with 'soft-open' and 'soft-close' features.

This basically means that the garage door opens and closes quietly, without a loud clunk. I think it's definitely worth a little more (finances permitting) to go for one of the quiet garage door openers.