My default buying process is research + spreadsheet creation, this time thought I’d ask the community here if you have any experience / wisdom with garage door openers. Thanks for any help!
Additional info: Single car garage built in the 1950s in the U.S. The current opener is a lift master, just eyeballing it probably from the 90s. The door could be original? I don’t know. It’s wood, seems fairly substantial.
Yesterday and this morning started having issues with the door just stopping in the middle of opening or closing. When it stops, the remote button becomes unresponsive for a few seconds. When it starts moving again it goes the other direction so you have to keep pressing and try to get it to close/open before it stops again. This morning I ended up pulling it down part of the way because I’d gone through several rounds of up, down, up, down. It doesn’t seem to want to move manually which isn’t surprising. Worried my car is going to get stuck in there before work so I figure should probably be proactive here.
My brother did overhead garage door install and repair for about 20 years. He will be the first one to tell you stop screwing with it. What might be a minor cost if you call right now could be a major cost if you keep screwing with it. He seen cases where had they called right away. It would have been the service call, plus a couple hundred dollars. Service call meaning trip charge.
Because they kept screwing with it it was a very large bill. If I remember right, the worst one was where he had to replace tracks, garage door opener, and I think there was even a panel he had to replace.
Another person said you can check the tracks to see if there’s something in it but beyond that. I’d just called a professional.