LESLIE: James in Rhode Island needs a new garage door. What can we do for you?
JAMES: We’re replacing a wooden garage door of a one stall car and we’re replacing it with a steel door with double windows. The problem is the opener – the motor – is over 21 years of age. And I had a discussion within the family … should we replace it with a new motor while we’re doing the new job. And I have a feeling that we should.
TOM: Well, I would agree with you, James. You’re absolutely right. And the reason you want to replace that is not because the one that you have there is not working right. But because there have been so many safety improvements in the last 20 years.
It used to be that garage door openers would either open or close. The problem was if there was an obstruction, they would keep going down and could possibly crush you or anything that’s underneath it. Then there were improvements where they were required to have a reversing mechanism so if there was pressure on the garage door because something was stuck in there, it would reverse. Then there was another revision where now they have electric eyes or other types of sensors that will not allow them to go down.
Today, the garage doors have multiple safety precautions built in. They have track sensors; they have door sensors; they have electric eyes; and they’re going to be a lot safer if you replace it right now. So it’s a good idea to take a 20 plus-year-old garage door opener and replace everything – all of the hardware, all of the tracks, everything – with new stuff today. Because it’s just going to be a lot safer moving forward.
And also, the security of your home is improved, too, because now, the garage door openers are all made with what’s called rolling code technology, which has like billions of billions of combinations of codes. So no one going up and down the street with their garage door opener could mistakenly open yours and a crook couldn’t get in that way. And the old doors are surprisingly easy to break into that way, just by having some of the openers that sort of spin the spectrum of codes and find one that opens you up. With rolling code technology that all these new doors are using, it’s impossible.
So for all those reasons, I think it’s a good idea for you to replace that garage door opener today.
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