Ziegler Doors Business practice

We purchased a new home.  Got a Liftmaster 8550 installed through the builder, which is a nice belt unit.  However Ziegler Doors installed really heavy doors that most of these new Irvine homes use for the garage doors.  Apparently when our garage door didn?t open, the technician we called to give estimate mentioned that they know these heavy doors aren?t really supported in the long run by these belt drives.  Part broke down due to supporting these heavy Zieglar doors.  Ziegler knows the Liftmaster they install will last 2-3 years and will break down afterwards so they will get a service call a few years down the road.  The tech recommended Liftmaster 8557w a chain system, which he wanted $700.  Would complaining to the builder do anything?

A torsion spring on top of your garage door usually takes care of the weight.  My garage door is around 200 LBS.

The motor doesn't have to exert that much force.  Your garage doesn't have this spring?

Yep. What zubs said.

I couldn't understand also what you meant by belt or chain drive. I remember our old school garage door had a chain drive but the one we have now is a screw drive.

There is a torsion spring on top.  But the door supposedly weighs 600-700 lbs.  A lot of neighbors that have lived in this community for 3-4 years are getting their Liftmaster replaced because they broke down.  The weight of the door even with the torsion springs is putting strain on the gears and sprocket of the Liftmaster which is causing them to be replaced in only 3-4 years.

Your problem sounds strange.  Have you checked the torsion spring is correctly set and balanced?  Unhook the garage door from rail and see if you can lift the garage door with your hands up a quarter way and see if it will stay there.

700 LB garage door for the times when the enemy brings a battering ram....it give you those few extra minutes to prepare for the oncoming siege. (and throw oil on them)

woodburyowner said:

Your problem sounds strange.  Have you checked the torsion spring is correctly set and balanced?  Unhook the garage door from rail and see if you can lift the garage door with your hands up a quarter way and see if it will stay there.

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This!

If the spring is properly set, you should be able to open the door by hand. The electric opener should be doing very little "work".  Also, this is a safety issue, since if the power goes out, you need to be able to open/close the garage.

Since I bought my home in Stonegate 4 years ago, I have always invited back Ziegler to tune up the garage doors each year. The charge runs from 120-150.

The first year, they took apart everything because the alignment was off and he told me the guy that did this originally was no longer with the company.

The third year, we replaced the rubber seal on the bottom.

Besides vision garage, they are only the original vendor I invite back as they do good work to keep the garage doors in top shape.

Maybe you need to have them take it apart like mine?

There's a sears garage door tune up that's like $29 on Living Social/Groupon.  They say you should do it every year.  I think every 3 years is probably fine.

When my belt started to fall apart (after like 17 years), I bought a new one at Amazon.  I then installed it myself, but it wasn't quite right.  I got the $29 tuneup and it works perfectly.