Garage Door Opener Question



Question:
My house was built in 1983 and has a Craftsman garage door opener. It broke and part of the cable broke off. DH has been able to fix that part of it but it's still sort of shakey. I think we need a new one - and I am wondering: 1. I assume the door opener we have is as old as the house - so would a new one fit on the a railings we have now or would we have to install everything new? 2. How difficult is it to do it yourself. 3. Is one brand easier to install than another? Would it be better to stick to Sears brand and hope the new one would use some of the old already installed system - like those railings - or would we need to start from scratch?

Answer:
Sears doesn't make garage door openers. They have other companies make them and put the Craftsman name on the unit. The last time I looked the Craftsman openers were Chamberlain openers with the Craftsman label. I replaced my Chamberlain opener two years ago with a Genie. It was a very easy project that required no special skills or tools. You should be able to do it in a couple of hours. When you buy the opener it comes with all the necessary parts. I wouldn't try to re-use the old track mechanism as it will only save you about 15 minutes and you will have an opener with a 17 year old track that may fail down the line requiring you to replace it anyway. From what I remember all the openers were nearly identical in the way they installed.





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