Making Side Hinged Garage Doors Remote Control…

Making side hinged garage doors electrically operated is relatively easy but only if the door panels themselves are suitably constructed.

In most cases over the years this has not been a problem, providing the doors open outwards. We would recommend one of two makes of operators that are suitable to fitting to side hinged garage doors with the addition of swing arm conversion kit.

Giving Side-Hinged garage doors electric operation is possible thanks to the following recommendations:

• Hormann SupraMatic with FTS10 Boom
• Hormann ProMatic with FTS10 Boom
• Seip TS75 with swing door conversion kit
• Seip TS100 with swing door conversion kit

The recomendation however is subject to the weight and stability of the side hinged doors themselves, as well as size. All these factors will affect the various operator used as they all have different ways of detecting and dealing with the variations that would occur in different types of side hinged doors.

Firstly we will look at how the swing arm kit works. The swing arms attach to the door leaves around 1½ inches below the top of the leaf so the arms sit just below the door stays.  They are attached to the trolley that runs along the boom, pushing and pulling the door leaves open. The boom bracket is fitted flush with the bottom of the head frame, just above the doorstop. Each door leaf can open to around 115% assuming that that opening could be achieved manually! However either operator will reduce the drive through height by about 4”.

The security that the electric operator offers is excellent. The spring arrangement in the leading arm combines with the force of the secondary arm to create a very strong closing. Obviously if desired, the door leaves can be further secured with a padlock but do remember not to attempt to open the door remotely before removing! The operator will negate the need for stays as the swing arms will hold the leaves in position.

If your side hinged doors are either timber or steel there should be not be a problem attaching the swing arm plate to the door leaf. However – if your doors are manufactured in GRP or ABS proceed with caution – without a reinforcement plate bonded in the correct position the swing arm brackets could easily tear the GRP. If you are ordering new GRP side hinged doors and are likely to want an operator at some time do make sure that the strengthening plate is incorporated.

Seip TS75 garage door operator with swing door converter. The TS100 model is used for larger, heavier doors and probably the best operator to use if you are not sure about the best model to suit your doors.

The swing door converters will offer well over 90 degrees of opening assuming of course the original hinged doors are fitted with hinges that go over 90 degrees in the first place. This really makes a big difference when driving your vehicle in and out of the garage. These also act as door stays to prevent damage from windy conditions of course.

Every automation system has an internal manual emergency override in case of power failure but it may be worth considering one of the latest battery back up systems offered by major manufacturers.

The manual release is a simple mechanical release device 'unhitching' the carriage block from the main boom to enable manual operation until power is restored.

An alternative method to using the overhead boom with swing arm conversion is to consider the FAAC 560 Hydraulic door operator. The FAAC 560 is designed for automating bi-folding doors, however, it can be installed to operate single or double leafed side hinged garage doors. It is very suitable for high intensive use.

The electric motor, hydraulic pump and internal rack-and-pinion transmission system are compactly housed in a single block in anodised aluminium. The motor unit is mounted to the inside face of the lintel just above the top of the door using a specially fabricated mounting bracket. As the pinion rotates the door leaf is opened and closed by means of a telescopic arm which ensures an even and perfectly linear movement.

The motors are very safe thanks to the built-in hydraulic adjustable by-pass valves. Anti-crushing protection can be set for the most suitable environment. The control board can add more safety depending on your requirements, for instance, safety photo cell beams can be installed between / behind the door frames to prevent the doors closing back on to an obstacle


          Installation carried out by The Garage Door Centre with 3 pairs of electric hydraulic operators