A garage door operator is an electromechanical device for opening a garage door either remotely or by hard wired access control.
The Garage Door Centre supplies and installs electric operators for all types of garage doors and only uses top branded products as we feel the installation should only be carried out once and then operate perfectly every time. There are a lot of very cheap, noisy non-European, non-compliant electric operators available in the U.K. through various sources but buyers should be very aware of what you may be purchasing as it may well be illegal or dangerous especially if incorrectly specified for the door type.
 
Brief History

The first electric garage door opener systems were simple. A system consisted of a simple transmitter (the remote) and receiver (the opener). The transmitter would transmit at designated frequency; the receiver would listen to a change in amplitude, then open or close the garage, depending on the door position. The basic concept of this can be traced back to World War II. This type of system was used to detonate remote bombs. Therefore the original garage door opener was like a glorified bomb that could be detonated remotely over and over again. While novel at the time, the technology would run its course when electric garage door openers would become widely available and used. Then, not only did a person open their garage door, they often opened their neighbour’s garage door as well. While the garage door remote used was low in power and in range, it was powerful enough to interfere with other receivers in the area. The motors and hardware were also very basic and heavy with 240 volt DC motors being used which were very noisy and crude, slamming the garage door up and down during operation and not being very kind to the door panel in the process. Bicycle type chains were used for the main operating boom and needed tightening and regular oiling and cleaning as they were generally not covered at all.

The second stage of the electric garage door opener system was forced onto the market because too many garage door openers operated on the same frequency. To rectify the problem, a more advanced (and more secure) method of opening garage doors was developed. Systems now allowed a garage door owner to preset a “code.” This code consisted of about 8 to 10 dip switches on the receiver and corresponding transmitter. With these switches the garage door system now had 28 - 256 different “codes.” This new system was not really designed with security in mind. The idea was not to interfere with other garage door openers, and security appeared to be an afterthought. Advances had been made in the drive method with cables, toothed nylon belts and in the U.K. a screw drive operation. However they were all still fairly basic and crude compared to todays operators. The screwdrive method of moving the door could  be forced backwards if enough force was applied to the door panel itself.

Courtesy light comes on when operator is activated and switches off after about 3 minutes

The current electric garage door operator market offers a variety of high tech garage door openers. The frequency spectrum ranges between 433- 868 MHz and most of these garage door openers rely on 'hopping' or 'rolling code' technology. Encoders in the transmitter and decoders in the receiver work on a rolling code that prevent perpetrators from recording a code and replaying it to open a garage door. Because the signal is supposed to be significantly different than that of any other garage door remote control, manufacturers claim it is impossible for someone other than the owner of the remote to open the garage. When the transmitter sends a code, it generates a new code using an encoder. The receiver, after receiving a correct code, uses the same encoder with the same original seed to generate a new code that it will accept in the future. Because there is a high probability that someone might accidentally push the open button while not in range and desynchronize the code, the transmitter and receiver generate look-a-head codes ahead of time. This system is used by roller shutter remote controls as well as sectional and up and over garage door operators.

As well as these advances in remote control operation things have developed in the mechanics of the operator boom and tow arm system to ensure the garage door is held firmly closed and even locked in three places. Security is really the main feature as well as complete safety in all modern garage door operators.






Golden Rule No. 1
NEVER fit a garage door opener if it does not have a safety return mechanism when an obstruction is hit, even the infra red safety beam system only protects a small proportion of the doors entire travel. Latest standards require a very fast reaction time for the operator motor to reverse as soon as it has struck an obstacle.

Soft start and stop operation now ensure a gentle closing and opening action taking stress out of the door mechanism whilst offering infinitely quieter movement. All the leading European manufacturers now use 24v DC motors for reliability and quietness.

The Cardale Autoglide electric operator - specifically designed for Cardale canopy garage doors. Canopy garage doors (springs across the top of the door) are notoriously awkward to automate properly and should be very well balanced before installing any kind of operator system.
Bow arm convertors used with boom operators will not automate all makes of garage doors.




Accessories have also developed with technological advances and many other methods of activating the garage door opener are now available other than a hand held remote, which quite often is misplaced or dropped and broken.
External wireless keypads are very useful when you have a lot of people in your family using the garage often, especially if for accessing fridges, freezers, bikes or other items which are retrieved on foot.
Other accessories include keyswitches, internal pushbutton stations, card readers and now even fingerscan readers. (see right)

No Electricity in your garage? No Problem!!

Hormann have developed the very latest in electric garage door and gate operators that do not require a mains power supply, the Hormann Promatic AKKU operator range.
Click here for details

A range of battery back up systems are now also available for those times when you have a power cut in the morning just as you want to access your garage for your vehicle.

Call The Garage Door Centre free on (0800) 525442 for a full rundown on electric  garage door operator types and their different security systems and applications.