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Bespoke Electric Garage Doors
Electric operated garage doors were considered a luxury pre 1995 and only relevant for large or heavier garage doors on grand, expensive homes.
However, nowadays the electric garage door has become normal, with multiple benefits to the households and users. Convenience, safety, security and other benefits whether you put your vehicle in the garage or not. Not all electric garage doors need to be remote control either and there are many other control devices if you don't want another remote handset around to lose.
Manual doors tend to only be installed when the garage is rarely accessed, primarily entered by pedestrians, or where no power is available.
✓ An electric garage door will give you effortless door control anytime, ensuring you never have to lift or push a large door and risk injury to your back, neck or arms
✓ An electric door ensures you keep the door closed more often and with the right specification your door is always locked and secure. Particularly important for garage which lead to your home inside.
Call our team today on 01933 229135 to discuss your requirements, or send us a message online using our contact form.
Electric garage doors are often close to the same price as the manual version, with all the locking and furniture costs involved when it is manually operated and locked.
With modern door mechanisms, technology advances in motor drives, low power consumption, security features, safety, smart app controls and great reliability, you would be hard pushed to ignore and to not have electric operation when buying any new garage door.
Price Examples
ALL THE PRICES SHOWING ARE FOR A FULLY INSTALLED DOOR OR GATE WITH ALL NECESSARY FITMENTS OR ELECTRIC DRIVES, INCLUDING SURVEY OF COURSE.
From £1,900 - £2,500
From £2,800 - £3,500
From £2,900 - £3,500
From £3,900 - £4,500
10 Key Standard Features:
✓ Reliable operation every time.
✓ Safety features built-in (varies depending on mechanism) to prevent crushing or entrapment. This is a legal requirement for remote control doors in the UK and not an option.
✓ Good security when closed - some electric operators can be easily forced open so check how they lock the door before buying.
✓ Minimum of 2 high quality remote handsets with additional ones readily available and preferably with options on size, shape and colour and using encrypted transmission
✓ Easy to operate and access emergency manual override release in case of a power failure. Option to be operated from either inside or outside, if there is no other access.
✓ Soft start and stop feature to produce quieter operation and to reduce wear and tear on the door panels and mechanism (mainly on up and over and sectional doors).
✓ Courtesy light to operate automatically when the motor drive is operated, especially for use in the winter months. Many have variable time limit settings and additional lighting options.
✓ Little, or no maintenance, with dry running components.
✓ Easy addition of accessories to provide additional control or features - i.e. plug and play ability without complex wiring and set up.
✓ Smartphone app compatible to enable home automation integration and far more visibility on your garage door status from anywhere.
These are key features of practically any high quality electric garage door motor drive unit in 2025. You should also always check the motor is compatible with the door it is operating, especially if you are adding it onto an existing door. Incorrect electric motors on doors can invalidate the door warranty from the manufacturer. Speak to an expert and not just a seller of the equipment.
Types of Electric Garage Doors:
Electric Up and Over Doors
Up and over garage doors are all electrically operated using what is generally termed a ‘boom’ type electric operator drive. This automation system uses a long central boom and pulley system, which has a moving attachment and carriage connected to the top of the door panel to pull and push the door open and closed. It’s simple and proven technology, with built in safety obstacle detection to then reverse the motor if anything is hit during operation.
The boom is generally positioned directly in the middle above the door panel, with the motor drive unit set at the back of the boom, or some motor drive options which actually move along the boom. Generally, a chain or belt system is used. You should expect a dry running system that does not require oil and lubrication, as these attract dust and dirt over time.
There are many different brands of boom type garage door operators. The best and quietest units are usually 24V motors that are of German, Dutch, French or American manufacturing origin, with extra features included for additional security and reliability.
There are different power outputs from most models which gives the opportunity to match the size and weight of the door it is fitted to. A lot of modern operators can be adjusted in their power delivery to match the various power requirements during the door movement. This helps to fine-tune the safety detection, rather than just turning up a motor to full power and not letting the safety mechanism work effectively.
Canopy Operating Up and Over Doors
For any ‘canopy’ type up and over doors where there are no horizontal running tracks, it is essential to have a separate conversion system, usually called a ‘bow arm converter’.
This is attached to the back of the door and simulates the pull at the top and push at the bottom required to move a canopy type mechanism. Again, there are several variations of this device and some are better than others. Some canopy doors simply will not take the device or any kind of motor drive as they do not have the strength in their panel construction.
Always ensure that you are comfortable with the overall package when buying any canopy door package.
✓ Maximise drive through width with a canopy door mechanism
✓ Ideal when garage space is more limited inside
✓ Massive choice of door designs to choose from
Electric Sectional Doors
Sectional doors also use a ‘boom’ type electric drive as they also require a pull and push at the top to operate the door panels up and down. All sectional doors have the same principal, so it is simply a matter of making sure you have the right length of boom and the right power output too. Sectional doors can be much larger in their sizes as well as taller too, requiring longer travel in the boom section requiring more depth in the garage.
✓ One of the most secure type of electric garage door
✓ Vertical operation is perfect for short driveways and parking close to the door
✓ One of the quietest door mechanisms with rubber seals at every contact point
✓ Provides the best insulation for cold, heat and also sound
With some special spring and track arrangements on a sectional door such as a ‘high lift’ mechanism, used in garages with high ceilings, you will need extra equipment to ensure the drive works correctly. It is worth looking at faster operating electric operators on sectional doors as they can take the extra pressures involved and it makes for a better user experience. Some motors have two speed settings to provide the choice.
Security
An electric sectional door is one of the most secure types of electric garage door, because of the basic mechanism design and the door also not having any obvious point of attack when closed. As they are all 40mm or thicker steel door panels the door itself is super strong as well as insulated and combined with the right electric motor some models have a ‘Secured by Design’ accreditation….
✓ Any electric door or gate will make you close the door more often to never leave open and exposed to theft
✓ Many modern electric motor drive systems have specific security features to either alert or fight back against attempted forced entry from outside
✓ Security rated electric doors offer 3rd party tested certification - total reassurance the door is secure and always of the highest quality specification too.
Electric Roller Garage Doors
Roller doors are one of the most talked about garage door types in the UK, with a lot of discussion on social media about the perils of cheap roller doors.
It’s simple, a roller door has so many moving parts in it that if only one part is not up to scratch then the whole door suffers eventually as all sections move together and also roll over one another too… Buy cheap with a roller garage door and you will be replacing it within 12-18 months usually…
Most roller garage doors in the UK are electric operated and manual versions are rare…
See some typical prices in our Price Guide.
A roller garage door will have several mechanisms to enable electric operation. Some roller doors use an external motor drive which drives and rotates the barrel with a set of gears. This type of motor drive also requires the door to be spring balanced in some form for effective and safe operation. The most common motor drive however is a tube motor.
Electric Tube Motors
The most common form of roller door is a door built from individual aluminium slats which roll around a barrel which has the motor drive inside. This is called a ‘tube’ motor and is literally a tube shape motor drive fixed inside the barrel of the door. The quality of this type of motor is important as they can overheat and fail if they are incorrectly specified or of a low quality. The best tube motors will only have an electric power feed with the control coming from radio transmission picked up by a built-in receiver which enables many other controls to be easily added if required.
They should also always have a manual override system for emergencies and power failures which is accessible from outside if you have no other door to access.
Somfy
Somfy are a world leader in tube motor manufacturing and you will find their motor drives in many different brands in the UK. The Somfy system will enable the easy addition of Somfy home automation controls and smartphone app control through their superb and free apps.
Note on motor drive
For roller shutter doors, the motor drive is often built into the internal barrel of the roller mechanism so it can be difficult to verify suitability or quality. If you have any concerns over the origins and suitability of a specific roller garage door and motor drive, you can speak to one of our technical experts. We have seen most roller door models over the years, with many unsuitable as garage doors and also not compliant within the UK.
Electric Side Hinged Doors
A lot of companies will not automate side hinged doors, and there are certainly many side hinged doors which cannot be electrically operated either, simply because they do not have enough strength in the door panels, similar to lower quality up and over doors.
The simplest system uses a ‘boom’ type electric operator with two steel rod adapters pushing and pulling the door panels from the top of the leaves, attached to the corners internally.
The rods are attached to the carriage of the electric motor boom, driving them outwards and inwards, opening and closing.
A more enhanced system is either a hydraulic system at the top of each panel, similar to many entrance door systems as used on department stores and other commercial buildings.
Another higher end solution is a piston driven system fitted at high or low level as used on some electric gate systems. Lots of power in the drive, and a smoother, more powerful operation, but still using the same control types and options.
Round the Corner Doors
Sliding door systems which go around corners in the garage will use one of two options for their automation…..
The first is a ‘boom’ type operator which is fixed against the wall or at high level, pushing and pulling the panel, just like a sectional door on its side.
The other automation option is a rack and pinion system, with the motor drive fitted to the actual door itself and driving the panels via a toothed profile on the top track.
A round the corner system arguably has the very least stress on any motor because of the mechanism and basic principal, with all the door weight spread out over the horizontal tracking. There is no weight being lifted up and down ever and whatever the size of door they are easy to push along during operation.
Safety
All of the above systems should have a basic safety obstacle detection system built in as standard to reverse the door if an obstruction is met and this is done in various ways. When the door is very large, next to a public highway or path, or has potential entrapment points then additional safety should be added usually in the form of an infrared beam or leading edge detector. There are many of these systems available and it goes without saying that a low quality version of any of these systems will inevitably cause you problems quite quickly. Make sure to check the compatibility, and ensure it is a system which has been used successfully for as long as possible by the manufacturer.
Most boom type operators will have a built in sensor system based on a power surge detection. The obstacle is hit and immediately the electronics know something is wrong and stop and reverse. If you don't want your door to ever hit anything before stopping then you would have to install infrared beams as well.
Security
All of the systems mentioned will have the basic locking coming from the motor drive itself. However on larger doors, especially up and over doors, there will be many points of potential weakness by forced entry. In this case, ensure the security mechanism used is sufficient and check if there are any additional mechanical devices available to enhance the locking when closed.
Some doors can use their original manual locking via a mechanism attached to the motor drive. Higher quality electric roller doors will have another mechanical locking device engineered into the door mechanics to hold the door curtain down firmly when closed. Cheaper roller doors have no form of locking and can be lifted straight up if the curtain is light enough.
Additional manual locks are nearly always available if you want to lock the door when going on holiday, etc. this applies to any garage door type.
Showroom
Why not come into our extensive showroom to operate and examine our product range for yourself. If security is important to you and your garage and home then you really do need to see and decide for yourself on the levels of security offered by each model.
✓ See the differences in various motors for yourself
✓ See the differences in security with different doors
✓ Experience all the various control methods possible for operating your new door
✓ Experienced and friendly staff to assist you in your selection
Find The Garage Door Centre Showroom:
Click the image above to find out more about our showroom!
Normal Opening Hours
Open weekdays 9am - 5pm.
Saturday 9am - 1pm.
Closed Sundays and bank holidays.
