Any experience with wall mount garage door openers?

[Jim Becker]

Jim,
it takes our generator about 15 seconds to kick in which is long enough to cause our cable box to reboot. If I could find a little tiny ups for not much money, I could bridge that gap. Do you know of anything?

I have multiple small UPSs in use for Internet gear, etc., to cover that 15 second startup of the generator after a utility power outage. Lots of choices on Amazon, etc.

[Bruce Wrenn]

I didn't get the battery backup for mine because I worried the battery would die from not being used for very long periods of time. The battery looks like it's a sealed lead acid battery. They tend to freeze in winter and crack if they go dead. What would be nice is if you could get a mount for the common brands of cordless tools. If you didn't have a backup gen you could just plug your Milwaukee 12 battery into it and operate your opener. It would be even better if the charger had a 12v output that could be tied into the opener. I've always got a battery on the charger in the garage.

Because you aren't deep cycling battery, why not use a flooded acid lawn mower battery from Walmart? Connect it in place of OEM battery. As a side note, for UPS, use a deep cycle battery, if you don't have a whole house generator.

[Alan Lightstone]

In my last house we had a Liftmaster jackshaft opener. Loved it. Much better than the ceiling mounted ones I have now. Wish I had them now.

I bought the battery backups. The batteries failed in a few years, and they wanted to charge an unreasonable price for replacements.

I just went online and bought the same size batteries, and cannibalized the old units to get the proper connectors. Worked like a charm.

[Alex Zeller]

When I bought the openers the batteries were very expensive. I just checked and they are about $40 for the liftmaster brand and less than half that for 3rd party brands. There's even lithium ion batteries available.

I have a generator but it's not set to come on right off. I figure if I'm not home then the only reason I need it to come on is to occasionally run the freezers and furnace. So it's set up on a delay for 3 hours. If I'm home I decide when to run the generator. For something like a garage door opener I can't see starting the generator up just to close the door after I'm leaving. I think it would be real easy to set the battery up so the liftmaster doesn't charge it. Instead a simple smart maintainer would take care of the battery to prolong it's life. When the power goes out to the charger it would switch to powering the openers. One battery could be used to power both of them.

[Roger Feeley]

In looking at the posts here, I see a lot of love for this kind of opener. Honestly, I just got them because the doors are really flimsy and I was looking at paying for a horizontal stabilizer bar. I’ve always thought that the track kind were a bit Rube Goldberg. They are kind of fussy to install and you have to run a lot more wire. The jack shaft opener seems more tidy to me.

But based on the posts here, I’m kind of excited to get my hands on these things.

thanks again.

[Brian Elfert]

I didn't get the battery backup for mine because I worried the battery would die from not being used for very long periods of time. The battery looks like it's a sealed lead acid battery. They tend to freeze in winter and crack if they go dead. What would be nice is if you could get a mount for the common brands of cordless tools. If you didn't have a backup gen you could just plug your Milwaukee 12 battery into it and operate your opener. It would be even better if the charger had a 12v output that could be tied into the opener. I've always got a battery on the charger in the garage.

Ryobi made a garage door opener that used the Ryobi power tool batteries for backup. It is discontinued due to a patent violation. There are rumors Ryobi may be coming out with a new garage door opener this year, or in 2024, as the ban on Ryobi selling garage door openers expires this year.

[Mike Brewster]

I have small UPS's at every place that has and entertainment or computer system. I'm in a rural area the has pretty frequent spikes and variations and it keeps me from having a bunch of reboots and other troubles. To keep on topic, I'm glad to see the good reports on the jackshaft lifters. A few years ago when I looked into them, there were several complaints. I did add electrical outlets to allow for them one day. Knock on wood, the old ones just won't die.

[Curt Harms]

Jim,
it takes our generator about 15 seconds to kick in which is long enough to cause our cable box to reboot. If I could find a little tiny ups for not much money, I could bridge that gap. Do you know of anything?

One thing I learned about small UPSs - check if the battery is replaceable. The lower end ones may not be. There's a risk that you pay more for one with a replaceable battery and a component other than the battery craps the bed after a few years. Ya pays yer money and takes yer chances.

[Jim Becker]

One thing I learned about small UPSs - check if the battery is replaceable. The lower end ones may not be. There's a risk that you pay more for one with a replaceable battery and a component other than the battery craps the bed after a few years. Ya pays yer money and takes yer chances.

I don't disagree, but a $25 battery for a $39 UPS is a toss-up after a few years vs just getting a new small UPS.