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Garage door motor palm desert CA

Belt Drives - Belt drives propel a garage door along its tracks via a belt of teeth that grip a large metal piece which connects the garage door to the belt. This heavy piece of machinery is encased in a box that is outstretched from the garage door itself, where it manipulates the belt to move up or down its rail. This is the least common of the three types of motors, but it is certainly not because it lacks anything. By design, it is the quietest type of motor out of the three, and Harvey's personal choice for his garage door.

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Screw Drives - Screw drives are the most popular type of motor, and they are in high demand. These motors propel a garage door up and down its tracks using a large screw, which pulls on the large metal connector, opening or closing the garage door. Newer models of screw drives have been getting quieter over the years, but over time they still tend to get much louder than a belt drive.

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Chain Drives - Chain drives like its close relatives, propels the garage door up and down its rails through a medium that is connected to a large connector. Instead of a teethed belt or a screw, the chain drive uses a long metal chain. In comparison to newer screw drive models and any belt drive model, the chain drive is by far the loudest. Chain drives get louder over time, and make a sound you'd expect to hear from a large chain being dragged across a metal surface. Many customers often find the noise a disturbance to their quite neighborhood, and switch to a belt drive or screw drive. Despite the noise, chain drives offer quite a lot in durability, and consequently they are the second most popular type of motor.

Frequently Asked Questions

What type of motor do I have?

  Customers often have trouble identifying what kind of motor they have. To identify the type of motor you possess, simply inspect what is inside the rail that extends out from the motor (It usually looks like a large box). If it has a belt inside, then it is a belt drive. If it has a screw inside the rail, then it is classified as a screw drive. Finally, if it has a chain inside then your motor is a chain drive.

What if I can't find my motor?

  If you can't find your motor (usually a large box attached to the ceiling), then it is likely a jack shaft. Roughly one out of every one hundred motors we install is a jack shaft. These motors are conveniently hidden on the sides of the door, attached to the cables that hold the garage door. Despite being the most compact and clean looking type of motor, jack shafts are also the most dangerous. Newer models might've bypassed these safety dangers using highly advanced sensors, but if your sensors are impaired in any way at all you are put in immediate danger.

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  Unlike their railed relatives, jack-shafts don't have the large connector that acts as a fail safe when a door is off its rail/track. Often times in an off-track situation, the only thing keeping someone's car from being crushed by a sometimes three hundred plus pound wall of steel is a motor's large connecting arm, which a jack shaft does not have. Without this arm, if an off-track situation occurs, the garage door crushes anything beneath it. These cases are rare, but here at Harvey's we recommend the safety first approach by replacing your jack shaft with any one of the three main types of motors listed above. We install jack shafts by customer request, or when it is not practical to install a safer motor, but Harvey's likes to err on the side of caution.

Garage door motor repair Palm Desert

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(760)-636-6174

Broken garage door Palm Desert

(Above) An off-track situation.

  Garage doors are heavy, and can be hard to move. This is why the garage door motor was invented, to save you from the hassle of lifting and pulling it up and down. Not only does it save you time, but good motor also acts as a safety precaution, helping to keep your garage safe by holding the garage door in place with its arm.

Garage Door Motors

(Above) A Harvey's technician on a ladder, working with a motor.

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