How Does a Garage-Door Openers Work?

The Principle

Is there a better feeling than pulling into one's own home and garage at the end of a busy day in nasty weather conditions? Before the invention of the remote-controlled garage door opener, this was just a dream and nearly impossible. The only way to get the garage door open was to pull up in the driveway, get out of the car, manually open the garage door, get back in the car and drive in. Perhaps if someone else was at home they could open the garage door from the inside at an appointed time, but it was often a frustrating task until the remote-controlled garage door opener was invented.

Radio-signalled Opener

The driver uses a remote control device from his vehicle to open the garage door. The door needs to be a sectional roll-up that allows the door to go from a standing position to a horizontal position near the ceiling in order to let the car in the garage. From there, the driver pulls into the garage and then lowers the garage door with the press of another button, usually near the entrance to the house. This makes the process of coming into the house in poor weather a very simple procedure.

How it Operates

The garage door sits on two tracks, one on either side. Inside the tracks are two sets of wheels. The tracks allow for the rolling of the wheels, which allows the door to go up and down easily. The way it works is that once either the remote in the car or the button by the house entrance is pressed, the door is raised or lowered through the turning of a screw-driven device. There are also chain-driven and friction-driven devices, but neither one is as reliable as the screw-driven one. In addition to the battery-powered remote, many garage doors will operate by pressing a series of numbers into a keypad to open the door. This is good for family members, such as children, who do not have cars or the ability to drive.