About a year ago we a great opportunity to visit the genie company and learn more about their products and culture. I have to say I not only learned a lot about their company, but I had a great chance to see parts of the country I never knew about, but I guess that is for a different post. Speaking of Genie, about two months ago I installed a Genie Garage door opener which is the Powermax 1500, well I didn’t install the opener, someone else did.
I had an old wood garage door that needed to be replaced, so I went to Home Depot and bought a new door. They also offered a service to install an opener for $100 so I couldn’t pass that up. You may ask, why did I choose the Powermax 1500? Easy, that was what Genie sent us to show off and test.
The Powermax 1500 is a direct drive screw system as opposed to a belt or chain driving system. I can’t say I am a huge know it all about garage door openers, so I am not really sure the advantage of a screw over chain or belt. However from my past experience, it seems chains were the first ones introduced. While they are solid systems, they tend to be loud. Dan has a Craftsman belt system and that is very quiet. The screw system I have also seems very quiet.
The opener is powered by a 140V DC motor instead of an AC motor. The motor puts out 1 HP so it does have lots of power compared to the other models I have seen around. I haven’t timed my door, but it does open and close very quickly. According to Genie it opens up to 12 in/sec. This system has a couple nice features. First is the motion sensor, which Genie is not the only brand to have this option. As soon as the sensor detects movement, the two lights come on. One thing to note about the lights is you are suppose to use incandescent bulbs instead of the new types of bulbs. I am not sure exactly why, but the installer told me these new bulbs mess with electronics. Another feature is the Auto Seek Dual Frequency which means the system will seek either 315 or 390 MHz frequency which means it cuts down on outside interference with other frequencies in the area. There are other perks to this system such as rolling codes, safe T-Beam and self diagnostics, you can check that out at the Genie website.
I can’t say I get really excited about garage door openers. For me I just want something that works. When I press the button, the door works. After two months, it seems like this system is working great. I like the speed and quiet operation. One item I really like, well kind of, is the sensors at the bottom of the door. As with all openers (I think it might be a law), there are sensors that will stop and open the garage if someone or something walks where the door will be shutting. I understand they provide a purpose such as protecting the door from closing on your kids or hitting your car as your pulling in or out. Some of the other sensors I have seen on other garage doors tend to seem cheap and people have problems with them. With the Genie system, they are solid and are not square so stuff does not get caught on them. I use the power outlets in my garage a lot so I drag around extension cords. With the rounded feature of these sensors, the cord never gets caught, which is a huge plus since I have kids and they don’t have to listen to me swear when something gets tangled up in the sensors. I wouldn’t suggest doing this, but I have dropped wood and tools on the sensor. To my surprise they never came out of alignment.
Another cool add on is the Closed Confirmation remote. With this accessory once your garage closes, the system will send a signal to your remote and let you know the garage closed. The way my property is set up, I don’t always see that the door closed. With this system, I hear an audible alert that lets me know I am in the clear and the door is closed.
One of my remotes did drop down the stairs and landed on concrete. While it still works, it doesn’t work as well as it use to. Sometimes I have to hit the button twice to get the door to open or close.
Again I am not a garage door opener connoisseur, but I am happy with the opener. It’s fast and quiet. We were going to make a video, but thought who really wants to see a garage door go up and down ten times. Well I guess my kids do since they are always playing with the opener.
Good review Eric. My next door neighbor has a Genie system. Haven’t heard of any problems. It just works.
My wife and I have a different brand and I tried LED lights only to find that they heavily interfered with the remote opener. CFL bulbs seem to not cause that problem that the LED bulbs did.
Yeah that’s what I have heard. I never knew until someone told me. I wonder why that happens.