Certain designs of carriage style garage doors can pose significant operational problems with the wrong type of garage door opener drive mechanism.
Although carriage style garage doors come in many designs and sizes the main determining factor is how many sections tall your garage door is. Traditional garage door designs have the garage door or carriage door broken down into 4 or 5 sections tall. This design of carriage door will work with any drive of garage door opener, chain, screw or belt drive. The reason being is that the height of each section is smaller and will easily roll through the curve of the garage door track with minimal resistance and virtually no binding.
Custom style carriage doors are often manufactured with only 3 sections making the height of each section anywhere from 28-32” tall compared to a 4-5 section carriage door where each section is 18-21”. The taller height of the sections even with larger 32” radius track or carriage door track as it’s often referred to causes the door to hesitate and bind as each section goes through the curve of the track.
When you have a 3 section carriage style garage door the drive of opener that works best and handles the uneven load of the door and binding is a screw drive garage door opener. Chain drive garage door openers work but not as well as the screw drive opener and it’s an absolute mistake to install a belt drive garage door opener on a 3 section carriage style garage door.
Liftmaster and Genie both make excellent screw drive openers that will work well with your 3 section carriage style garage door and I recommend you install the larger horsepower or higher Newton rated motor to ensure the longevity of your garage door opener.
