Buying a new automatic garage door opener for your home involves deciding on the type of drive system, the options and features, and the amount of power the opener has. Garage door opener sold for residential use can have motors with as little as 1/3 horsepower (HP) or as much as a full 1 HP. Generally speaking, bigger is better but not for the reason most homeowners think.
Most people believe that larger and heavier doors need a more powerful garage door opener, but the reality is that even the largest and heaviest garage doors can be opened and closed with the smallest garage door opener on the marked if the garage door is properly adjusted.
Garage doors weigh hundreds of pounds and would be very difficult to open without some help from the lift assistance springs. Most garage doors use either torsion type springs mounted inside the garage above the opening or extension springs mounted along the tracks to help lift the weight of the door. When properly adjusted, the door will be easy to open and close by hand no matter what it weighs.
A larger garage door opener motor is desirable for two reasons: It will operate more quietly and it will last longer. An automatic garage door opener with a larger motor does not have to work as hard to open and close the door which keeps noise to a minimum. In addition, a typical garage door opener goes through 500 to 1,000 opening and closing cycles every year. If the opener does not have to work as hard, the wear from these opening and closing cycles will be less and the opener will last longer before it wears out.
