Manual Garage Doors vs. Electric Garage Doors, the Good and Bad Points of Each
In the mechanized age that we live in, it is hard for some people to understand why anyone would want a manually opened garage door as opposed to one that opens automatically. After all, opening a garage door could not possibly be done easier than by simply pushing a button to get the job done. So, why would anyone want to have anything other than an automatically opened garage door at the present time? In order to answer that question, it’s best to take a closer look at the good and bad points of manually and automatically opened garage doors.
The Good and Bad About Manual Garage Doors
Here are some of the factors in favor of and opposed to having a manually opened and closed garage door:
Good Points:
- Less Maintenance
Whenever you have moving metal objects rubbing together with static metal parts these need to be well lubricated. That’s the case with garage door openers. Automatic garage doors have many more moving parts, so they are harder to maintain than manually opened garage door are.
- Lower Initial Cost
By far one of the most expensive parts on any automatic garage door system are the openers on them. Manually opened garage doors do not have these costly parts so they are much less expensive to purchase and install.
- Less Prone To Needing Repairs
There is another drawback to having more moving parts on a garage door besides just maintenance. It also stands to reason that the more moving parts a garage door has on it the more potential there is for breakdowns. Once again, because automatically opened garage doors have significantly ore moving parts, they are more prone to breaking down than manually opened garage doors are.
Bad Points:
- Can Get Heavy
Some manually opened garage door systems can be extremely strenuous to open. This is especially true of the ones that have a high wood or metal composition. This will even make manually opened garage door systems totally impractical for those who have disabilities or other physical challenges.
- Limited To Lighter Garage Door Materials
Because of the facts we mentioned above, manually operated garage doors are usually made of lighter materials such as fiberglass and wood filler products. This in itself has drawbacks as far as the strength of those garage doors. So manually garage doors tend not to be as durable and as strong as automatic garage door systems are.
- Not As Safe As Automatic Garage Doors
If you are opening a manual garage door and lose your grip or slip, that garage door is going to try to come back down on you. They have no built in safety mechanisms such as all automatically opened garage door systems do.
The Good and Bad About Automatic Garage Doors
Here are some of the good and bad traits that are associated with automatic garage door openers:
Pros:
- Easy to open
Automatic garage door systems could not be easier to open with their simple pushbutton operation. They can also be easily opened by using a remote control in most cases. Even people with physical handicaps can effortlessly open up a garage door that has its own automatic opening system.
- Has safety features built-in
There are many safety features imbedded in automatically opened garage door systems. The most important of which are the safety sensors found at the bottom of each garage door that stop it from opening or closing if they are tripped. Automatic garage door systems also contain other forms of safety stops and safety features.
- Can use heavier garage door materials
Automatically opened garage door systems tend to be made of garage doors materials that are stronger and more durable. This is because weight is not as much of an issue with automatic garage door systems as it is with manually opened garage doors. So heavier woods and metals can be used in their construction.
- Come with many opening options
There are a variety of different types of automatic garage door openers at the present time. These include everything from quiet garage door openers to those that can be opened from remote location by Wi-Fi. It seems that with each passing year more and more styles and types of automatic garage door are introduced.
Cons:
- Noisy when opening or closing
One of the biggest problems with automatic garage door openers is that they can be very noisy when opening or closing. So much so that they are known to wake people up when they are opened and closed early in the morning or during the night. A lot of this is due to the amount of metal working parts that they have interacting on them when they are opening or closing.
- More working part equals more potential problems
There are so many working parts on automatic garage doors that they would be hard to count if you tried to. These include pulleys, gears, chains, rollers, and torsion springs. That leads to the potential of having many parts the can malfunction and cause problems. Manual garage doors do not have nearly as many working parts as automatic garage doors do.
- Higher initial cost
Without a doubt, automatic garage door systems have a much higher initial price point than manually opened garage door systems do. Often times they can be five or more times higher priced than standard manually opened garage door systems.