New garage door opener and wheels

My old genie screwdrive garage door opener finally died. I tried replacing the capacitor but that didn't fix the problem. The garage door opener was always so loud so I decided it was a good time to get a new, quieter one that was "smart".


Here's the model I bought from Sears (rebranded chamberlain). It's a DC motor belt drive system with a battery backup. It's also smart so I can control it from my phone.


Here's halfway through the installation process. Not too hard.


This is the new unit mounted. Unfortunately the old mounting brackets weren't long enough so I had to extend it a bit. Also the existing wires weren't long enough either so I had to extend those as well.


Here's the final product installed.


Even though our cars have homelink, it turns out that homelink changed their protocol so this garage door opener wouldn't work with our older homelink cars. So I had to buy a repeater that basically takes the old signal from our cars and then changes it to a signal the new opener recognizes. Added about $20 to the cost but so worth it.


In addition to changing the opener, I also changed out the wheels from metal to nylon ones. Here are the new nylon ones. You can buy a set of 10 on Amazon for like $12. Instead of unscrewing the mounting brackets holding the wheels, I found this video on Youtube that shows how to change them out fast. You always have to bend the track to change at least the bottom wheels because they are tied to the spring so this video basically uses the same method for all the wheels. He also shows how to use a standard hammer to bend the track out. It's a really good technique that makes the job super easy.


Here's the old wheel.


Here's the new one.