How to choose an automatic garage door

The presence of automatic gates in the garage is not at all necessary, but it is so unpleasant to close / open the gates in the rain and snow that one will inevitably think about automating this process. There are several ways - to automate existing ones or install new ones. We will talk about what automatic garage doors are, about their structure, advantages and disadvantages.

Getting rid of the main disadvantage

Garage doors with an electric drive are good because there is no need to lock them mechanically - with locks or locks. The drives are designed in such a way that, when closed, they block the opening of the door leaf until a signal is received from the control (button and / or control panel). But automatic garage doors are power-dependent. No light - mechanisms don't work. Neither open nor close. The problem is solved in two ways:

• Installation of an unlocking system that will allow you to open / close the gate manually. This is usually an option that must be ordered additionally, so be careful when ordering a complete set.
  

  Automatic garage doors are convenient, and you can increase their reliability by installing a backup power source

• The presence of a backup power source. Most often, a battery is installed, from which, in case of power failure, the engine works, which sets the door leaf in motion. If the problem of power outages is urgent, many acquire power generators. In this case, the garage door must be included in the backup power supply circuit.

Moreover, no one denies the possibility of installing two systems at once. Automatic garage doors can be connected to a backup power supply and, optionally, equipped with a manual release system. This will reduce the likelihood of failure to practically zero.

Control methods

Automatic garage doors of any kind can be controlled by several types:

• From buttons located on an adjoining wall or anywhere nearby. Not the best option, since in order to open / close the gate, you still need to leave the car. Often this option is made as a backup - suddenly the remote control is lost.
  

  Gate control buttons can be used as an emergency method

• From the remote control. Automatic gates with remote control are a popular option. The drive has a receiving device that, when a signal arrives, starts the gate slider in one direction or another (depending on the signal received). The signal is transmitted from the remote control, which may look like a keychain, or it may look like a small remote control. This method is convenient, since you can turn on / off the drive while in the range of the receiver located in the garage. From the car, from the house, being in the yard - it doesn't matter. It is important that the remote control is within the signal range. But there are nuances here. First, the transmission of signals occurs via a radio channel, that is, it can be intercepted. Therefore, when choosing, pay attention to the encoding method and security system. Second, your neighbors, or even you, may have a remote control from another device operating at the same frequency. This will lead to confusion.Therefore, it is desirable that it be possible to change the frequency at which the control panel and the receiver operate. In addition, it will increase the reliability of the system - you can change the frequency as you wish.
  

  Remote control for automatic gates is convenient

• From a mobile device. Modern locking systems can be controlled not only from a remote control, but also from a mobile device with a special program installed. Signals are exchanged via a satellite communication system. In addition to the fact that you do not need an additional device (remote control), but only a mobile phone, you can track the state of the gate at any time. But such a system is expensive, although convenient.

Most often, remote controls are used to control automatic garage doors. They are comfortable and compact. They are usually paired with an emergency release system. So that in the event of a power failure, the gate can be opened / closed manually (or with a manual gate).

Automatic swing gates

Most garages are equipped with swing gates. Yes, the solution is not perfect, but everyone is used to the pros / cons. If your garage already has a door like this, it can be turned into an automatic one. It is necessary to choose a drive that will open and close the leaves.

Electric swing gates

Types of drives

In general, the drive for swing doors can be of two types - linear and lever. For gates, choose linear - they are more powerful and reliable, they can be with a control panel, they can work from a button or have a double opening system. Lever arms are designed for smaller masses and do not have such wind resistance - they will break in a strong wind. After all, they will have to hold the massive door leaf, which is affected by the wind.

Lever type of drive for heavy leaves is not very reliable

There is also an underground system for opening swing doors, but for this case it is absolutely unprofitable - the cost is high, complex installation, many problems with operation in the autumn-winter period. In general, it is better not to consider an underground garage door drive.

Advantages and disadvantages

Automatic swing garage doors have the same disadvantages as conventional ones:

• They require a lot of free space in front of the garage. Moreover, the space is cleared. That is, after a snowfall, you first have to clear the site, therefore open the gate. In this case, the meaning of automation disappears.
• There is a possibility of damaging the car: by placing it too close to the gate and not holding the sash, not securing the gate sashes, get them "on the body" in a strong gust of wind.
  

  Electric swing gates

• They have a large windage, therefore, when selecting a drive, it is necessary to take it with a solid margin - in order to overcome the wind resistance and keep the shutters in place.
• Usually they are just a sheet of metal on the frame, that is, they are "cold". You can insulate them, but this increases the already considerable mass, the drive needs an even more powerful (and expensive) one.
• It is difficult to achieve tightness.

The advantages of swing automatic garage doors are the ease of installation of the drive. In addition, it is possible not to buy a drive, but to right-automate a hydraulic lift of sufficient power from some device. There are no other pluses.

In general, automatic swing gates for a garage should be made only if the gates themselves are already standing and being operated, and the budget for purchasing another system is not enough.

Lifting and turning

The design of an overhead garage door is not too complicated. This is a sheet of metal in the entire width of the opening, which, using a special mechanism, rises up, in the open position is fixed under the ceiling.

Automatic lift-and-turn gates - ceiling space required

Lifting types

Overhead automatic garage doors are of different types - for different types of doorways, different weights of the door leaf:

• Standard type. Suitable for canvases weighing up to 870 kg, lintel with a height of 350 mm and above. The guides have a gentle curvature with a radius of 381 mm and 305 mm, which ensures the minimum load on the springs. This type of lifting is considered reliable.
• Low lift type. Designed for lintels with a height of 250 mm to 500 mm (canvas weight no more than 870 kg). Special radius guides are used to lift the gate. The system is even more reliable than the standard one.
• High lift type. For lintels with a height of 500 mm and above, the maximum web weight is 890 kg. With this design, much less space is required to open, but the reliability is lower than that of the previous two.
  

  What are the operators of overhead automatic garage doors?

• Inclined rise. Also used for low lintels - up to 500 mm high, ideal for sloped ceilings. The maximum weight is 1000 kg, the guides are located along the perimeter of the structure.
• Vertical lift. Can be installed on high lintels - from a height of 500 mm. As the name implies, the canvas rises up. The maximum weight is 1000 kg, the guides are installed as close to each other as possible. They are characterized by long-term stable operation.

The choice of the type of opening for overhead automatic garage doors is largely determined by the parameters of the opening, mainly by the height of the lintel and the weight of the door leaf. When installing this system, it is important to prepare the opening well - drive it out to the nearest millimeter, plaster it on the beacons. In this case, the canvas will fit tightly, there will be no problems with blowing.

Advantages and disadvantages

Let's start with the practical benefits of installing a lift-and-turn mechanism on garage doors compared to swing doors (even if they are automated).

• The space in front of the garage required to open the door is significantly reduced.
• The door's performance does not depend much on the presence / absence of snow in front of the canvas. Of course, if there is a snowdrift at the gate, it is better to throw it back. The power of the mechanism may be enough to move it, but there is no need to overload it. In addition, it is not pleasant if the snow falls from the canvas on your head, then it melts in the garage.
• The canvas does not interfere when leaving.
  

  General arrangement of lifting and slewing mechanisms

• The gate is made of a sheet of metal without additional movable joints (welds do not count). With proper preparation of the opening, good thermal insulation can be achieved.
• It is possible to open such canvases as automatically (button or control panel) or manually, which is good in case of a power outage.
• In the plane, you can make a wicket or a window and this will not greatly affect the cost.
• You can use insulated canvases and strips / seals - for heated garages.

In general, such a design is much more convenient, less problematic during operation, but there are also disadvantages.

• You cannot install such a system in very low garages.
• Large windage, which requires more drive power.
• It takes a lot of effort by hand.
  

  Up-and-over doors still require free space in front of the garage

• During opening, a free space is still required in front of the gate, since the lower edge of the gate moves forward. Accordingly, there is a possibility of damage to the car if you put it too close.
• It takes up a lot of space under the ceiling; on the sides of the passage, it will also not work to put something.

What else can be attributed to the disadvantages? Complex installation. Up-and-over automatic garage doors require proper installation of rails, placement of springs and counterweights. All this must be securely fixed and debugged.

Sectional automatic garage doors

Sectional garage doors are similar to up-and-over doors. The difference is that the canvas is a separate section, movably articulated with each other using loops. These sections go up along the guides (rollers are fixed on the sections). Although there are similarities, due to the fact that the sections have a relatively small height and "fold", they do not take up space at all in front of the gate when raising / lowering. On the ceiling, they take up the same amount of space as overhead.

Sectional automatic garage doors are considered by many to be the best choice.

Types and properties

There are two types of garage sectional doors - with an insulated and a cold leaf. Sections without insulation are just metal strips covered with a protective layer and painted. Warm sectional doors are assembled from sandwich panels. The space between the two layers of metal is filled with insulation, which determines the main characteristics of the gate. To reduce heat loss, a sealant (usually elastic rubber) is installed at the junction of the panels. It has the same types of lifting as lifting and turning, only the parameters of the doorway are different (less).

Two types of drives for automation

Two types of drives can be used for automation. The first is placed on the ceiling behind the ceiling rails. It is connected to the canvas with a cable. By winding the cable, he pulls up the panels. This option has a low power, costs less, and is used only for household garage doors. The second drive is axial. It is placed laterally on the axle located in the upper part of the structure. It drives the axle, and that - the door leaf. This type of drive is more powerful, it can be used for large leaf weights.

Advantages and disadvantages

The main advantage has already been announced - sectional automatic garage doors for work do not require space in front. In some cases, this is really important. The rest of the pluses look like this:

• Warm models have the same thermal insulation as a one and a half brick wall.
• High reliability. It cannot be compared to 4-5 mm steel sheet, but it is quite tall.
• Sufficient rigidity to resist wind loads.
• Simple installation. The structure is assembled from parts small in weight and size, which is somewhat longer in time, but much simpler physically. It is possible to cope with the installation of sectional automatic garage doors in one hand.
  

  The view is also pretty solid

• A wicket can be installed in the door leaf.

In general, it is not surprising that this particular type of garage door is installed more often than others. Not a bad choice. But there are also disadvantages:

• High price.
• Not too high degree of protection. For installation in the yard, this is a great option. If the garage door faces the street, you should look for another, more reliable option.

If you need to choose an automatic garage door for a protected area, the most optimal choice is, perhaps, sectional. Of all they are the most compact, reliable, safe, and have many options. At the same time, at the same time, they do not differ much from automated swing ones.

Roller shutters

What are roller shutters everyone can imagine. This is a set of aluminum strips that, when opened, wind up on a drum located under the ceiling. When moving, the slats slide along the guides installed on the sides of the opening.

Rolling automatic garage doors - a solution for those garages for which anti-burglary characteristics are not important

There is a manual version of opening (a crank on a drum), there is a mechanized one - using a motor, which can be controlled from the remote control or from the buttons displayed on the panel next to the gate.

Selection features

When choosing roller doors for a garage, pay attention to the following points:

• Slats for roller shutters are made by extrusion or rolling.More reliable - made by extrusion, since during production the semi-liquid mass is pressed into special forms. As a result, the outer walls and inner partitions are a single whole, which greatly increases the rigidity and reliability of each individual strip and the gate as a whole. All anti-vandal rolling shutters are assembled from extrusion strips.
  

  The lamellas are larger and made of thicker metal, there are foam-filled ones - for better thermal insulation

• Insulated - with foam filler - lamellas are always made by rolling. To increase the rigidity of these strips, the filler is taken with increased rigidity - to add resistance to mechanical stress.
• Sizes of lamellas used for roller shutters: height from 39 mm to 84 mm, thickness - from 8 mm to 13.5 mm.
• The type of lock used. There are ordinary ones - external ones, which are threaded into hinges welded to the frame, there are internal ones - spacers. If the lock is a spacer type, in the off-season, when the outside temperature is around 0 ° C, condensate flowing down the surface gets into the lock mechanism and freezes. The gate can only be opened by melting the ice (you can use a hair dryer).
  

  Roller shutter garage door device

Please note that the selection of the height of the slats for rolling doors is made based on the width of the opening. A low height can be used for doorways, a large one for the gate itself. For example, lamellas 84 mm high can be used on spans up to 5 meters long.

Advantages and disadvantages

Rolling garage doors are considered the most unreliable and coldest, but when folded, they are the most compact and can be installed at a very low room height and a low headroom (from 100 mm). And this is their main advantage.

The thickest steel slats for garage roller shutters

Another plus - they cost less than lift-and-turn and sectional. You can probably find those that are cheaper than swing ones. But in terms of the degree of security, they cannot be compared even with the most unsightly steel gates. The vandal-proof steel profile has a metal thickness of 1 mm. And this is the maximum. It costs a lot. The price is comparable to the same sectional ones.

Retractable (sliding)

Another type of automatic garage door - retractable or sliding... From the name it is already clear that it moves tightly to the side. This is their main feature - next to the opening there should be a free space 1.5-2 meters larger than the width of the gate. The canvas will move here. Since the mass of the web is large, a drive is usually used.

This feature severely limits the scope of use of sliding gates.

Types of sliding gates

By design, sliding gates are:

• Console. In this design, the main load from the door leaf falls on the cantilever (bearing) beam, which can be located at the top, bottom or in the middle is dense. In cross-section, it resembles the letter "P"; rollers are inserted inside it, which are fixed on a special stand. When moving, the rollers slide along the beam, the canvas moves. Good balancing is important in this design, then there are no problems with operation, such automatic gates can be used for decades. The disadvantage of this type of sliding gates is that in a complex implementation, it is necessary to calculate and manufacture the door leaf itself with a counterweight, to install the supporting structure (concrete).
  

  Console system

• Suspended. The carrier beam is located at the top, rollers also move along it. But, in this design, the rollers are attached to the door leaf and are located on top. That is, the gate actually hangs on the beam. Easy-to-implement design, well-behaved during operation. In the case of installation in a garage, it has one significant drawback - it is almost impossible to insulate it to a normal degree.
  

  Hanging automatic garage doors

• Retractable on the rail.In this system, the opposite is true. The support beam / rail is at ground level. The rollers also move along the guide, but are attached to the door leaf from below. This is the simplest design, but also the most problematic in operation: the guide is clogged with dirt, and the door leaf is often twisted during movement.

The door leaf is usually made of a sheet of metal; you can use ordinary sheet steel, a profiled sheet, stuff boards on the frame, etc. there are no restrictions. Another thing is that safety is important for a garage, so sheet metal is most often installed. But the gate turns out to be heavy, which must be taken into account when choosing the engine power.

Advantages and disadvantages

In general, all sliding / sliding gates are not able to provide the proper degree of thermal insulation. They should move freely along the walls, so a snug fit will not work. Seals can be supplied, but they must be very flexible. And this is in addition to the fact that next to the gate in one plane there must be a piece of wall / fence / free space - so that there is an opportunity

Therefore, if we consider sliding gates as garage doors, then only for a cold garage. In this case, a structure on a rail in the ground should not be used at all. Firstly, it is inconvenient, since you will have to move it over and it will become clogged. Secondly, with such a device, snow will sweep inside, rain will flow - the rollers have a rather high height and you cannot seal this gap in any way.

They have sliding automatic garage doors and advantages:

• High resistance to cracking. The blade can be of sheet steel, which is a good penetration protection.
• Stability of work. Failures are possible only if the load-bearing beams are damaged, which is a rarity in cantilever and suspended structures.
• Independence of work from the presence / absence of snow.
  

  Most often used as street gates for transport

• Low failure rate due to structure icing.
• Sliding gates of any system can be made by hand - from the very beginning to the very end. You will have to buy only a drive with a control panel, metal, rollers, parts of the support system. If an automatic gate with a remote control is not required, any low speed motor can be adapted.

In general, automatic sliding gates are not suitable for all garages. They are ideal if the cold garage has direct access to the street and its opening is flush with the fence. An unheated freestanding one is also suitable (if there is enough free space nearby and open gates do not interfere with movement around the site). In all other cases, a different design must be selected.