Chamberlain ML1000EVGB Premium Garage Opener, White, 1000N Toothed Belt Drive, sectional Overhead Door incl. 2 Remote Controls

I had a Wickes brand chain door opener (really was a Chamberlain) which had done more than 20 years sterling service but it finally failed and although I could get the nylon drive cog parts (parts for all makes of door openers are readily available from Easygates) I decided it was time for a new model and new remote controls etc. My garage door is a double up and over type but of the older and heavy vintage but reasonably balanced by side springs. I considered various models and certainly could have gone cheaper but I like the Chamberlain Premium model because of key characteristics: 1. It has plenty of torgue 2. being belt driven it is very quiet 3.required no additional extras as much of the fittings were similar to my previous 4. good reviews 5. fitting/setup was claimed to be very simple which I can now confrim.Arrived quickly (thanks Amazon and price better than Easygates) at about 2pm; decided to get to work immediately and the construction of the shaft means that you can build it and be ready to fit in just a few minutes. The long shaft comes ready for assembly by merely sliding joining pieces over the sections so it is rigid; The belt is then readily tensioned as per manual. I remember my old Wickes chain one took hours of bolting sections and installing a very greasy chain.For me the door fitting was identical so just a matter of changing bolts; the ceiling joist supports of old were not in right place but a little angle iron provided and a few nuts and bolts and it was up hanging from the ceiling joists. Not as heavy as old model by at least 50%. I had no wiring as an existing electric socket was in reach.Adjusting opening and closing positions is a piece of cake! It learns the settings. Registering the key fobs was trivial - you can have button for up and one for down but I decided just to register any press per fob to open/stop/close depending on last action. i.e. same as Wickes and no danger in dark of pressing wrong command.The door opening is now close to silent and absolutely no vibration at all in bedroom above unlike the Wickes chain drive which could be heard/felt throughout the house. Advice: belt drives are essential if children sleeping above as the chains seem to be much more noisy. Only installation advice I would give is make sure clearance between shaft and door is generously greater than the minimum in the instructions as the shaft does flex a little as door is mid opening. probably would even more on a windy day.Door motor has a two speed process presumably checking for obstructions more cautiously at beginning and end. Slightest physical obstacle to the door opening and it reverses. Does have option of proximity detectors and other accessories perhaps useful if children might be in the area. The LED light (timed for about 2 mins) is great; not as bright as the options in the Wickes where you screwed in a bulb to a bayonet fitting on the opener itself but plenty for getting to and from car on a dark night and being LED very long life.Installation time including decommissioning old and preparing it for scrap man; installation and adjustment of opening and setting for fobs was less than 2 hrs but did not need to do any wiring; I did it on my own but a job more safely done by two for the part when you put the motor in the ceiling to the roof suspension brackets (a little rope from the brackets to the motor unit can hold it up whilst the nuts and bolts are fitted if alone).Two months on and I am delighted that I can go in and out at night time and no one can hear the door from the house or bedroom above. Worth the slight premium price for the certainty of the generous torque and overall quality. To me it seemed excellent value compared to competition or alternative models. Hope this one give me twenty years!

The Chamberlain Premium Garage Door Opener appears to be well designed and of good quality.The main unit with motor drive and controls is generally well designed although the following comments are made -The power lead is a short flex with 13A plug and it is difficult to imagine any garage would have a convenient 13A socket in the ceiling above the unit. Further the flex is wired to inside the unit with no external terminal box so the inevitable extending of the flex means putting an inline plug and socket connector on the flex with the connector being left lying on top of the unit. Not a good design - note to makers please fit a terminal box.The steel channel rails are solid and heavy and function well although there is a slight deflection at the slide in joints of the rail - note to maker please fit countersunk screws at the joints to stiffen them up.Otherwise the unit is easy to set up and program the controls and the motor is powerful, smooth and quiet.Overall works very well and is recommended.

This a a lovely strong opener that works. Instructions were both good and bad. There were questions about my setup that I could not answer and just had to guess. Also the bracket provided for attaching to the door would not have worked due to the build of my door. I had to fabricate my own bracket out of steel but it worked. I'm not skilled in this area.The garage door is a 5.5m wide reasonably heavy door and the motor copes fine.This was not a particularly difficult install. It took two of us about 4 hours including fabrication of a bracket. However, I would say this is not an easy install either. If you struggle with an Ikea furniture assembly stay well away. This was not designed for a DIY installation.Also the box makes you think that it's Smart enabled.... it's simply smart compatible and that requires additional hardware to purchase. I've read pretty negative things about that side so I will be making my own solution for smart control.All in all I am very happy with the product but with the fact that I had to DIY brackets and struggle with instructions I'll give it 1 star off.