UPDATE: Pic of the new opener, because this site needs more pictures!

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When I left for work one night last week, I backed out of the driveway like normal and noticed something strange: the garage door was going back up. Hmm. I got out, cleared some leaves and dirt out from the base of the door, and tried again with the same result: the door closed completely and then reopened, as if it saw a phantom kid or pet running across the safety beam. Out of time for troubleshooting, I woke Jenny up so she could check it out. Creative as she is, she got the door to stop just above the bottom of the garage as a temporary solution.

When I returned in the morning, the door opener was wigging out even more – not opening all the way and refusing to let me even stop it close to the bottom. I couldn’t find the number for the Ghostbusters, so finally I pulled the emergency release handle, closed the door fully, and locked it shut before pulling up the Lowe’s website. Our opener was already 10 years old, only had 1 remote, and didn’t have working lights. Although we didn’t really want to spend the extra money, it was time for a new opener.

We found a good one at Lowe’s and are having them install it Monday morning. It’s VERY quiet and has a motion detector for the overhead lights in the garage, a wireless keypad to mount outside the door, and a battery backup for operation during power outages.