Craftsman  Belt Drive Garage Door Opener System with Die Hard Battery Back-Up

  I just sent this 3 year old unit to the recycle bin.   I liked this unit very much, although I had some occasional problems with the door sensors alignment. 

  I had read several complaints on the battery life, but my backup battery lasted almost three years and I felt this was acceptable. 

  Door quit Labor Day Weekend.  From diagnostics, it appears motor is defective RPM/motor unit  This should be covered under warranty.   

 I went on line and setup a repair appointment.  It will be more than a week for technician to come and then he may have to order the part, taking another four or five days.  This is too long to wait!  This is a double wide door and too heavy for my wife to manually operate.

 Decided I would purchase another new unit at Sears, install myself, as I originally did, and use the original unit for parts.  Maybe I could then have Sears technician examine defect motor and allow credit.  This is an expensive alternative, but cost would be about a wash with having local company replace with an equivalent unit. I found this unit is OUT OF STOCK on line and NOT CARRIED AT ANY OF THE FIVE SEARS LOCATIONS WITHIN FIFTY MILES OF MY AREA.

  Another alternative is to have a local repair company repair.  They will not be able to allow warranty on the $108 dollar, plus tax and shipping of the motor. They will also have to order the part. Note: Quincy, IL use to have a repair and parts facility, but it has been closed.  This has greatly limited the convenience, availability, and time required to get a part.

 Believing that Sears response time for future repairs will get worse, before it gets better, I  had the local company replace the unit with one they can service in a timely manner in the future.

 If Sears can provide you good service in your area, you might take a chance on a Craftsman opener. If not, no service agreement or warranty can offset not being able to get service performed in a timely manner.  I would suggest saving money for any service agreement locking you into Sears service and applying it to any future repair by any good local company who will be on site the same day or next day when called.

I had to replace a screeching 18 year old Moore O Matic that had broken it's plastic trolley. The 3/4 HP Craftsman Belt drive was on sale the day I needed it. It was fairly easy to put up. I did not salvage any of the old units hardware and the old unit had no safety eyes. The instructions for the new Craftsman were clearly wriiten although some of the diagrams could have been printed larger. I had problems with both my BMWs Home Links making the proper connection, mostly due to poor instructions in the vehicles manuals. I found Home Links 1 800 355-3515 number with clear recorded instructions that talk you through each programming step. With that call both cars were linked in.

The opener has to pull up a wooden double wide re-enforced wood door and the 3/4 horses do it with ease. Its so quite that I have to look to see if the door is moving or not. I like the wireless outside keypad that is included and with barttery back up I feel know no one will have to push that massive door manually in a power outage. And I like the all metal trolley and track assembly.This is an outstanding value and a powerful opener.

This unit is so quiet, you almost don't even hear it running.

I just upgraded my 10 year old crsftsman to this one. The previous one had a chain drive and a motion light. The chain still worked, but the motion light did not, so I decided to change it. I absolutely love all the extra features with this garage door opener. I have an  indooor indicater as to whether the door is closed or not. I have left my garage door open all night previously. The additional information that comes from the wall unit is very helpful. Easier to program all the hand held remotes from the wall console, that is an option that was not available on the older models. The fingerprint entry pad is priceless. I never could remember the code to my keyless entry pad anyway. Very convenience feature oriented opener.

This garage door opener is first-class. It is well-made and relatively easy to install. The extras (fingerprint reader, light switch, 3rd keychain opener, and indoor open/closed door sensor) are nice as well. The belt drive is much quieter than my prior chain drive. We are very pleased with our purchase and highly recommend it.

It Looked kind of complex with all the included parts. After reading the manual all the parts made since and I removed the old garage door opener in about 30 min. Installation went smooth as I used the book as a guide and followed the instructions exactly. After about 1.5 hours the system was ready to configure. It was real easy to set the up and down door settings. Programmed the Fobs and all works extremely well. Tested door close with a box in the beam's path across the floor and the unit flashed the lights to warn of an obstruction. Then used 2x4 under the beam and the door reversed when it could not completely close. That message also showed on the wall console. Easy and nice! Now have time and temp in garage, troubleshooting console on wall to let me know if a component is not working, a key pad for outside the door, two Fobs for the cars. I also bought a key chain FOB for the Motorcycle and it works GREAT! Battery backup works well and I was able to open and close the door when we had a 15 min. power loss due to more construction near our home. Super Product! If it is still available in 10 or 15 years when it will be time to replace the system I plan to buy the exact same or its' replacement. Ken