2 ms·

I don't know the industry well but I always wondered why it was not ripe for a solid entrant to come in and easily scoop up at least some of the market. I thin

I don't know the industry well but I always wondered why it was not ripe for a solid entrant to come in and easily scoop up at least some of the market. I think there is only 2 companies now that control most of the American market. Chamberlain and Overhead Door Company (owned by a Japanese door company). I think I have mostly had Chamberlain brands and of course the door itself always works but the tech behind is has been lacking. I suspect ODC is similar. Lots of gimmicky systems like adding video cameras to the opener which requires yet another subscription along with controlling the door through the web along with a similar subscription. Last I looked the fee was something like $45/year which felt steep, would be happy to pay but the price felt out of line with what it does. Along with poor tech decision I always felt that the product itself was not very interesting or innovative. Shoot, look what Ryobi did with the now discontinued opener, it had a battery backup, excellent lighting, extension cord, plugs. I don't remember the story on why it was discontinued but I believe it had something to do with supply chain and covid....I might be misremembering. So yes, I am always a little stumped why someone does not jump in and just make a solid unit. Give me a non-buggy interface, let me pay for a reasonable subscription so I can maybe connect to my apple ecosystem. I never see any clones from China in America, they surely must exist but I never see them.

TacticalCoder 3y ago
> Chamberlain and Overhead Door Company (owned by a Japanese door company). Sidenote but in Europe many architects pick Hörmann: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%B6rmann https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%B6rmann I've got this both here (apartment in a building) and in another country at my vacation house. I've even got the same remote control in both (EU) countries. They've got their own home automation system too but I'm not using it. I know there are people just opening the box containing the motor and screwing (no need to solder AIUI) some open home-automation thinggamagic into them. They're compatible with cars having "homelink" too (buttons in your car which you can configure to act as this or that remote control). > it had a battery backup Oh that is sweet for... I remember the "fun" of having electricity down (black out in the entire rural area) and needing to hurry up to go pick my kid at school... I wasn't familiar with garage doors openers and black out meant no WiFi and no 4G (black out was obviously affecting 4G too: don't know why but everytime we had that black out, we'd have no 4G either). Anyway I ended up removing a safety wire on the garage door, to then remove a bolt, then used a rope and a pulley of sort to create leverage to be able to lift up the wide sectional door. There probably was a simple way but I was in a hurry. Fixing the mess was fun too: it involved watching YouTube vids and talking with my brother on the phone (he's familiar with these) to understand how to "clip" the motor again on the belt (or whatever that is called) and how to have the door close at the correct spot (at first there was a big gap!).
- ChoGGi 3y ago
  > Anyway I ended up removing a safety wire on the garage door, to then remove a bolt, then used a rope and a pulley of sort to create leverage to be able to lift up the wide sectional door. There's usually a rope hanging down you can pull on to disengage the chain lock, then the door will be loose to move. http://www.thedoorco.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Garage-Door-garage-red-release-cord.jpg http://www.thedoorco.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Garage-D...

TacticalCoder 3y ago

> Chamberlain and Overhead Door Company (owned by a Japanese door company). Sidenote but in Europe many architects pick Hörmann: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%B6rmann https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%B6rmann I've got this both here (apartment in a building) and in another country at my vacation house. I've even got the same remote control in both (EU) countries. They've got their own home automation system too but I'm not using it. I know there are people just opening the box containing the motor and screwing (no need to solder AIUI) some open home-automation thinggamagic into them. They're compatible with cars having "homelink" too (buttons in your car which you can configure to act as this or that remote control). > it had a battery backup Oh that is sweet for... I remember the "fun" of having electricity down (black out in the entire rural area) and needing to hurry up to go pick my kid at school... I wasn't familiar with garage doors openers and black out meant no WiFi and no 4G (black out was obviously affecting 4G too: don't know why but everytime we had that black out, we'd have no 4G either). Anyway I ended up removing a safety wire on the garage door, to then remove a bolt, then used a rope and a pulley of sort to create leverage to be able to lift up the wide sectional door. There probably was a simple way but I was in a hurry. Fixing the mess was fun too: it involved watching YouTube vids and talking with my brother on the phone (he's familiar with these) to understand how to "clip" the motor again on the belt (or whatever that is called) and how to have the door close at the correct spot (at first there was a big gap!).

ChoGGi 3y ago
> Anyway I ended up removing a safety wire on the garage door, to then remove a bolt, then used a rope and a pulley of sort to create leverage to be able to lift up the wide sectional door. There's usually a rope hanging down you can pull on to disengage the chain lock, then the door will be loose to move. http://www.thedoorco.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Garage-Door-garage-red-release-cord.jpg http://www.thedoorco.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Garage-D...