UPS 101 says a fire could start if a motor as small as a vacuum cleaner was plugging into this battery backup power supply (SOP for computers, etc.)

Without going directly to bother the garage door shops, Google is not helpful in shopping a solution for power backups for garage door openers during a power outage. I remember a newspaper article of a heart attack death caused by trying to manually lift his garage door in a storm power outage.

Perhaps the new openers have this built in?

UPS = Uninterruptable Power Supply

There are a lot of options out there that have built-in battery backups. I put in the non-battery backup version of this jackshaft opener (Link), but I see a few chain/belt driven ones that have it now (Example).

My gate operator (Liftmaster) has it and it can do like 80-100 operations based on the literature.

Some new openers have battery backups built in.

Some brands offer a retrofit kit. Garage Door Opener Battery Backup (overheaddoor.com)


If you are just concerned about the weight of trying to lift it on your own, I suggest pulling the emergency release and trying it. I would think you could get it adjusted so that it is not a struggle. Not sure they pay enough attention to that these days since they install them with openers on day 1.

AggieOO said:

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tgivaughn said:

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I remember a newspaper article of a heart attack death caused by trying to manually lift his garage door in a storm power outage.

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sounds like someone didn't know to just pull the emergency release to disengage the opener? I have no idea what the official name for it is, but:

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Yeah, I'm afraid to see what kind of bank-vault garage door caused a heart attack.

I guess the big question is - which side of the door do you expect to find yourself on when you need to open it with no power, and which side is your vehicle on?

Good Q!
I failed to mention they were coming home, outside of door and he was old, out of shape.

Thank YOU!

Thank YOU!

Big fan of our LiftMaster with battery back-up and MyQ to manage.

hurricanejake02 said:

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tgivaughn said:

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Good Q!
I failed to mention they were coming home, outside of door and he was old, out of shape.

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What a shame. Park your car outside and wait for power to come back on, or, if you have other access to the garage space (man door, through the house, etc...), walk inside, pull the release cord, and lift the door. The springs will assist you the same way they assist the opener.

Old man was likely trying to lift the door against the opener - the equivalent of pushing a stalled car when it's in gear instead of putting in neutral.

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I remember being able to open my parents' garage door when I was 9 or 10 at most. Maybe even 8. That was my job when we got home, before they installed an opener.

The problem is over time the springs can lose tension. The opener can still handle the increased load but in manual mode the door can be really heavy and unbalanced. I have seen this happen on an 18 ft door before and I could barely lift it myself so there was no way a smaller woman or younger child could open it . If you have a garage opener, I would periodically check this because the springs can lose tension over time and it also strains the opener motor.

Tad just install a back up generator for 10-12k To alleviate this situation

Hahahahaha
but AM amazed at how many are insisting on a generator for their new house these days, even IF complaining of house build prices these days ....

I had two installed in 2010 on our build. We bought both at HD and they had battery backup's included.

My 2019 bills the builder provided. They have the cool feature to monitor/open/close via my phone as well as remote. But they don't have battery backup. I need to see if they have a bolt on kit for backup for one of the two.