It’s not exactly fun to try and open (or fix) a garage door without power, but are manual garage doors themselves all that bad? A garage door serves an important function to securely keep your home and often vehicle locked away.
Whether you choose a manual or electric one, each has its own benefits and drawbacks. We discuss both below to help you decide which one is right for you.
How Convenient Are Manual Garage Doors Vs. Electric Ones?
Electric garage doors easily win this case. Being able to come home and simply press a button or enter a code to enter your garage without any significant physical labour on your part is just unbeatable.
The only aspect of this as we mentioned is that they need to be taken care of regularly to ensure they don’t lock you out of your own home if they break down.
Manual doors not only require physical labour to open, but they can also be problematic for people with injuries, so they’re can’t quite match up with electric garage doors in this respect.
Opening Garage Doors Without Power and Dealing With Other Maintenance Issues
If maintenance is your biggest concern, a manual garage door is your best bet. Electric garage doors just have more moving components and that makes them naturally require more maintenance as a result.
Typically, this will involve frequent lubrication to make sure all the parts are running smoothly whereas manual doors only require lubrication of the parts that actually move.
However, with proper care, both can serve you well for years to come
How Safe Are Manual Garage Doors Compared to Electric Garage Doors?
Comparatively, electric garage doors are much safer than manual doors. Electric ones typically have sensors they come with that detect if something is under the garage door when it’s going down and stops it. Some even come with buttons that can stop the door at a specific height if you need to do so as well.
Manual doors are totally reliant on the person opening or closing them. As such, they come with greater risk—especially if they are not fully opened properly and can slide back down.
Despite all this, it comes down to what you prefer. The above tips should give you a better idea as to what the right choice is for you.