Our Foxwood Meadows neighborhood was developed in 2001. Our garage door openers were installed as a part of the home construction.

My garage door opener ‘died’ recently and had to be replaced. The opener was a Chamberlain, rated among the high quality openers.

During the replacement process conducted by Bothell Garage Door Repair, it was discovered that the opener was built in 1997 – four years before our neighborhood homes were built. The repairperson indicated it is not uncommon for builders to buy appliances such as garage door openers in bulk to save money per unit. My builder apparently did just that, buying hundreds of them and storing them until it was time to install in new homes.

So my and perhaps your garage door opener was on the shelf for four years before being installed and put into use in 2001. You can view the manufacture date by climbing up and looking inside the unit’s button window with a flashlight to see the model statistics if you are interested.

Chamberlain openers are warranted for 10 years. Our openers are well beyond their warranty. My opener’s hardware was also incompatible with today’s openers. So I had to have a complete replacement, costing me over $650. Perhaps it may be a good idea to determine the manufacture date of your opener and prepare for the possibility of replacing your opener sometime soon.