A Small Tribute to Garage Doors

For decades, it has made our lives easier. Almost as if by magic, simply by pressing one button we can reach in the cozy warmth of our homes or drive out of the garage without leaving the driver’s seat.

Yes, that’s right! I am talking about the largest moving object in our house, the garage door. Today, Colorado Overhead Door’s team would like to honor this magnificent invention by sharing with you a little bit of garage door opener history.

So, get ready to go back in time a few decades, when all of us had to get out of the car in the middle of a thunderstorm and open the garage door manually.

Early Days of Garage Doors

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Everything began back in Hartford City, Indiana, where inventor C.G Johnson had one of those crazy ideas. How to open and close your garage door without stepping out of the car?

His idea was materialized in 1926, when the first garage door opener was presented. However, his innovation didn’t make much noise at the beginning. Customers were not interested in it at the moment. Maybe back in the day, we were not that lazy.

It is stated that the automatic device became popular after World War II. Era Motor Company of Chicago was responsible for making the invention more attractive by adding a special gadget.

The company made it possible to open the garage door via a keypad located on a post at the end of the driveway or by a switch inside the garage and… that was it! Everyone wanted a “magical” garage door opener in their homes.

Technology Development

The garage door opener system had one of its biggest modifications back in 1993. A horrible situation was damaging the device’s reputation. It was reported that at least 85 children in the U.S. had died or suffered permanent brain damage between 1974 and 1995, in accidents involving automatic garage door openers.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission in the U.S passed a law that requires all garage doors to be equipped with photoelectric sensors and pressure-sensitive sensors.

Even though at the beginning not all sensors performed as expected, the modification change completely all safety standards regarding garage door openers.

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Openers Today

In the present, garage door markets offer a wide range of devices, materials, safety and energy saving gadgets. Garage doors today not only helps our daily routine flow smoother, but it allows us to sleep pleasant at night, keeps our children safe and even saves energy with insulated doors.

At Colorado Overhead Doors we have served Front Range residents, for more than 30 years with superior workmanship and personal attention. Our goal is to one day open all of Colorado’s garage doors. We also carry a wide variety of doors for commercial use, like heavy duty and lighter duty doors for industrial purposes.

Join us in celebration of one of the biggest inventions in the world. Contact us today and get a free estimate on your garage door project.

 

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