Customer Reviews

Chamberlain WD822KD Whisper Drive 1/2-HP Belt Drive Garage Door Opener

5 star:		(159)
4 star:		(40)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

I just installed the opener today. Fairly easy to install. I was able to use some of the exisiting hardware from the previous installation so I didn't have to worry about hangers or the wall or door mounts. The settings were pretty close right out of the box for distance and force. This has all the safety features that I was looking for plus it is very quiet. It is below our bedroom so I went with the belt drive. Much quieter than the LiftMaster chain drive it replaced. Besides all the usual bells and whistles that pretty much all the combo sets have (2 openers, rolling code, outside keypad, safety beam eyes) it has a cool feature that lets you add devices from the wall mount so you don't have to get up on a stool or ladder to press the "learn" button on the motor. The 2 100 watt lights are nice and bright. So far no complaints.

We recently purchased and installed a WD822K Whisper Drive with the Amazon value pack. We are delighted with the opener. It truly is MUCH quieter than the aging Sears unit we replaced, or the LiftMaster it sits alongside. Of course, Chamberlain units are sold both as Sears and also as LiftMasters.
--The instructions for installation are good. We followed them carefully. The length of the installation guide can be frightening, but realize that it's long because it's clear and complete. Performing a reinstallation is very straightforward, but don't believe that it's an hour. Allow 2.5 to 3.5 hours, and read the instruction through completely the night before. With that, it's just a matter of doing as you're told.
--We were able to reuse the low voltage wiring for the switch, and the eye sensors. We also kept our old eye sensors in operation rather than install the ones that came with the Whisper drive (at least fot the time being). We needed to add a 2X4 as a header in the garage wall. With that, the Whisper drive mounted exactly into the old support frame.
--The opener runs smoothly, and has a good range. It's better than either of our prior units in our garage.

Now that I have this opener installed, it works quite well. It's significantly quieter than the one it replaced (an old Stanley chain drive), and we've had no problems with it.

However, I found the installation to be a mixed bag. The instructions are clear and complete. The pieces were all there, and they all fit together properly. That's more than I can say for a lot of other products I've tried to assemble. But, at least for our installation, it seemed like there was too much stuff "not included." Aside from the pieces in the box, I had to supply: a bracket, bolts and nuts for mounting the opener to the ceiling (thankfully the hardware from the old opener worked with some slight modification); a reinforcement, bolts and nuts for attaching the opener arm to the wood garage door; extension brackets hardware to mount the electronic eyes to the floor by the garage door; additional cable staples to hold down the sensor wires.

None of these things are expensive or difficult to get. But it's a frustration to open the box and have to go to the store to buy a whole bunch more stuff to finish the project (if you were foolish enough to not read the instructions completely through ahead of time, you might have to stop work in the middle of installation). One of the pieces (the extension brackets for the electonic eyes) was a special order item, so I couldn't just run to the store and get it. In fact, I almost couldn't even order it online -- Chamberlain doesn't list it on their website catalog, so you may have to call them for it. I happened across another company selling it online, so I bought it from them.

I understand that Chamberlain can't include every possible optional piece that is necessary for every installation. However, some of these are very commonly needed, and would be very inexpensive for them to include. How many people have wood garage doors? A LOT, and the pieces needed for that install are not included. How many people need to mount their electric eyes somewhere other than clipped to the opener rails? I'd bet quite a few, but the small and inexpensive piece necessary to do so is a special order item. How many people need to mount the opener to the ceiling? Virtually everyone (though I can probably give them this one; mounting situations are so variable that it might be impractical to include all of the hardware for that).

I'm happy with this product, but the installation process would be a lot more pleasant if Chamberlain could spend the extra couple of bucks to include more of the commonly required hardware.

Very quite operation. The loudest part now is the door itself. We installed it below a room in our house. It is MUCH quieter than the previous "screw" driven opener we had, however, the vibrations are still loud enough to wake sleeping guests.
Installation was very easy. In part due to the fact that I had installed our previous opener and the steps were essentially the same. Instruction book was clear.
The only complaint I have is that the remotes that came with it don't work consistently!!! I've reprogrammed the remotes according to the instruction book, and I've been reading chamberlain's support web site to try to figure out why they don't work, and the only thing I can think of is our wireless internet router is causing interference with the remotes. It is very annoying!! Sometimes the remotes work fine from our street, and other times we have to drive right up next to our door and press the button 10-20 times before it opens. The hassle I'm experiencing with the remotes is the reason I'm giving it 3 stars instead of 5. I think that the remotes should be compatible with standard home appliances, or at least have a selection of frequencies/channels to try. I'm anxious to see how chamberlain customer support is.

UPDATE Mar. 2, 2008:

After calling chamberlain customer support (back in July) about the problem I was having with the remotes, they handled the situation very well. After explaining to them that I tried all of the trouble shooting recommendations that came with the manual they sent me a new circut board for the motor unit. The circut board was easy to install, and since then I've had no problems with the remotes. I think the customer support did a great job. And I'm now very satisfied with the product. I would give it 5 stars now.
I also installed some dampers between my garage roof and the garage door opener to reduce the opener vibration even more. They were kind of expensive ($80) bucks, but I think it made some difference. http://www.qrdc.com/Soundproofing_Material/Garage_Soundproofing

Next step to reduce the noise is to install a higher quality garage door, but I think that will have to wait.

My old Liftmaster finally gave up the ghost so it was time to buy a replacement. Research indicated that the Chamberlain Whisper Drive received good reviews with a good warranty so I checked out Amazon and found it for $199 which was cheaper than anywhere else. A couple of clicks and a few days later it was here & ready to install. Since this was a replacement and not a fresh install it went more quickly and there was no lack of included parts. Total time to remove & break down the old unit and fully install & test the Chamberlain was about 2 hrs (I did keep the old door sensors). Instructions were complete & easy to follow (the single exception noted below) and I had no problems at any stage of the installation. Once installed both my wife and I were amazed at how quiet everything is now! We hear almost nothing from the opener itself and only a few noises from the garage door itself. The twin 100-watt lightbulbs (not included in the kit) do a great job of illuminating the garage. Anyone with a couple of basic tools (screwdrivers, wrenches, etc) can easily do a replacement install in a short amount of time. So far this unit exceeds my expectations and am extremely happy with it!
ASSEMBLY TIP: On page 7 of the instructions is an item called the "Spring Trolley Nut" which is used to set/adjust belt tension on page 11. The instructions are not clear on page 11 as to what you're trying to achieve. There's a silver "nut ring" at one end of the Spring Trolley Nut and the dark "square end" at the other. You need to rotate the silver nut ring 90 degrees (or 1/4 turn) relative to the square end for it to clear the end and snap down to set the tension. I found this easiest to do by holding the square end with a wrench while using the tip of a flat edge screwdriver to push against one of the 4 indentations in the silver nut ring until it rotated enough to snap down.

I installed this garage door opener soon after I purchased my first house. I was a DIY'er in training at the time, and this was one of my first projects as a new homeowner. It wasn't the easiest installation, but it was not overly challenging. I agree with one of the reviewers that a few pieces of hardware had to be purchased to complete the installation. This was mostly angle iron and a few bolts to hang the unit from the ceiling. In addition, you really NEED to reinforce your garage door. I made the mistake of thinking any new garage door should certainly be designed to work with a door opener without modification. Wrong! My wife managed to crumple the top of the garage door one day by trying to use the opener when the garage door was locked shut. Fortunately, I was able to straighten the door panel out. I then added the necessary reinforcement to prevent this from happening again.

As far as humidity being a problem, I have no idea what this person's problem is. I live in Austin, TX, which can be fairly humid and have had absolutely no problems. All I can guess is that this person must live underwater.

My only two gripes are the lack of a complete installation hardware kit and the remote keypad, which sometimes needs to have 'enter' pressed twice for it to work. Otherwise, this has been an excellent unit and I highly recommend it. Unless you live underwater.

My old garage opener, Chamberlain 6200, died, and I decided that it was a good occasion to replace the old noisy opener with a quiter "whisper drive". I installed everything myself. The whole process, including diassembling the old one, installation of a new one, a trip to a hardware store to get some tools, and balancing the door by adjusting the springs, took about 8 hours. The installation process was very straightforward. The manual is very detailed, with clear written explanations and pictures of all parts that should be installed on each particular step. I found just one typo... The box includes every single part that one may need to replace the existing door opener, and even a few spare small parts which are easy to lose. However, for a new installation (in a garage which never had an electic opener) one needs a bracket which can be obtained from any hardware store for several dollars.

There is a fair amount of confusion about the 8-feet doors rail extension pack. This pack costs about $50 and is recommended for doors with the height of 8 feet. The "standard" door height, according to Chamberlain, is 7 feet. I bought it, and spent perhaps 20 minuts trying to figure out if I actually needed it or if I could return it back for a refund. It turned out that Chamberlain recommends the extension kit "to allow an 8 foot door to open fully". What it means, is that with the extension kit you can pull the door so far back that it would lie horizontally on its rails above your head. Without the extension kit, it will not be able to travel that far, and its bottom section would be slightly tilted downwards. Even though I have an 8 feet door (pretty much all newer houses have this size), my old garage opener was installed without an extension kit and worked just fine - I never thought that the door did not open enough. The extension kit adds just 5 or 6 inches to the rail and allows the gate to move a little bit further. I ended up installing the extension kit (just in case), but in retrospective I could just as fine skip it. The bottom line is that it is recommended by the manufacturer, but it is not absolutely necessary for a sectional door. However, it may be much more important to install such a kit for a one-piece door without a track.

The positive observation about this opener is that it is indeed noticeably quieter than the chain one (much less rattle), I like that it can be used with 100 W lamps, and I like the motion detector built in into the wall panel. Remotes work straight from the box, all batteries are included.

Installation requires certain tools and skills, but there is nothing particularly complicated. I did everything myself, with just a little help of my wife. Chamberlain is a brand name for garage openers, and I can recommend this particular product.

I got one a couple of weeks ago and installed it myself, replacing an old noisy Craftsman screw drive for my sectional 2-car door. All you need is a few basic tools and a screw driver. Lots of bolting and screwing. Some reviewers have complained about having to get brackets and some basic hardware that are not included. If you are getting it new for a new door that has never had an opener on it you should plan for the trip to the hardware store, the instructions tell you everything you need. If you are replacing an older opener, you probably have everything you need, including a reinforced garage door. I could use the brackets etc. from the old opener, even if I had to relocate them a little bit. Installation was easy and straight-forward with excellent instructions. Took 2-3 hours, including the removal of the old one. If I did again it could probably be done in an hour and a half. The opener is really quiet and smooth. All you hear is a whir from the reinforced rubber belt and low hum from the motor. It seems to slow down slightly just before it closes completely, very cool . Most of the noise now comes from the garage door sliding up and down. Very happy. And the lights are positioned one on each side so it lights up the garage much better than the old one where the two lights were side by side in the front. The coded remote key pad is great bonus. I hadn't even seen that I was getting that when I ordered the unit.

I decided to purchase the Chamberlain WD822KD because of its favorable review by Consumer Reports and its claim of being extremely quiet. Both statements were absolutely right. Out of the box, the installation is very standard for a garage door opener. Standard is usually 4 - 6 hours to install it correctly. After following the straight forward installation, I only needed to make a few minor adjustments to the unit. The operation is superb. I cannot believe how quiet it is. It is much more quiet than my old screw drive opener, which was not that loud. For the price, this is a very good find.

Although I haven't installed an opener in 10 years, the Chamberlain experience was easier than expected. This was mostly due to complete and clear instructions included with the unit. In addition, since it was replacing an opener on an existing garage door, some of the steps were easily skipped. The best feature of the product is the very quiet belt drive. Compared to chains or drive screws, belt drive is a quantum leap. Another great feature is the dual 100 watt maxium lights, still not common in many openers.