LiftMaster 3800 Residential Jackshaft Garage Door Opener

by Chamberlain

Product Description

Wall-mount installation - mounts on the left or right side of door. No rails to hang, it simply mounts on the wall and attaches to the garage door torsion bar. Unit requires an electrical outlet within 6 feet. Patented absolute positioning technology - the newest technology in garage door openers. Liftmaster patented design allows the electronic limits to be extremely accurate, even after a power failure. Optional accessories: 475LM Battery Backup, 377lm Keyless Entry Pad, 379lm Fingerprint Keyless Entry,975lm Garage Door Parking Assist, 370lm Mini Remote. IMPORTANT NOTE: BEFORE PURCHASING, PLEASE VERIFY THE 3800 WILL FIT YOUR APPLICATION BY CONTACTING CHAMBERLAIN. TO RECEIVE IT AND THEN SHIP 33LB PACKAGE BACK TO SELLER IS INCONVENIENT.

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 24 x 10 x 12 inches ; 33 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 33 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• ASIN: B000MT7WV4
• Item model number: 3800
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (88 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,121 in Home Improvement (See Top 100 in Home Improvement)
  • #44 in Home Improvement > Hardware > Garage Door Hardware > Garage Door Openers

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

117 of 117 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Opener, Questionable Customer Service, December 11, 2007

By 

J. Stoltz "turbojimmy" (NJ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: LiftMaster 3800 Residential Jackshaft Garage Door Opener (Misc.)

I installed this LiftMaster 3800 opener in my garage over this past weekend. It took a couple of hours in total, not because the installation is terribly complicated but just because there's a lot of little things to do during the installation. The instructions are very thorough and accurate and the opener works extremely well.

When I got home last night, after using the opener for 3 days, I noticed that the light was no longer working. I checked the power to it, replaced the bulbs and attempted to reprogram it. Bottom line is that the light simply stopped responding to commands from the head unit and the wall-mounted control. Unlike conventional garage door openers the light is 'wireless' in that it receives commands to turn on and off remotely. You simply plug it into an outlet anywhere in the garage. This, evidently, was a scenario Chamberlain's customer service was not prepared for. Despite giving them my model number the representative could not come to grips with the fact that the light was not part of the motor assembly. After providing her the model number of the light itself we began to make progress. However, once we reached a point where there was no more troubleshooting to be done and the light still did not work there was an awkward silence. After about 10 minutes of this silence (though I could hear voices in the background) I asked if she was still there. She said yes and that she would need to talk to a supervisor. She did and the supervisor wanted me to 'hard wire' the wall mount to the motor assembly. She could not adequately explain to me what that meant. The wall control IS hard-wired to the motor, albeit with 30-feet of wire. All other functions of the wall control work so I knew that wasn't the problem. The motor assembly is 11-feet off the ground and I wasn't about to dig out the ladder, move the car and climb up there knowing full well that nothing I did to the motor assembly was going to fix that light. After multiple requests the supervisor refused to speak with me and they reluctantly agreed to replace the light. In total I had over an hour invested in that phone call.

Back to the review....I really wanted to ding the opener for my poor customer service experience. But that wouldn't be fair. With the exception of this light problem, I am so impressed with this opener that I need to give it 5 stars.

The opener is extremely quiet and smooth. I replaced a Craftsman chain-driven opener with this Liftmaster 3800 and the difference is like night and day. My bedroom is above my garage so it's important to have a quiet opener that is NOT mounted to the ceiling (which is obviously the bedroom floor). The door opens substantially faster than the conventional opener I replaced and slows to a graceful stop just before the preset travel limit. On the down cycle the door closes at the same rate as the old opener.

The standard package of features with the opener is outstanding. It comes with a nice, blue-backlit LCD wall controller that displays the time and temperature. The wall control gives you status messages and also contains a motion detector that turns on the lights when you enter the garage. You can also program new remotes using the wall control rather than having to climb up and hit the 'learn' button on the motor unit (though you could do that if you wanted to). The remote control that comes with the unit has nice, blue LEDs that illuminate when it senses that your hand is near it. This is great when you're fishing around your console in the dark for the remote. Last, the dead bolt feature is a nice added security option.

Installation is not complicated. The hardest part was installing the collar that connects the motor shaft to the torsion bar assembly. They use some sort of super-duper thread lock that makes it difficult to turn the bolts. They have Allen's heads so make sure you have a sturdy, hardened Allen's wrench. There is not a lot of room, either, so take the advice in the instructions and position the collar in a manner that allows you to get at all the bolts. The only tool required that the average handyman might not have is a 3/4" metal bit for drilling the dead bolt hole. That's a big bit and most drill bit sets only go up to 1/2".

Programming is simple if you follow the instructions. I easily programmed the door stops in a matter of minutes and it self-learns the force limits based on a full cycle of door operation. The opener is Homelink compatible and I programmed both my vehicles to operate the door without any trouble.

Last, a word to the wise, most accessories for the door start with the number "3". I ordered a keypad and keyfob remote for the door and both were incorrect. Just because a device says it's SECURITY + compatible doesn't mean it works with the 3800 opener. Make sure you get a device that works with SECURITY + and is also for openers with a PURPLE learn button.

59 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Once correctly installed - It will work perfectly!, September 29, 2007

By 

D. Brogger "A.K.A. - JD" (Glubville, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: LiftMaster 3800 Residential Jackshaft Garage Door Opener (Misc.)

Let me start off by saying that this is NOT a garage door opener to purchase if you can get away with a more traditional style, suspended from the ceiling, track door opener. My new house has a load bearing beam that was 2 3/4" short of allowing me to install my first choice, the Chamberlain ½hp Whisper Drive. I didn't know that until I ordered it, but thankfully Amazon was awesome, as usual, and took the unit back for the full purchase price. Thank you Amazon!

My neighbor was exceptionally vocal against the choice of the Chamberlain 3800 Jackshaft opener stating that they had checked into this option and the local Home Depot had stopped selling the unit because of "all the trouble with the installation of the damn thing". That is partially true, Home Depot & the local Lowe's do not sell this unit. Why they no longer carry it, I do not know for sure, but you can't buy it locally.

I will say this concerning the Chamberlain 3800 Jackshaft Opener - if you do not have excellent troubleshooting skills, look at a different model or consider professional installation. I have wasted an entire Saturday on the installation of the unit, and I have tomorrow to finish the final tacking up of the wires and the cleaning up of the garage. :-(

My garage door is a Wayne Dalton, and it's brand new, so the questions of balance and correct installation have been taken care of for me. The door is about 16' wide and is about 8 feet tall. This is a sectional, aluminum door, and it seemed to pass all the "correctly balanced" tests, so I felt that is was a perfect candidate for this unit.

The installation of the main hardware was extremely straight forward. If you possess the basic set of home tools ( a cordless/corded drill, a few drill bits, a couple of screwdrivers, a level, a pair of wire cutters, a hammer, etc.) you should have no problem with the installation itself. Now the fun begins!

There are (3) pieces of the installation that are absolutely necessary for the unit to perform correctly, but that information is vague in the directions. For your own sanity, I will list them so if you find yourself screaming obscenities at the Engineer who designed this unit, you can refer to my experience and save your blood pressure a few points. :-)

1) The Wall Mount Control Unit: This MUST be connected correctly for the unit to function in the open/close operation. The problem is, for all the advanced connections and thought put into the unit, you are forced to strip 7/16" of an inch of cheap, thin wire and wrap it around a standard Phillips head screw. You are then supposed to run this screw ALL THE WAY IN to the motherboard of the cheap, plastic unit that is the house "control". This is easily the cheapest, most asinine, piece of the whole installation. A set of quick connects, or a true wire termination point, would greatly increase the average person's ability to install this unit by themselves.
2) The "Protector" System: This is basically the electronic eyes that stop the garage door in the event that your child/dog/cat/neighbor annoyance gets in under the door while it's closing. The key features are that one eye has a solid Amber color light, this is your "sending" unit, and a solid Green color, and this is the "receiver" unit. Mounting these units at the same height and insuring that they can "see" each other will create a solid, invisible beam that, when broken, will cause a reverse of the door travel. These MUST be in place correctly for the unit to work correctly.
3) The "Cable Tension" Monitor: Last, but not least, this pain in the @ss unit is a complete misnomer. There is NO monitoring of tension that is taking place with the placement of this unit. It has a type of circuit, I forget the name, but essentially it needs pressure to insure the door will open, and it needs NO PRESSURE on it to insure the door will close. I have spent over 2 hours figuring this out, so take heed of this information. I changed the placement of this unit no less than 5 times in the attempt to get it to work properly. This is the KEY piece of equipment to get the garage door to close after it has been opened.

My garage door has a sort of "lurch" in it when it starts to close. This "lurch", or sudden start, causes a quick slack in the "tension" of the cable that is used to open/close the garage door. When this "lurch" would happen, it would cause this circuit to "close" prematurely and reverse the travel of the door. This was kicking my @ss for at least an hour before, while on perpetual hold with Chamberlain "tech" support, that it dawned on me a way to test the device. It turns out, with the door closed, there is to be NO TENSION, on this unit at all. The unit is built with an automatic closure spring that forces the unit to close and keep the rolling "handle" close to the cable. When the door is closed, the internal spring causes the handle to rest close to the wire, effectively closing the circuit. When the door is open, this unit is "pried" away from the spring that closes the circuit, by the tension cable that is used in the process, so the circuit is "open". With the circuit in the OPEN condition, and provided the rest of the equipment is installed correctly, the door will close correctly.

So, after a couple of trips to the local hardware store, and the better part of a Saturday wasted, I have achieved installation and the door SEEMS to function perfectly. I have now opened and closed the garage door well over 30 times, testing both the hardwired, wall-mounted remote and the wireless, in vehicle, remote from various points of the driveway & street. Range is good, but not outstanding. Some of that seems to be the "shielding" of the double insulated, double sheet rocked, garage walls.

I will update this review after a few months of use and let you know how it is holding up.

Functionally, this is a very sound, very functional, space saving garage door opener. If the installation procedure were more straight forward (by reworking the wall mounted control wiring connections and the complete ELIMINATION of the "Cable Tension" Monitor) I think it would be a very good choice for your home.

As for me, I am hoping for the small satisfaction of witnessing my neighbor standing in the pouring rain, since they are still without an opener, during the Fall/Winter months opening their garage door manually while I pull right in, warm and dry. :-)

As for you, IF you choose this product, I wish you the best of luck in the installation process!

EDIT: Wow, Sept 2007 was when I first reviewed this product. I had to write another review and was scanning through, noticed that I had not updated my review. It is now August of 2011 and the same exact model has gone through thousands of opening and closings without a single problem. Power outages have not caused it to need resetting or adjusting and there have been no issues to date. Perhaps a year or so ago I popped the cover on the wall unit, blew out some dust and debris from garage projects with a simple can of compressed air, squirted a little Fluid Film (a great water free lubricant, much better than a WD-40) onto the working parts and the unit has been flawless.

All in all we are still very happy with this purchase. The initial adjustment did take some home "engineering" to make it work correctly, but once it was fine tuned to the weight and motion of my specific model of garage door, the unit has been flawless. I haven't even had to change the battery in the remote yet, but now that I think about it, I just might do it before the rainy season hits.

PS - My neighbor broke down and ordered the same unit about 3 or 4 months after I got mine installed. He did come over to see my installation and ask for some help in the final fine tuning. Now we are both happy to come home to a waiting garage when the rain is coming in sideways in the PNW wet season. :-)

43 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great door opener....BUT........, September 12, 2009

By 

G. Giftos "Vacman" (Cadillac, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: LiftMaster 3800 Residential Jackshaft Garage Door Opener (Misc.)

I took my time in installing it and everything went fine, but I do have one problem. This opener relies on gravity to lower the door. The problem with this is that I need to raise the door all the way up so that I can use the maximum size of the door opening. If you do this, none of the door will hang below the curve on the tracks to get the door dropping. I ended up having to stop the door at least a foot below the top of the opening. This would present a problem with driving a tall item through the door (I have a truck camper we store in this building). Customer service at both the door manufacturer and at Liftmaster were of no help. Two possible solutions come to mind, but I haven't tried either of them yet. Raising the rear of the tracks so that the door is angled down in the front when it is in the track might help or a bungee cord, anchored below the halfway point in the vertical track would put some tension on the door in the upright position but not affect it when it was down. (I really hate having to do the engineering for the manufacturer). As far as I know, there is no warning about this potential problem in any description of this product. Other than this one problem (which could be serious if you need to drive a tall vehicle through the door), I find it to be an excellent product and the quietest door opening I've ever heard. It does have a quality feel to it.