The Raynor R150 Opener....We Bid You Goodbye

Raynor R-Series Garage Door Opener

The Raynor R150 garage door operator (and it's predecessors the R130, R120, R110 & R100) were probably some of the best garage door operators ever made. That's a bold statement I know but they were (and some still are) a very solid and reliable machine.

The Raynor R-Series of garage door openers weren't all fancy and shiny like the openers being manufactured today. You couldn't turn the lights on or off. You couldn't look at a wall station and find out what the temperature in the garage was. You couldn't use your smart phone to open the door. But there was one thing you could use the opener for....OPEN AND CLOSE THE GARAGE DOOR! What a novel idea. The R150 opener was a basic unit but it always did what it was supposed to do. And the maintenance on them was minimal...a little lube on the chain once in a while and maybe a new belt every 8 or 9 years...no worries.

Somewhere along the line the garage door opener manufacturers decided that you (the consumer) were not happy with the existing garage door openers on the market. They weren't "sleek" enough...there weren't enough buttons to play with...they were too noisy. I don't buy it though. I think the manufacturers forced all the new gadgetry and bells & whistles onto the consumers...they didn't ask for them. And what does the consumer get it return? They get a machine that is built outside of the U.S. (China, Canada, Mexico), has expensive electronics and can be finicky and hard to maintain. If you get 10 years out of a opener being manufactured today then you're about average. Unlike the Raynor R-Series of openers that were built 20 to 30 years ago and are still going strong in some garages!

Unfortunately the R-Series is slowly fading away though. The precious logic boards for the R150 and older openers are no longer being manufactured. If the logic board gets fried by a lightning strike...to the dumpster you go old friend. Make way for the "new & improved" opener of today. Some other parts like the front idler sprocket and drive sprocket are still available but I would imagine that those parts will slowly be faded out also.

So if you have an old Raynor opener...cherish it. Go out to the garage right now and spray a little lube on the chain...show it a little love for all the years of service it has given you. If you're lucky you'll get another 5 or 10 years out of it.