I don’t think you should buy the LiftMaster 98022 wall-mount garage door opener, well, not now at least. Let’s party! So, for some time now, I’ve been wanting to do a review on this wall-mount garage door opener. This is LTM’s Elite staple flagship garage door opener motor that they have probably perfected since the inception of their original 3800 to the 8500 to the 8500 W. Now we have this next iteration, with the only difference being that it will no longer have a cable tension monitor, and that may sound like a good thing. But honestly, that’s the reason why we are doing this video, because you are thinking about buying or you’ve already purchased and installed this Prime wall mount garage door opener, but now it’s not able to close. You get some strange error code on the wall button saying that there’s excessive force on the garage door opener and that’s causing frustration.
Common Issues with the LiftMaster 98022
This particular issue is something that you’re experiencing, and well, what’s LiftMaster going to do about it? I wish I had a simple answer for you, but unfortunately, this situation has now grown exponentially, not only to several dealer installers here in my local community but throughout the nation. Even specific homeowners who have decided to install this wall-mount garage door opener and hoped to get a similar experience from those older models now find themselves in a very frustrating situation where they’re just not able to get this wall-mount garage door opener to close properly or work properly. LiftMaster’s not giving them much to work with.
Specifications of the LiftMaster 98022
Let’s get into the specs of this garage door opener because I think it’s important to mention. This opener is not very different than the 8500W. You’re still going to get a 1,000-lumen LED light, the 827 LM. It’s going to be a quiet DC opener, and that DC motor is the one we’ve seen in the older models, and it’s worked like a champ. I don’t necessarily see problems with the motor on this particular wall mount; in fact, I see more problems with the logic board, the gear assembly, the emergency release cord, the sensor, the wall console, and the remote transmitters. Rarely does LiftMaster have problems with their motors, and they’ll give you a great experience. They’ll give you a great warranty—I believe it’s a limited lifetime warranty—and thus, I have all the confidence that with this opener, you’re still going to get those same inside components similar to the older experience.
Performance and Use Cases
Sure, you’ll still have the automatic garage door lock, which is a fantastic feature. You’re still going to get a 3/4 horsepower power, easily able to open up those 200 lb, 300 lb, and in some cases, those heavier doors. I wouldn’t put it on a custom wood door or a custom 16×8 solid wood door, but if you have a steel-back insulated door, a carriage house door, or some of those lighter polyurethane foam compacted doors, yeah, that’s going to work perfectly fine with this garage door opener. And it’s going to provide you with a battery backup if power is lost. Again, you’re getting a very similar experience. It’s still going to be reliable within those parameters that we’ve just mentioned.
The Excessive Force Close Error
Now that we’ve got that off to the side, what we want to focus on now is what LiftMaster is experiencing with this garage door opener and the challenges that we have found now with this excessive force close error. What’s happening is you’ve had this motor installed, perhaps maybe for a few days. It’s even possible that this garage door opener has worked for months, and then all of a sudden, when you go to try and close the garage door opener, it stops roughly around 6 in and comes back up, giving you an error code. Usually, that error code could be anywhere within the 5 range. It could even also be like a 41, 43, or 44 error code. LiftMaster again wants to make sure that these error codes are precise because it’s the only way they can understand what sort of issue you’re having and, of course, diagnose it properly. Still, it’s frustrating to deal with them whenever you’re trying to get something to work for a customer, especially at the price point that these openers are being charged—anywhere from north of $1,000. And just keep in mind, if you even made this purchase for yourself and you’ve decided to install the garage door opener, I know that perhaps you can find one for roughly around $500. It can be frustrating to see all of that energy in installing the opener and still not get it to work right. Yeah, this is a big issue, and that’s why we’re talking about it in this video.
Solutions to the Issue
Okay, let’s go ahead and zoom in here real quick. Now there are several solutions that we could look at when dealing with this specific issue. Number one, we want to make sure first that your torsion spring system is plumb straight, and that can be a challenge because if you are not the original installer (that is if you’re a dealer contractor coming in after someone and installing the 98022), it’s going to be important to make sure that that door is straight. You want to make sure that the sections are straight. You want to make sure that the actual garage door system does not have any variances or is not unleveled in any way that’s going to throw off the balance of the garage door. Now that could be a challenge because if you’re not knowledgeable, then you’ll have to call a professional, of course, and this is very important, right? Trusting someone to do that and not take advantage of you—yeah, that’s a little difficult right now, but that’s a topic for another video, so I don’t want to dive too deep into that. But if you can find someone you trust within the garage door industry, well, this is what I would ask of them: I would ask them to make sure that your door system is working in perfect order. You can easily do that by simply asking for a garage door tune-up or a garage door service.
Alternative Solutions
One solution could easily be not going with a 98022 right now and simply utilizing the older versions that are easily accessible. You could find the Chamberlain RJ70 or the LiftMaster 8500W, but the caveat is that it’s the older technology, it’s the older discontinued model. But hey, it’s going to work because again, that cable tension monitor—although it does have its quirks—will still be able to do what it needs to do. And it’s important to identify now that that cable tension monitor is just a sensor. That’s all it is.
Conclusion: Weighing the Options
Of course, those solutions clearly will require costs and may require extra effort. Thus, if it seems that going this route with a wall-mount garage door opener is more than what you want to put effort into, I completely understand that. So take into account that whatever you decide to do, if you do go with the LiftMaster 98022, there’s a lot of prep work, a lot of backend investigation, and a lot of conversations that need to be had before installing that opener. So hopefully, this video has helped with that.
Community Input
Now, what sort of action could you take to make sure that the installation goes smoothly? What I would like to suggest is let’s continue the conversation within the thread of this community. I want everyone to share their experiences if they’ve had a LiftMaster 98022 installed and had no problems. I think we need to hear more about those experiences and what the conditions of that specific installation were that made it optimal for that wall-mount garage door opener. In addition to that, if you had the 98022 installed—say you’ve had it installed by a dealer installer or you did it yourself—and it just had many issues, and it was turning out to be so frustrating to install it and to keep it, let’s keep that conversation also in the thread as well. We would like to know your experience with this garage door opener.
Closing Remarks
We can keep this community helping each other out because the idea is that we want LiftMaster to succeed. We want this wall-mount garage door opener to continue to provide us with the stellar experience that it has been giving us for so many years. And the reason why I say that is because I’m not necessarily brand loyal. The reality of that is that the more options we have out there, the more innovation and competition exist, so that way the end user—the homeowner—benefits from it. The best garage door opener, I should say, the best wallmount garage door opener right now is the one that will fit your specific needs and your family’s needs. So take that into account. We just really want to get to the bottom of this and think in terms of how we can make this better, how we can make this experience better, and how we can make this community better by sharing these ideas and these thoughts.
Of course, I have reviewed several wall-mount garage door openers on this channel. So, let’s keep this party going. Check out one of these videos right here. As always, I want to thank you all for partying with me. Y’all stay safe!