You should not throw your old garage door opener into the bin just like that; you could still put it to good use.
There’s a good chance of finding a worthwhile purpose for your old opener even after it has completed its life cycle at your garage door. As much as it is still functioning, there is something else it could work for.
In this article, we will be looking at some things you can do with your old garage door opener rather than leaving it to waste.
Here Are Things You Can Do With Old Garage Door Opener:
Your old garage door opener can be converted into other uses and still serve you even long after you have removed them from the door they were attached to. Here is a list of five things that you can make out of your garage door opener
- Mini Elevators
- Retractable projector
- Garage door closer
- Snowplow
- Can Crusher
What Can You Do With Your Old Garage Opener?
Let’s take a deep look into things you can do with your old garage opener below:
- Mini Elevators
These mini elevators are commonly known as dumbwaiter elevators. They are usually used to carry materials rather than humans through the height of story buildings.
It is a simple household appliance that makes life easier. Especially for older people who do not have the strength to be lifting heavy bags from grocery shopping
You can easily make a dumbwaiter elevator out of your old garage door opener through these steps:
- Get your materials prepared. You will need a saw, screws, wood, the old door opener, screw gun, and angle iron. These are the equipment you need to get the work done.
- Determine the space where the dumbwaiter will be. Clear up the floor, and cut through the space where it will pass through and the shaft to be at least 3 inches larger than the intended size of the dumbwaiter.
- Fix the garage door opener on the shaft.
- The garage door opener’s motor can be placed above or beneath the space allocated for the dumbwaiter to move through. Either way, what is more, important is that the motor is kept in a safe and easy-to-access location.
- Use the screw and the angle iron to securely fix the motor to the wall
- Now, you get to install the track that the dumbwaiter would move through to the wall.
Ensure that the track is fixed so that it does not pass through the front of any door you will be using. Also, ensure that it runs parallel to the wall of the shaft.
- Install an automated stop to control the mini elevator so it can stop at designated spots.
- Make the actual dumbwaiter box with wood and ensure it fills the whole space of the track.
- Add two switches to the box. One at the top for receiving goods and the other at the bottom where it delivers the goods.
- Test the switch to confirm that the elevator is working well
The dumbwaiter works to save the stress of carrying shopping bags and heavy groceries on stairs. You only need to worry about just pulling your weight on the stairs with it. No added weight or stress.
You should also note the weight that the mini elevator can support so you won’t overload it. Also, it is just for loads, and children should be kept away from it.
- Retractable projector
A garage door opener works in a way where it affords to lift material to and from a certain height. Using this model, you can incorporate the garage door opener you are no longer interested in using to lift your television from the room up to the attic and bring it back when you want to use it again.
You can apply the same process to your projector. The automated process to retract your projector after use is a job that you can get done with your discarded garage door opener.
This simple hack makes life easier and removes the unnecessary hassle from life.
- Garage door closer
Reversing the engineering of a garage door opener can cause it to function as a door closer.
The device is attached to the garage door and helps automate coming down the garage door after packing your car or when you leave your house.
This, in particular, saves the stress of having to physically close down the door of your garage. You can escape dealing with the heavyweight of your garage door with this innovation.
Rather than throwing away the old opener, you can rewire it to act in a reversed manner. Instead of opening up the garage, it closes the door.
- Snow Plow
A snowplow works to clear away snow formed on the road. Clearing up shoes can be a hassle, especially at the entrance of your home garage. If you have an old garage door opener, you can convert it to a mini snow plow and let it pull the snow to one side. It makes the whole process of clearing snow a lot easier.
- Can crusher
An alternate use you can find for your old garage door opener would be to convert it to a can crusher.
Rather than using your feet to crush cans or purchase a brand new can crusher, you can effectively convert your old opener to a can crusher and save costs.
What you can do with your old garage door opener is not limited to this list of five things. There are other options of what you can do. It simply requires you to flex your creative skill and improvise household items.
Finding another use for your old garage door opener does more good than just preventing it from entering the bin.
The door opener functions in another capacity to make life easier for you. It saves you the cost of procuring these extra devices for your home and, at the same time, boosts your creativity level.
It takes a level of creativity to rewire the use of a device and still make it function well.
Also, the number of materials that cannot decay will be reduced in landfills if everyone is making an effort to recycle old equipment in their homes.
Summary
There are several uses that an old garage door opener can put into, and five of them were listed in the article. You can use it to make a mini elevator, retractable projector, garage door closer, snow plow, and a can crusher.
The different uses help make life easier, especially at home and reduce the number of materials found in landfills. It means reducing community waste.
References:
homesteady.com/12619765/how-to-make-a-dumbwaiter-in-a-stairwell
