Has anyone purchased insulated garage doors? Are they worthwhile? Any features I should look for or be skeptical of?
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Recently purchased three for garage/shop. Wanted a high quality door to take best advantage of insulation used elsewhere. The Achilles heel insulation-wise in all garage doors is where door meets jamb and to a lesser extent door meets floor. Only way to avoid this is likely some sort of inflatable seal, which I've seen on motorhome slideouts, but never on a residence.
I didn't want an easily damaged interior (exposed foam), which ruled out some. After much research, this is what I chose. Spendy but good, and they'd do full view lites. It's an impressive door.
http://www.wayne-dalton.com/TS_200(-20).asp
PJ
Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.
you have my favorite door,those 200's are excellent doors but do get a little pricey. i have for the last several years went to the 125 wayne daltons.the basic construction is the same,making a nice ridgid door. i have about 15-20 of them now on rentals and i hate to say it but i'm done with them. the metal skin is so thin they get damaged really easy.i would still buy the 200's but they cost to much for rentals.
i have a garage that came with a clopay insulated door,i always thought they were really cheap junk,but this door is twice the door those wayne dalton 125's are.i'm going to price them the next time i need a door.if a man speaks in the forest,and there's not a woman to hear him,is he still wrong?
Thanks, everyone, for your responses.
Peter: Your doors look great, but I'm guessing they were really expensive.
Frenchy: I'll remember to stay away from metal. Makes sense.
DonNH: I wonder how your steel sandwich doors will do. They sure look pretty.
9x7 was about $1000 installed, that was with a fullview insulated glass section.
Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.
But you're unhappy with them, right?
But you're unhappy with them, right?
Ummm, not at all. They exceeded my expectations. Did I indicate that somehow? I guess I pointed out that ALL garage doors have a weakness of sorts in the way they seal to jamb....no way around it with a sectional door.
Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end.
Oh, I got your mixed up with alwaysoverbudget. He has the Dalton 125 and isn't happy with them. Do you have the 200?
joeyh
I bought what was supposed to be insulated doors and they were, well sort of.. that is there was foam inside anyplace that didn't need wood etc to hold hinges or whatever.
But they let the cold air through worse than my old solid wood paneled doors did.. . I mean not that wind blew in they had a good seal etc.. but the door itself was cold!
I am now looking for blankets to put over the panels to reduce heat transfer further..
What I've learned is metal shouldn't be used for garage doors in cold climates.. period!
This is the Amarr 3000 series (Tuscany style panels, Danube windows, decorative hinges) I had installed about a month ago.
2" thick urethane foam, steel both faces. Seems pretty good, but I haven't really been heating the garage much - have a wood stove, but haven't completed the insulation in the rest of the building.
Don
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Edited 2/22/2008 1:01 pm ET by DonNH
Well, I have a detached, uninsulated, unheated garage, but I bought the Overhead Door garage door with insulation if only because it made it more rigid.
Did it, good move. The difference in temperature is pretty amazing... especially under heated living space.
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I use to sell and install a lot of garage doors, primarily the Wayne Dalton brand.
The TS doors are really a commercial model door. They use a polyurethane insulation sandwiched between light ga. steel skins. The TS200 can be ordered with a 20 ga. skin for the exterior ($$$).
For a residential garage I would look for a 1-3/8" thick, steel sandwich style door that uses polyurethane insulation. There are many companies that offer this product.
I am now using doors by Haas. Models 680, 660, 670 all fit this description, and are available in different panel designs and colors. The teseted R-value of these doors is close to 13. There are also vinyl weatherstripping to match the doors that will seal very well if installed correctly. It helps if the openings are not too large, and the floor is flat and level where the door meets.
There are also 2" thick and even thicker doors available for a better r-value, however the r-13 is usually adequate.
Hey, thanks so much. That's good reference information. I'll keep this in mind.