The chain or belt on my Liftmaster/ Craftsman opener is sagging. But still works should I do something?

This is a common problem especially with the do it yourself home install openers that you will find at retail hardware stores like Lowes and Home Depot. For that is someone who has never installed a garage door opener will sometimes tend to tightened down the chain or belt way too tight and when this happens it puts an extra amount of pressure on the chain sprocket or the belt sprocket and after about 3 to 5 years with the overload of pressure on the stem that the sprocket is attached to shear it off like a metal lathe and the sprocket moves forward and makes the belt or chain sag over time.

Tighten the chain

Worst thing you could do if you have this problem is to tighten the chain or belt even more to stop it from sagging. What this does is it just speeds up the deterioration problem that you are having with the sprocket. Or when a garage door technician does not have a whole lot of experience installing openers and will do this not knowing the outcome because of lack of experience. If you have this problem then you most likely will have to replace the gear and sprocket kit inside your garage door opener which also is a common maintenance issue with any garage door opener whether it be chain or belt driven just make sure that when the technician installed the new gear and sprocket that you make sure that he does not tighten it down too far.

Belt drive gear

When a garage door opener is installed and it uses a chain or belt that gear and sprocket part should last anywhere from 10 to 15 years without any problems. If you decide that you want to find the gear and sprocket kit on the internet and fix this problem yourself you must be extremely mechanically inclined about appliances and fixing them before you try to tackle this issue because it can cause a whole bunch of other problems if you do not do it correctly so be careful. It usually cost between a hundred ninety ($190) to two hundreds forty ($240) plus tax to fix this problem on a garage door opener. Belt drive gear and sprocket kits can cost a little more so just be aware.