I’ve never installed a GDO–never needed one, quite frankly–until about three weeks ago. This was the unit that I installed and have been using since then.
Since I know next to nothing about garage door openers, I did a bit of research. The primary requirement was that it be as low-noise during operation, since the garage ceiling is drywall finished, and there is a bedroom addition on top of the garage; in which, as luck would have it, the bed is driectly over the final installation of the GDO.
After said “bit” of research, I ordered the Ryobi GD200 from Home Depot online on a Friday. It showed-up the following Monday. It must have shipped from a local warehouse; so, all-in-all, not bad.
The installation went better and faster than expected, primarily because I have shelving units in the garage that I rolled under the installation location, and placed the assembled opener lengthwise over the shelving unit. The header bracket went in easily enough, and I mounted the motor/gear head to the beam, secured right angle drilled strap directly to the head rails, and stacked cardboard under the head assembly until it was right against the ceiling. Pretty easy, with the shelving unit doing the stabilizing for me.
(I actually got the outer trolley on backwards, and didn’t discover this until the installation was complete. Whereupon I had to un-install the opener and switch the trolley around the right way, and re-install the unit again. That’s life, I guess)
Programming remotes, and setting upper and lower travel limits was fall-down easy, and getting the WiFi connected was a lot simpler than I thought it would be, judging by what I had read from other reviewers.
Start to finish (even with having to install-un-install-re-install), the whole job only took about 3 hours; and the door operation can’t be heard to any appreciable degree, in the bedroom above the garage.
My only problem was the range for the remotes. Since the door is a steel sectional (and is electrically grounded), operating the door via the small remote control units, from the driveway, was iffy at best. Forget opening or closing the door with the remote control unit in the car–too much metal shielding the signal.
My fix for this was to replace the dangling wire serving as an antenna with some RG-58/U coaxial cable, and run the cable along the drive beam, and out the front of the garage, above the door header, and mount a magnetic antenna base, upside down, to the bottom of the bedroom through the wall air conditioner sleeve above the center of the door.
I used 806mm (full wavelength for 372MHz) of stainless steel welding rod, and wound the center few inches into a coil, leaving a bit of it straight above and below the coil, and secured it to the antenna base.
Now, the door opens reliably, every time, even with the remote control sitting under the seat, in the car; which isn’t where it’s going to be permanently, but it makes for a good, worst case testing scenario.
I haven’t tried any of the modules, since there isn’t much need for any of them–except, maybe, the cord reel. That’s for another time, though.
Overall, I’m very satisfied with the product, and it’s performance (after the added antenna, of course). I hear that Ryobi has come-up with an antenna kit for such circumstances, should people need it.
Ryobi Tech Support was able to provide the information that I needed to make my enhanced antenna, and was forthcoming about the issues that have been reported with remote control signal reception. Upon that basis, I would recommend that anyone consider this unit for their own needs.