Thursday, 16 September 2021

Goodhome sectional garage door

This door is marketed under any number of names. If in doubt look at the instructions. Goodhome is CE marked by a Dutch company Kingfisher. I have read that it is made is Portugal by a large door fabricator, but this would be covered by their CE mark - unless they are trying to disguise the origins of a lower grade door.

Hard to know where to start with this one. Basically this is a sectional garage door with door opener for around 300€ (Dec 2020), or 600€ cheaper than the equivalent Hormann one. I currently have a Hormann door and I've added a Goodhome door adjacent. Clearly the Hormann door is massively over priced, as the piece components are essentially the same; insulated metal door panels, metal uprights, springs, motor and rails.

tldr; don't buy this door unless you have the time and skills to dick around with it for 2-3 days. Would I buy one again? Yes, as I know the pitfalls. Would I recommend it to a friend? No. Too many pitfalls. Would I install it professionally? Definitely not. There would be too many call backs and I seriously doubt they would honour the warranty. Too much hassle. I only install big brands for clients for this very reason; I want a quiet life. 


The Goodhome door rails are more flimsy, but adequate. The QA is lacking and the forums report missing parts and hinges that are incorrectly numbered

I do not intend to list list the numerous design deficiencies here. The manufacturer can contact me and we can discuss it. However, I can't resist this one





This picture shows a hole required in the concrete slab 25 mm from the edge to keep the spring in position. Utter incompetence on the part of the designer; even a 6mm hole would break out the slab, and they recommend 8-10mm. The same can be said of all the rail fixings which are way too close to the edge to be usable. I will make up some longer brackets in due course, but the lack of floor fixing doesn't seem to cause too much flex with the spring stretched.

It is important to check that each panel is the same width, and also that the frame is the correct width (2525mm) Make sure the top rollers are fairly snug on the fails. If not, the door will drift one way or the other. I found the metal end pieces fitted badly and the leading edges cut the weather seals. The holes were badly aligned. Both easily fixed, but it's frustrating.

Lubricate as per the manual once you've ironed out the opening/closing. The door then moves slightly better.


Poor alignment. A poorly specified machining 'don't worry gov, the nearest 5mm on those holes, or just throw a screwdriver and drill a hole where it lands.'  Amateurs.
Slivers of plastic ripped of the door guides as the panel metal side have raised front/leading/trailing edges. Had to remove all the panels and sides and fettle. Another 2 hours of my life wasted through crap manufacture.

The door must open and close relatively easily before fitting the motor. I found shortening the cables another 40mm helped with opening, but too short will mean the door slams shut a bit too quickly. I felt the door was still too stiff to operate manually, but installed the motor anyway.  It runs fine. Out of curiosity I adjusted the motor force setting to minimum and it ran just fine, suggesting the manufacturer expects a bit more friction. The remote appears to use rotating code; it is readable by Keeloq. I think the PSU is SMPS, so very low (<1W) standby, which is a saving of 6W over the one that came with my Hormann door. A definite plus for goodhome.

The manual is good for the door assembly, but the motor installation is poor for the mechanical elements; poor diagrams and you have to guess which bits go where.

The Goodhome door can easily be cut to make it more narrow. Cut the panels on either side. The bottom panels has a metal rail that holds the floor seal and this is screwed on; remove it and cut off the requisite amount.

7/11/23 Door refused to close. It hiccups every now and then and I spray silicon on the sliding parts. However, it entirely refused to open or close even assisted with my boot. I disengaged the door and found the door smooth. Ran the operator and it only moved a few cm either way; it had lost track of the open/closed positions. I reprogrammed it and it ran ok. There was a lot of noise from the left (looking out) side and I thought maybe it need wd40. In doing that I realised that the wires had jumped out of the top pulley. Once all that was done, it ran nice and quietly.

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