Genie, Decades of Lifting Reliability... Literally

Published on: July 13, 2020

How often do you find a working small appliance that lasts 50+ years?  When you hear the Genie name, you will hear and find many stories of our Genie garage door openers, that have lasted anywhere from 20 to 60 years. Here is one story we would like to share with you from Todd . 

He thought that a working genie garage door opener from 1967 was something noteworthy. So Todd scoured the internet looking for someone to email. He stumbled across the email of our company president.

“Hi Mike: Please excuse me. I know this question is below your pay grade. Maybe you can pass it along to someone in your marketing department. As you see in the attached picture, we are still using a Genie Model 401 door opener in our garage. I believe it's from the 1960s, and the original homeowner (two owners ago). However, we've decided it's really time to replace it. Is there any chance Genie wants this?... It's really a testament to Genie manufacturing quality that this thing still works in 2020.”

Thanks for your consideration.

Todd K

Deerfield, IL

After receiving this email, we reached out to Todd to hear more about his ancient but still running, Genie Model 401 Garage Door Opener.

Todd is the 3rd family owner of the home that was built in the mid 1960’s.  No one that he is aware of in his extended family has ever really bothered with maintenance on the garage door opener, it just worked so it was out of sight out of mind.  His in-laws had the garage door replaced at some point and needed to have a broken spring changed out a few years ago. At that time the spring installer had lubricated the screw drive but that was it for maintenance on the Genie.  Prior to moving into the home Todd never really knew much about garage doors, or garage door openers, and assumed that ALL garage door openers were known as Genies. 

Todd shared with us that between he combined with the previous family members who owned the home, had replaced the roof, garage door, all appliances, siding, windows, most electrical, much of the plumbing, doors, and flooring.  Other than the physical framing of the house, the Genie garage door opener was the only other original piece. A Genie 401 garage door opener has outlasted nearly everything else!  Because of this Todd states he would never use any other brand garage door opener.   

“This Model 401 Genie garage door opener was installed in 1967 and ran this long, why would I use anything else?”

So why is Todd replacing his 53-year-old Genie garage door opener?  He has decided to replace and upgrade the garage door as well as re-model his garage. Also, since this Genie garage door opener was manufactured before most modern safety features, he feels it is time to retire this Genie Model 401.   In his next garage door opener, Todd is looking for the new Genie to be quiet but wants to stick with the long-term reliability of a Genie screw drive model.  He sees the benefit of having smart Wi-Fi technology, known as Genie Aladdin Connect, to know if he left the garage door open.  He also mentioned that a battery backup would be nice because he lives in Chicago and does lose power in bad weather. 

Todd will be receiving a new Genie MachForce Connect smart garage door opener.  Do you want to share your story of your ancient Genie that is still working?  Just reply in the comments below or message Genie on social media in order to get more info on how to participate in sharing your story.