Chamberlain RJ070 Review – 2024
Last updated on August 29th, 2024 at 01:46 pm
When we moved into our house, our garage door opener was pretty old. Over the years with the back and forth weather, the thing just couldn’t keep up. It went from being a little shaky and needing an annual oiling, to it screeching so loud we started avoiding opening the door all together. When we had to open it, we would hit the button and promptly walk back inside to protect our ears. Eventually we decided enough was enough and I tore it down and put up a Wall Mounted Chamberlain RJ070 Garage Door Opener.
I was talking to my neighbor awhile back and he likened that owning a garage gym is like having a nice home office. You spend a lot of time in there. The more time spent in a space the more you notice the little stuff. The more you start to appreciate the finer details down to aesthetics and more. And the more you have to acknowledge that your space can’t grow, but you CAN maximize it. Today we are going to look at a potentially skipped piece to the garage gym puzzle, but one that can make a serious difference – a new Wall Mounted Garage Door Opener. I purchased the Chamberlain RJ070 which I will detail below.
Key Notes
The Chamberlain RJ070 comes in at a sweet spot of price and features for anyone looking to replace their garage door opener. The Wall Mounted functionality and SMART controls are a BIG win in our garage.
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What Is A Wall Mounted Garage Door Opener?
So first… a garage door opener is the piece that… TADA, opens your garage door! It requires some form of motor and power, and lifts that heavy door up and down day after day. The most common option is an overhead unit. These often run on a chain, belt, or are a screw/bolt style. This requires there to be a long metal piece ran at the top of the garage, along with the opener receiver/unit itself, which pulls the door up that chain/belt/screw.
A wall mounted garage door opener on the other hand removes the chain/belt/bolt set-up ran through the top of the garage. It then mounts to your wall to the side of the garage door itself, and attaches to the rod that runs through the spring on the garage door wall.
These leverage materials your garage door already has and removes a bunch of “extra” materials you likely do not need.
High Level Benefits to The Garage Gym Owner
You can probably already see a few benefits but let me list a few of the main reasons I chose to get one for my garage.
Maintenance & Noise
First, my old garage door opener was LOUD and required a LOT of maintenance. I was regularly tightening bolts and lubricating the various pieces. This meant also cleaning up the over spray and dripping lube off the floor and my garage door. Even with that regular work, the garage door was LOUD. I knew when someone got home from inside and across the house. Don’t even think about being INSIDE the garage on a cold day and opening the door at the same time.
The Wall Mounted Garage Door Opener, because there are almost ZERO moving pieces, no chains, no extra bolts, etc. there is nothing to lubricate (you probably still want to occasionally lube the pulley, wheels, and spring), nothing to tighten, and nothing to maintain. I will occasionally check all of the connections, but that is it.
SMART
Second, and this can be obtained by a newer garage door opener of any kind, is the smart technology. These newer models can run off your WiFi and allow you to monitor if your door is open or closed and close from afar with the app. You can even grant access to guests at varying times (really awesome if you run a business through your gym like GORX Fitness), and more. There are also other options like battery backup (open your door when the power goes out), deadbolt locking, Amazon delivery, and more.
Space
Third, and this might be the BIGGEST win for the typical garage gym owner, is space. When we asked Garage Gym Competition participants about a problem they haven’t solved in their gym… SPACE made up 60% of the answers! Since the unit gets installed on the front wall of the garage, and you remove the ENTIRE overhead piece, you just opened up a ton of overhead space.
The way my old unit was set up, I had a VERY specific spot where I could do my log work, overhead press, or do various other overhead items. Even my daughters ninja warrior training had to work around the door opener. Now, all of that is gone and we are free to overhead press wherever we want! This is also an aesthetically pleasing solution.
What To Know First About The Chamberlain RJ070
My Chamberlain RJ070 came with a checklist in the box that honestly would have been great to have BEFORE I bought it. I lucked out and it all worked, but I figure I can share that here and save you some potential headache.
- Make sure you have a normal sectional garage door. Roll tops (where they roll up like a commercial facility) and other oddities won’t work.
- Must have a torsion bar and springs. You need 1.5 inches of “extra” bar on the side you wish to install the unit at a minimum. You need 3 inches between the bar and the ceiling. and you need at least 2.5 inches from the wall to the bar.
- You must have a “regular” wound drum. The drum is the piece where the cable runs alongside the garage door. Regular wound means the cable is close to the wall, reverse wound means it is on the other side.
- You need power access, regular 120 outlet, within 6 feet of the install location.
- You need WiFi access at the point of install.
cable is close to the wall
I should make this note VERY clear, you absolutely already need an installed and working garage door. If you are experiencing any issues with your garage door, please seek the help of a professional to balance, maintain, fix, or otherwise set you straight.
You will need a handful of various tools like a drill, sockets, wrenches, levels, and more. Most home owners will likely own the needed materials.
My Wall Mounted Garage Door Opener – The Chamberlain RJO70
I did a lot of research, and oddly enough there are only a handful of options from about 3 different manufacturers. Liftmaster, Genie, and Chamberlain. I specifically wanted one that had the smart access technology as we ride our bikes and go for walks pretty often. Being able to lock and open the door with my phone instead of carrying an extra clicker was a winner for us.
I wanted a unit that came with battery backup, just in case. And I wanted an extra clicker because my truck doesn’t have it built in. I landed on the Chamberlain RJ070 due to price and features. It was the most feature heavy option for the price, that still had EXCELLENT reviews no matter where I looked.
I’m sure you won’t be disappointed with any of the other models available right now. Looking at Amazon the Liftmaster Elite w/ the same bells and whistles as my Chamberlain is about $80 more expensive. And the Genie 6172H-O is actually just a tad cheaper. So you have about a $100 range for the three similar units. If you don’t want the SMART tech, you can snag the Genie for another $60 cheaper!
You have probably done the math already, yes… a side mount unit is a premium over a new high end overhead unit. Genie’s high end 7155-TKV is over $100 cheaper than the side mount units. Again, we are paying for the other benefits of space, aesthetics, low maintenance, etc.
Installation of The Chamberlain RJO70
I had my neighbor help me install the unit, just because two heads fetching tools, holding things, drilling, driving, and figuring out instructions is often better than one. If you are handy with a drill, have installed a thing or two, and can follow instructions, you could do it yourself.
The unit comes with an installation pamphlet and a full user guide. Immediately throw away the install pamphlet. It skips steps, leaves out important details, completely ignores the battery back-up process, and more. Not doing this cost me two hours of my life.
Wiring
The only other hiccup I encountered, was installing the garage wall mounted clicker. Most people will want their clicker just inside the door that leads from inside the house, into the garage. You will run the wiring from there, up into the rafters or down to the floor board, or some method of hiding the wiring.
Run it around, and all the way to the unit. My run was about 36 feet in total (4 feet up, 8 feet to the left, 22 feet from front to back wall, and 2 feet down to the unit). My garage is a VERY average sized garage at 22 x 22 ft. And we ran out of wire. We were about 6 feet short. Luckily I borrowed from my previous install and it worked, but this felt like a big oversight.
For something they KNOW is going to be run a long distance, I would expect this wire to be MUCH longer. If my garage was a 3 car garage or even a LITTLE bigger I would have likely been screwed. So you MIGHT need to consider buying an extra length pack of wiring like this.
The rest of the install process was straight forward. Tear down your old unit, follow the directions, use the right tools, hook up your WiFi, run some safety tests, and enjoy! I spent a little extra time the next day hiding wires and cleaning up the install a little, but this should take a few hours for tear down and set up. As always, I’d allow most of the day just in case.
So Far So Good
I purchased the Chamberlain RJ070 Wall Mounted Garage Door Opener on December 5th, 2022. It was installed on December 23rd. We’ve been using it successfully with very few issues since.
So far I am very happy. Outside of the two install hiccups, the entire process was easy, the unit is ABSURDLY quiet, and the additional headspace is GOLDEN! I love that everything is tucked away, the cables and wiring are clean, and the SMART functions are very handy for a number of uses.
I’ve used the app on my phone countless times so far. We’ve been across the street riding bikes and my daughter has to run in and out. I’ve gotten home in a friends car and I can open the garage. I even gave my mom access so she can open when she comes over.
One Hiccup
The ONLY hiccup with the app, is that it sometimes forgets who you are. That is the best way I can describe it. It gives an error, you have to log out of the app, log back in, and you are good to go. I’ve had to do this twice on each of mine and my mom’s phones. The clicker in my truck has worked every day. And the built in programmed clicker in my wife’s car has worked every day.
I will add that I put Chamberlain RJ070 on a guest 2.5ghz WiFi network titled Gray’s Garage. SMART devices are notorious for having terrible security flaws. So this one is on a network all by itself to avoid any potential unwanted data pirates.
We haven’t had a chance to test the battery back-up, which is a good thing in general. But I can not comment on that. I did however get to use the Amazon delivery option. We tested it one day we knew we would be home. It was weird because I was in the garage, lifting, and the Amazon dude popped in and handed me the package. Not something I would use regularly as I work from home. But if I didn’t, or if we ever have expected deliveries while out of town, this is an awesome feature.
Wrap Up
Overall I’m very happy with the Chamberlain RJ070. It works, its damn near silent, the app works 99.9% of the time, it does exactly what I wanted. Honestly, it exceeds what I thought I would get from this.
If you have a finished garage and are looking to complete the look, or simply are looking at replacing your older garage door opener, I highly recommend checking out the Chamberlain RJ070.
đź’˛You can grab a Chamberlain RJ070 from this link.
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Joe Gray
My name is Joe Gray - aka Gray Matter Lifting - and I've been lifting at home since 2013. In that time I've built a badass gym, deadlifted over 600lbs, helped grow r/Homegym to over 1 Million subscribers, created the Garage Gym Competition and written a ton of posts here on this site. I love the Garage Gym Community... If you do too, I hope you stick around.
