Marantec Manuals

These A370 openers look fantastic. Pure white that appears as if it will never get dirty. Fairly quiet too. (Now days most openers are.)

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Some A370 openers do not say "Marantec" on them. Instead local companies buy them and relabel the cases putting their name on it. So you might call them not knowing it’s a Marantec. www.amazon.com/Synergy-370-Garage-Opener-Lighting/dp/B07581VN9M

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Hörmann was founded in Germany around the 1930s. (See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%B6rmann) It seems one of the brothers started Marantec in the late 80s. (See www.marantec.com/en/company) The technology in the Marantec in my opinion is a throw back to the last century. Same transmitters that use a wire between them to program them. Same unique frequencies that don’t work with universal Transmitters. (Though they do work with homelink systems.) Same unique ways to adjust the opener. These openers only work with Marantec controls. So if you buy one you will forever be paying extra for their unique way of doing things. I think Hörmann has progressed a bit but Marantec is still in the last century.

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Marantec was probably the first or one of the first companies to use quiet DC motors in the USA. Genie probably was second a few years later but the unit they made often had problems. Then Hörmann made it to the USA. Soon after Chamberlain, Linear, Genie, basically everybody, had somewhat reliable quiet DC openers. I say somewhat because regardless of the brand there would always be some lemons.

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I don’t see any difference in quality between a Genie belt drive, 1.5 hp, for $179 at Lowes and this German opener for $700 or more and only 3/4 hp. I say more because a local company just installed one for over $2,100. There was no keypad included. The $2,100+ did include new springs that normally would not be needed. I measured the springs they put on and there was nothing special about them. Rated for less than 30,000 cycles. (I use springs for $250 that are rated for close to 100,000 cycles.) I can only guess that the opener is so sensitive the springs had to be replaced. Or perhaps the company told the owner this and it was not true. Now the owner would like a wireless keypad but the company wants to charge them a few hundred dollars more. Normal universal keypads will not work.

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Their A370 warranty copied from the manual below:

So you must register or keep the receipt of when you bought the opener. The way I read it the electronics are only warrantied for eight years. Marantec though seems to use quality parts. I’ve never seen one fail despite many being over 25 years old. Two things stand out to me though. Their lights and limited lifetime warranty. Their lights are unique and will probably cost a lot to replace. They are only warrantied for five years. And their limited lifetime warranty is only 20,000 openings! 20,000 openings will probably be reached well within 20 years. Quite possibly less than 10 years. Maybe even five years. I see springs rated for 30,000 cycles breaking in some households in only six years! I think 20,000 cycles is so low it should not ever have the word "lifetime" associated with it.

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Every company seems to have catches with their warranties. I was just looking at the Chamberlain/Liftmaster warranty on the 8355. It has a real lifetime warranty on the belt and motor. I’ve seen the belts go bad but the motors are rock solid. The catch is their electronics with a one year warranty. The cost of replacing their electronics, whether a wall switch or circuit board, is astronomical. (It’s cheaper to buy a new opener if you don’t mind installing it yourself.) And their electronics always seems to be a problem. As if they designed it that way. So most, possibly all, companies have catches with their warranties. The Marantec is quite possibly the most beautiful opener on the market and it is German. Though I myself would rather have a Genie or Linear that costs next to nothing and works with everything.

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