Rattling and shaking, the chain-driven device slowly raised the door on the right.

The afternoon light flooded into my double-car garage, illuminating dusty children’s bicycles, old bed frames and lawn equipment.

Small rolls of carpeting, Christmas lights, lumber scraps, old computer boxes and forgotten arts, crafts and science projects filled most of the two bays.

As the door stopped, I surveyed some of my golden family memories, feeling like Ali Baba entering a cave of treasures.

“Let’s get rid of all of it.”

My wife’s voice brought me back to the job at hand: to clean out the garage to make room for my two daughters’ cars.

“Open Sesame,” I said, pushing the button to open the second door — but only for fun. The ancient motor lost its magic in the mid-’90s.

“You should order a new garage door opener tomorrow,” my wife said, carrying armfuls of clutter out to the curb.

Bring in the clones

If you start shopping around for garage door openers, you’ll notice a lot of them look alike.

That’s because two companies produce most of the models under various labels.

Chamberlain Group Inc. is the biggest. It makes models under its own LiftMaster name and for Sears Craftsman, Master Mechanic, Raynor, True Value, True Guard and many others.

Overhead Door, which claims credit for making the first garage door openers in 1921, sells its models under its own name and under the Genie brand, which it purchased in 1994.

Other garage door brands include Stanley, which made openers until January 2002. It still provides parts for its units.

In my garage, I have a Sears Craftsman I got in the early 1990s that still works. The one that needs replaced is a popular model made in the 1970s by Overhead Door.

This is the Mini Remote Controller offered by Overhead Door. It features the CodeDodger Access Security System.

Latest in lifting

When shopping for a garage door opener, you’ll find three types: chain drive, screw drive and belt drive.

Of the three, the belt drives, which are in the $200-plus range, are supposed to be the quietest. You might want to consider one if you have a bedroom above your garage.

The screw drives, which use a long, threaded bar to raise and lower the door, are supposed to be the most reliable. However, a sales representative told me you have to make sure the door is adjusted properly for them to work. They run between $160 and $240.

The chain drive is the most common. It pulls the door up with a chain that rides along a rail. The main problem with these is that the chain eventually stretches and needs to be tightened. Also, the chain can slip off the rail and make a lot of noise. They run between $130 and $200.

Rolling the codes

Using a remote-control device to open your door led to security problems: Others with similar remotes could open your doors.

Originally, that problem was circumvented by having the receiver in the garage recognize only a certain transmitter’s ID number.

However, thieves began using code-grabbing devices that could be used to copy a fixed radio signal of any opener while it was in operation.

In the 1990s, the manufacturers thwarted code grabbing by using “rolling code” technology.

Overhead Door calls its rolling code technology the CodeDodger Access Security System. The technology is called Intellicode under the Genie brand.

Each remote controller has its own continuously changing access code. The access code changes every time the button is pressed. There are 4.3 billion combinations.

It also prohibits the opener from responding to the same access code more than once, and recognizes access codes from up to seven remote controllers for the same opener.

You also can get conversion kits to change your old garage door opener over to the new rolling code technology for between $60 and $100.

More innovations

Speed is one of the latest innovations in garage doors.

Overhead Door has been touting its new “OverDrive” models. Genie’s is called the “Excelerator.” They open a sectional door at twice the speed of a regular model — 14 inches per second as opposed to 7 inches per second.

Accessories are available, including smaller remotes you can carry on a key chain. Craftsman has a controller that uses a motion detector to tell when the person with the controller enters the garage, turning on the light automatically.

Genie has a multifunctional wall console with a voice recorder feature, called the G-Mail.

And Chamberlain has its trademarked EverCharge Backup Battery System, which lets you open the door even if the power goes out.

Close Sesame

Bonnie, one of my daughters, had wanted me to hurry up and clean out the garage so she could bring her car inside at night.

As the pile out by the curb grew larger, she came driving up.

I put the broom down and motioned her to slowly pull into the empty bay.

“Thanks, Dad.”

In the next couple of days, I got rid of most of the junk — and watched as the new garage door opener was installed.

I decided to go with the “Legacy,” a chain-driven model by Overhead Door.

It came with a couple of rolling code tech remotes and a keyless entry pad that had to be programmed. It also had an infrared beam system, which stops the door from closing if an object crosses in front of the beam.

A few mornings later, I noticed Bonnie’s car was parked outside in the driveway, rather than in the newly cleaned garage.

“Why aren’t you putting your car in the garage?”

“I hate parking in there,” she said. “It’s just too small. It’s really cramped. It’s too dark … and my friends can’t tell if I’m home.”