We've researched the latest garage door openers, asked the experts, and sifted through thousands of specs, features and user reviews to find the best garage door openers around. Here's everything you need to know about the Chamberlain B510 garage door opener.
Chamberlain B510 garage door opener: What you need to know
If you took everything that was really important from our top choice of best garage door opener, the Chamberlain B970, the reliability, the belt drive and triband remote controls and then cut out everything that you could conceivably think of as an extra, then you end up with the Chamberlain B510.
So, you've got the Chamberlain name and build quality, but at a lower price point that is certainly more wallet-friendly, if you can live without some of the features. And that might be a big ask, because that includes a backup battery, which you could argue is an essential feature if you live in an area with frequent power outages.
So, let's take a closer look at what the Chamberlain B510 offers.
Chamberlain B510 garage door opener: Price
With so many features missing you'd expect the Chamberlain B510 to be a lot cheaper than the B970, and you'd be right. Home Depot are currently listing the B510 for under $219.
Its price might actually be the B510's weakest area, since it's not that much less than the more fully-featured Chamberlain B970.
Chamberlain B510 garage door opener: Features
Let's breakdown what you get with the Chamberlain B510. Firstly, this is a belt-drive model, and it comes with a 1/2 horsepower motor, which isn't up to the spec of the 1 1/4 horsepower motor found in the B970.
Dimensions: Depth 26.8-in, Height 13.4-in, Width 8.1-in, Length (Rail) 9.4 ft
Weight: 37.1 lb
Type: Belt drive
Motor horsepower: 1/2 hp
Battery backup: No
Remote controls: 2 included
Warranty: 10-year warranty motor, 15-year warranty drive, 1-year warranty parts & accessories
In the box you get installation rails, two 3-button remotes with triband technology that work up to 1,500 feet away, two sensors to avoid the door closing on something and a wireless exterior keypad.
There's no Wi-Fi included, so if you want to connect the B510 to your smartphone you're going to need to also buy the myQ Smart Garage Hub. You can pick up the hub for around $50. Of course, if you don't want to use your smartphone to open your garage door then this isn't an issue.
The B510 is HomeLink compatible, so you can also control it from your vehicle.
Chamberlain B510 garage door opener: Performance
The majority of people buying this budget model seem to be upgrading from an older chain drive model, and as such, they're all very impressed with how much quieter the belt drive on the B510 is compared to their previous models.
The belt drive seems to operate quietly and efficiently and customers are also impressed by how far away the remote controls work.
In terms of reliability, it seems to be a rock-solid performer. Obviously that's until there's a power cut, since there's no backup battery.
Chamberlain B510 garage door opener: User reviews
The customer reviews for the Chamberlain B510 are positive on the whole. It scored 4.6 out of 5 stars on the Home Depot website and got a stunning 94% customer recommendation rating.
Customers continually praise the ease of installation of the B510, but equally a lot of people opt to get it installed by a professional installer.
The only recurring negative response for the B510 in customer reviews is to do with a fault where it stops closing the garage door a few feet from the ground. But reading through the responses it seems that this is easily fixed by pointing the sensors at the ground and resetting them.
Should you buy the Chamberlain B510 garage door opener?
Whether you should buy the Chamberlain B510 over the more fully-featured Chamberlain B970 garage door opener boils down to how badly you need the features it leaves out. If a backup battery and Wi-Fi connection are essential requirements for you then give it a miss and go with the more expensive B970.
It's important to note that the price gap between the B510 and the B970 is only around $30, which we don't think is big enough considering all the extras you get with the B970.
Alternatives to the Chamberlain B510 garage door opener
There are many things to like about the Chamberlain B970, but we can sum it up like this: It’s one of the most full-featured models in our comparison and it has a great warranty.
The Genie 1035-V is a budget garage door opener that gets the job done without breaking the bank. There's no backup battery or Wi-Fi built-in but you can't argue with the price.
If you want to add a camera, parking lasers and music to your garage door opener then consider the GD201 from RYOBI. It's the most customizable product in our buying guide.
