They are junk.

Can you elaborate please?

Here we go, another Wayne Dalton Rant.

Anything that bears the name Wayne Dalton is a glorified piece of Sh#t. Does not matter if it is a door and especially their openers.

1. The 9800 series door has an R value ( insulation value ) of 7.3 Most of you vinyl back insulated doors have an R value of somewhere between 6 and 7 and are built to last.

2. With Wayne Dalton your going to get the torquemaster spring system. This spring system does not last nearly as long as a conventional torsion spring systems and is more expensive to repair once the spring breaks and again the spring is going to break more often. You could ask for the torsion spring system instead, but I would imagine they are going to charge you more, b/c they love their torque master.

3. The hardware ( i.e. hinges, rollers, cables even track ) are made as cheaply as possible. Cables are 1/16 of an inch compared to regular 1/8 inch cable, Rollers are plastic, hinges you can bend with your bare hands and tracks you can bend with your bare hands.

4. Now with the 9800 series I assume you are interested in the dent resistance fiber glass. I would recommend not letting the kids use the door as a back stop and invest your money in a different brand door.

I don't know how much they charge for this door, but I would imagine it is a pretty penny. You can buy a conventional steel door with better hardware, higher R values and a nice design on the outside and it will last you alot longer than any Wayne Dalton will ever last.

I am only interested in the 9800 because it is a stained fiberglass door that would look like wood. Since my front entry door will be fiberglass, I can get the door stained to match.

Is there another brand of fiberglass door that is wood-grained and can be stained to look like stained wood?
Or another material other than fiberglass?

You can stain steel to look like wood. It is called wood graining. I only know this because my mother used to do this for a living and stained a soda machine and my steel front door to look like wood. You have to find someone who knows what they are doing. People think my front door is wood until they see the inside.

See my post from 4/15. Any reason not to go for wood beside maintenance? I have three 8x7 doors that need replacing -- they face the street and are very obvious! Of course, i'd like the low maint and cost of steel but the look??? any suggestions?
Thanks a bundle

house baby,

Any wood door you buy today is going to be alot more expensive than steel. If you like the look of wood and want to pay the extra money then buy wood. Most of them are just wood glued to steel sections.

Ordering a Wayne-Dalton door was the worst mistake I ever made. Terrible customer service. I called them after waiting for over 30 days for my door to be installed and they said, "oh, we're not going to be able to make the door you ordered." Now, you would think that they would have called me and told me this. Needless to say, I cancelled the order and will certainly never do business with them again.

I'll add my two cents. The Wayne Dalton 9800 is one of the most beautiful garage doors I've ever sold. We had the liberty to take pictures of an Install which was 5 years old in Southern California. Southern facing garage door with all kinds of harsh sun beating on it daily, and the door looked brand new. Maybe a few months old from just being dirty. I have noticed some 'so called garage guys' make comments about garage doors with zero experience with them. We only Install Torsion Springs on our garage doors, along with ball bearing rollers etc. The doors are fantastic. We even sell them direct to the public to avoid the common know it all garage door guys.

Hope this helps

Here is a link that might be useful: Garage Doors Cheap