Which Up and Over Garage Door is Best?

We have discussed this topic for so many years, when it comes to needing a standard steel up and over garage door in a standard size there is an obvious choice with consistent quality.
The Hormann Series 2000, introduced into the UK many years ago now, redefined the expectations and quality for a one piece up and over garage door. Before the Series 2000 you had the choice of an original Garador, Cardale, Henderson, Ellard and somesmaller manufacturers using a mismash of components to make something that did indeed go up and down, but with no finesse at all and door security was not even on the agenda!
The Hormann series 2000 is not the best choice if you require a purpose made size and for the best prices and made to measure sizes look at the GDO range of steel up and over doors.
The Garador range is also very good but a lot more expensive when it comes to made to order sizes in steel.

The Garador has the added advantage of using state of the art manufacturing methods, but on home soil, down in Somerset. They are able to offer standard and purpose made sizes and use exactly the same mechanism as Hormann, the only difference is the panel construction and to compare those can frankly get into far too much detail. The prices are higher but the quality is good, for more budget prices the GDO range is worh a look. The Hormann is ultimately slightly better and we will leave it at that. All single up and over garage doors are usually manufactured and fitted with either CANOPY or RETRACTABLE operating gear and the 2 videos below show the benefits of either system. All Hormann, Garador and GDO doors have all the operating gear factory fitted as standard and when the optional and recommended steel sub fixing frame is ordered that is also fitted from the factory.

Of course the Hormann Series 2000 is really quite a small range of doors compared to the complete range that Hormann has to offer. They have a full range of metric sized doors in their N80 and DF98 door ranges and this extends to very special doors like the ET500, a door capable of much more than any other door available using its design to angle the construction of bespoke timber doors using any weight of timber infill and also can be built with a pedestrian door inset into the main panel. 
In 2025 advances with other brands mean the pedestrian door is also available at far less cost. GDO offer a wicket door within the main door.

Novoferm and Cardale steel up and over doors have got very confused over the years with a mix of components and features meaning the doors dont always have a consistent quality.
For everyday steel up and over doors look towards the GDO door range. For a garage where you want to spend some more money and have a high quality, but possibly have to compromise on the sizes available, look at the standard Hormann and Garador.

If you want a larger double size garage door and think an up and over is an option, think again. You are better looking at sectional garage doors when the sizes get above 4m width generally.
Better stability, easier operation, better security and often  better prices even though you get an insulated door in the bargain!