Is this considered a good attachment for a garage door opener? I would like it to be attached to a vertical brace not just the door and strut, but sometimes I find them like this.
Do you have any pics or manufactures diagrams of a vertical brace?
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Yep
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Like the one Ryan posted below.
The top mount one is original equipment in my picture above. But you will find all sorts of pictures on the internet of damaged doors from that style of attachment. It would never fly in my area where doors are often frozen down, and people forget to go give em a kick before hitting the open button. The vertical brace kit is an upgrade over the original attachment method. I’m not sure if they even make that top mount method anymore.
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The top strut helps prevent the door from bending
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Yeah, they still make 'em but like you said it is a problem attachment especially in cold country.
These type seem to work better:
Grab the hinge bolt…
And, at a minimum get attached grabbing around the upper brace/strut:
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Yeah ive seen a few damaged ones attached without the strut bar seen in my pic. I feel like it should fully attached and not half door half bracket.
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I guess a few other variables should be considered;
Is it a single or double garage door?
Wood (older) or aluminum?
Insulated panels or not?
The reason I ask this is that garage doors vary in weight and openers should be mounted according to the door structure itself.
It it were a single aluminum door in your pic, with no insulation panels, I see no problems.
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The whole purpose of the horizontal reinforcement struts is to prevent natural sag from the door’s own weight when its in the open position AND to resist the door opener pull at mid span at the top of the door section where the sag/tension would be the highest.
All the vertical reinforcement does is spread out the door opener arm’s pulling force from one point to two points. Does nothing against the natural sag.
And this is a poor repair that will likely break again because the top section of the door is already broken and can’t take tension when it’s sagging and getting pulled. The little metal clip barely holds the thin sheet metal of the door together at the break.
IMO the horizontal reinforcement struts are much more important than the vertical bracket BS.
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Single, aluminum not insulated, brand new construction.
Best to check with the opener’s installation instructions if you have concerns. JMO, in that situation, I would probably pass on and not think about it.
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DASMA guideline sheet 166 defers to the installation instructions, but does say (page 2) that the, “The bracket connecting the operator to the door must be structurally adequate based on the amount of force required to lift the door.”
If it doesn’t look adequate or is loose write it up.
TDS166-Guidelines-For-Connecting-A-Drawbar-Operator-To-A-Sectional-Garage-Door.pdf (456.2 KB)
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I look for performance problems - loose parts, excess movement, failing fasteners, etc. Or, obviously missing hardware. I agree OP’s pic doesn’t look like the best setup but it’s a long and winding road writing up everything in a house that falls into that category.
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Yep. Op’s photo doesn’t show any issues at the moment. Nothing to write up really.
Up north in the land of frozen down garage doors, I always take a look across the top of the door to see if it has been tweaked. Even legitimately beefy opener/door connections can have damage if the door is frozen down and the opener settings are not dialed in.
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Funny… I never thought of doors frozen to the ground but that totally makes sense. I always train my guys to look at that attachment as it’s easy to move past unless you are specifically looking (I probably paid money at some point due to it being missed… that’s often what makes me remember 
) I often joke that the doors aren’t so much solid aluminum but just really thick tinfoil.
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Do you see aluminum overhead doors? I’ve wondered about aluminum doors. I see steel around here (I carry a magnet) and don’t recall finding an aluminum one yet. I’ll have to start checking more doors. I’ve become quite lax with the magnet test.
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I see very few in my area Mike. Usually higher end homes and they usually have a lot of glass.
I’ve never checked and they might be steel… I was more thinking aluminum to fit my (aluminum) tinfoil joke. Foil is aluminum, right?