Motorized Garage Screens

Here's what we hear from probably 80% of our garage screen customers: "I didn't even know this was a thing." Fair enough. Retractable garage door screens aren't exactly mainstream yet, but the people who have them wonder how they ever lived without one.

Home Gym

This is the fastest-growing reason people call us. You've got the space, the concrete floor can take a beating, and with a motorized garage screen deployed you get full airflow without the bugs or the audience. Solar fabric cuts the afternoon heat by up to 90%, and privacy mesh means nobody driving by can see you doing questionable things with a kettlebell.

The concept is straightforward even if the engineering behind it isn't. A motorized retractable garage screen mounts inside a compact aluminum housing above your garage door opening — on the exterior side, underneath the header. When you hit the remote (or phone app, or wall switch, or ask Alexa), a tubular motor deploys the screen fabric downward through side tracks. A zipper welded to the fabric edge locks into those tracks, creating a sealed enclosure with no gaps for bugs or wind.

Hit the button again and the whole thing retracts back into the housing. When it's retracted, you'd barely know it's there. Our housing is 4.5 inches — the smallest in the industry. Most competitors are 6 to 8 inches, which sounds like a small difference until you see it mounted above a garage door and realize it looks like a rain gutter.

Standard configurations cover single garage doors (typically 8-10 feet wide) and double garage doors (16-18 feet wide) with heights up to 12 feet. Custom dimensions are standard for us — every unit is built to order.

We manufacture these. We don't import them, we don't rebrand somebody else's product, we don't outsource the fabrication. Every Apollo motorized garage screen is built by hand in the United States, custom to your opening, and assembled by people who actually understand what they're making. That matters when something has to survive outdoor conditions for 15 or 20 years.

Here's the stuff that separates our garage screens from everyone else's:

Impulse-Welded Zipper Retention

The zipper that runs along the edge of the fabric — the part that locks into the side tracks — is the single most failure-prone component on any motorized screen. Most manufacturers sew it on or use adhesive tape. Both fail. We impulse weld it using a 30-foot heat strip that fuses the zipper to the fabric at a molecular level. It's not coming apart. This is the same technology used in industrial applications where permanent bonds are non-negotiable.

Heavy Gauge Components

Our competitors use plastic idlers, plastic end caps, plastic brackets. On a product that sits outside in UV, rain, and temperature swings. Plastic gets brittle and cracks — it's just a matter of time. We use injection-molded glass-filled D66 nylon and heavy gauge metal where it counts. Our idler system runs on dual ball bearings compared to the industry standard which is a single plastic bushing. The result is an operation so smooth and quiet you almost can't hear it.

Warranties That Actually Mean Something

20-year motor warranty. 20-year fabric warranty. Those aren't typos. The industry standard is a 5-year motor warranty and most fabric warranties are 10 years or less. We can offer this because we control the manufacturing and we know exactly how long our materials last. If it fails under warranty, we fix it. Period.

This is important, so if you've been skimming, slow down for this part.

The fabric is arguably the most important decision you'll make, and it depends entirely on what you're using your garage for. Same screen system, completely different results depending on the mesh.

Bug Mesh (Superscreen) — Maximum airflow, full insect protection, good outward visibility. This is what most people want for gym, workshop, and general ventilation use. The mesh is fiberglass core with PVC coating — it's not your grandmother's screen door material. Rated for exterior use with UV stabilizers.

Solar Shade (85-97) — Cuts 80-97% of UV and solar heat while maintaining visibility. If your garage faces west and the afternoon sun turns it into a sauna, this is the move. You'll still get airflow and you can still see out, but the heat drops dramatically.

Privacy Fabric (0% openness / dimout) — Full privacy day and night. This is a polyester-core PVC-coated fabric that blocks 99% of visibility. Ideal if you're using the garage as an office or entertainment space and don't want anyone seeing in. Heavier fabric, slightly less airflow, but completely private.

Every fabric we use comes with a 20-year warranty — designed specifically for outdoor exposure.

See all fabric options and full specifications

You've got two main categories when it comes to garage door screens: manual systems and motorized systems. The biggest manual option on the market is the Lifestyle Garage Door Screen — it's a fixed frame that swings up under your existing garage door. Reasonable product for the price, but there are real differences worth understanding.

Manual systems like Lifestyle require two hands to operate — you're physically lifting and positioning a frame. They eat into your headroom because the frame stacks under the garage door. And your fabric options are limited to basic screen mesh.

Motorized systems like Apollo operate with a remote, phone app, or smart home integration. They don't reduce headroom at all because the housing mounts on the exterior header. Fabric options include bug mesh, solar shade, and full privacy. And the zipper-track system creates a true sealed enclosure — no gaps, no flapping in the wind.

Is motorized more expensive? Yes. Is it worth the difference? We think so, if you ever try one you will too. The convenience factor alone — being able to deploy or retract a garage screen without getting up — is something people consistently tell us they didn't think would matter until they had it.