Tell Me About your Smart Garage Door Opener

[Qs Laptop]

Thanks for all the replies.

Well, inflation has hit the garage door installation industry! I had priced out a replacement garage door back in 2021. Double garage, 16' X 7'. Nothing fancy. Middling R-factor for insulation. Back then it was $2,700 or thereabouts. Now, in 2024 it is $4,400 for essentially the same thing.

For just the garage door opener, of the two bids with a baseline smart Liftmaster garage door opener (installed) were $959 and $910. If I bring my own garage door opener they will install it for $395 or $444, depending on who I go with.

I'm bringing my own GDO.

I'm looking at a Chamberlain with a 3/4 HP motor, belt drive, motion detector, keypad. I won't be getting battery backup. (I was told battery backup is required in California.) I'm not getting a GDO with a camera, instead I will be installing a wifi camera I already own.

I've got one more company coming out to give me a quote tomorrow but I suspect it will be right in that $4,000 to $4,500 window.

 

[Zathras]

Forgot to mention I replaced the costly heavy duty incandescent bulbs with plain ‘ol cheap LED bulbs with no issues. The heavy duty incandescents were recommended to withstand the door motor vibrations so I thought the LEDS might fail quickly. I’d imagine all the new openers come with LEDs.

If a data point helps, we installed LED bulbs in three garage door openers 8 years ago.
So far we have had no issues with the bulbs

 

[OldShooter]

Here's this morning's LiftMaster result: DS opened the garage door at the lake house at 10:03. The notification message arrived in my phone at 10:37. Not exactly useful.

 

[Sunset]

The cloud is biggest concern with the myQ garage door opener but for a different reason. How the company could potentially track the history of opening/closing and likely guess when no one is at home. I am not concerned that someone is sitting in their data center watching my home specifically, but that they will sell historical data to a 3rd party or there is a data leak. (I don't recall what their terms of service state, so this fear is lilkely unwarranted). I rarely use the myQ app as it offers very little that is not visible in real life, but decided to keep the opener connected longer trips out of town.

....

That wouldn't work too well for us , and lots of others, because we can go 3 days without even driving anywhere. Plus we park a vehicle outside and use it , so our garage door may not open for a week.

Better "tells" are: Our water meter is real time, so the water company knows when we flush the toilet, etc and when traveling our water usage stops.

Then there is always the garbage bins, once a week garbage bin not out for pickup shouts a person is away.

So I don't worry about the garage door tracking.

 

[Sunset]

I did a retrofit on my older unit. Not that you should, but the mechanism is simple and works great. The unit plugs into my opener and connects to my wifi. Any smart opener will do that. The simplicity comes in at the switch that lets me know the door is open or closed. It's a simple magnetic switch. A magnet in a static position and the switch rides with the door. Switch open, door open. Switch closed, door closed. Notification is pretty much instantaneous. In addition to that, my ring camera shows enough of the door that I can see whether it is closed or not.

...

I added a switch to tell if my door was open, but after a couple of years it started to lie to me, so I installed a camera in my garage and now can see for myself if the door is open/closed.

 

[Qs Laptop]

Here's this morning's LiftMaster result: DS opened the garage door at the lake house at 10:03. The notification message arrived in my phone at 10:37. Not exactly useful.

You might try clearing the cache of the app software.

 

[Music Lover]

Here's this morning's LiftMaster result: DS opened the garage door at the lake house at 10:03. The notification message arrived in my phone at 10:37. Not exactly useful.

A $30 nanny cam with an alert feature would probably work better.

 

[jazz4cash]

Here's this morning's LiftMaster result: DS opened the garage door at the lake house at 10:03. The notification message arrived in my phone at 10:37. Not exactly useful.

This is good motivation for me to install the Blink cam I bought long ago to monitor garage door status and motion. I assume the motion sensor will detect door opening and local alerts are pretty quick. Could your delay be due to distance and internet connection?

 

[OldShooter]

This is good motivation for me to install the Blink cam I bought long ago to monitor garage door status and motion. I assume the motion sensor will detect door opening and local alerts are pretty quick. Could your delay be due to distance and internet connection?

Yeah. I think using third party specialist hardware and software for monitoring and video is probably wise.

Re delay, both the lake home and the city home have 100meg nominal connections and the WAP at the lake is optimally placed to provide a solid signal well beyond the garage. So, sadly, no.

My best guess about the problem is that the server that Liftmaster is tied to is woefully inadequate for the workload they are putting on it. They are door opener guys, not techies, so they have probably farmed out this job to someone else.

Re motion sensor, most of those detect changes in temperature as motion. So a warm body in a cool space. Maybe not a garage door if the temperature outside is similar to the door temperature. Just a guess. But you can buy a magnetic switch of a couple of bucks and connect that to a contact closure alarm point.

 

[Sunset]

Yeah. I think using third party specialist hardware and software for monitoring and video is probably wise.

Re delay, both the lake home and the city home have 100meg nominal connections and the WAP at the lake is optimally placed to provide a solid signal well beyond the garage. So, sadly, no.

My best guess about the problem is that the server that Liftmaster is tied to is woefully inadequate for the workload they are putting on it. They are door opener guys, not techies, so they have probably farmed out this job to someone else.

Re motion sensor, most of those detect changes in temperature as motion. So a warm body in a cool space. Maybe not a garage door if the temperature outside is similar to the door temperature. Just a guess. But you can buy a magnetic switch of a couple of bucks and connect that to a contact closure alarm point.

You can buy a wyze or eufy camera for ~$25 and no subscription needed to get alerts and see live view, and record on the microSD inserted into the camera. They are 2K resolution. They can see in the dark and detect motion rather than body heat.

 

[jazz4cash]

Re motion sensor, most of those detect changes in temperature as motion. So a warm body in a cool space. Maybe not a garage door if the temperature outside is similar to the door temperature. Just a guess. But you can buy a magnetic switch of a couple of bucks and connect that to a contact closure alarm point.

yes the temperature change =motion detection is curious but it triggers on cars pulling into the drive so I am optimistic. It’ll be fun to tinker with.

You can buy a wyze or eufy camera for ~$25 and no subscription needed to get alerts and see live view, and record on the microSD inserted into the camera. They are 2K resolution. They can see in the dark and detect motion rather than body heat.

I am generally happy with Blink cams and already have a few new in the box but I might try the Wyze or Eufy just to compare. I would love longer detection range.

 

[Jerry1]

Sounds like what I’m looking for. Who makes it? I was thinking these will still work locally as long as wifi is connected, though.

This is not the exact one I have (mine is no longer on Amazon), but it is the same format.

Amazon.com

I’m not sure if it works locally. I’m sure it doesn’t send out notifications when the internet is down. Plus, when you’re home, you can just use your door opener switch as long as you have power. It only rarely that I use the app at home to open the door. Typically, only when I’m doing something outside and need in the garage and have my phone with me.

 

[jazz4cash]

This is not the exact one I have (mine is no longer on Amazon), but it is the same format.

Amazon.com

I’m not sure if it works locally. I’m sure it doesn’t send out notifications when the internet is down. Plus, when you’re home, you can just use your door opener switch as long as you have power. It only rarely that I use the app at home to open the door. Typically, only when I’m doing something outside and need in the garage and have my phone with me.

Thanks. I was looking at this one before. Seems like the major brands don’t offer this feature as an accessory.
EDIT: chamberlain makes an add-on.

 

[Qs Laptop]

I replaced my opener last week. The remotes quit working and troubleshooting indicated a bad control board on the old unit. The opener was a Liftmaster chain drive, non-smart, 12 years old. The replacement board is no longer available except used on eBay. l opted to replace it with a new smart opener. This is what I installed - https://www.lowes.com/pd/Chamberlain-CHA-3-4-HPS-BELT-GDO-WIFI-BBU-LED/5002182401
The belt drive is MUCH quieter than the chain drive. It came with an outside remote pad and two remotes. Battery backup, smart control, and a built in motion sensor light. Installation was straightforward and everything works well. Based on one week’s use, I can highly recommend it.

The opener in your link at Lowe's is for the Chamberlain B4613T smart garage door opener. It comes with battery backup, a wireless keypad but no camera. $259 at Lowe's and Amazon. It has one bright LED light on one side of the unit. I wanted the Chamberlain smart garage door opener with the LED lights on both sides of the unit. The unit with two LED lights is the Chamberlain B6713T which costs $6 more ($265), has battery backup, but doesn't have the wireless keypad.

So now I'm thinking I probably don't need the keypad since I can use my phone to open the door.

But wait! I can get the Chamberlain B6753T. It has both LED lights and the camera, and battery backup, but no keypad for $279. This is at Lowe's or Amazon for $279. So for only $14 more I get the camera.

But hang on a minute! Costco to the rescue. I can get the B6755T which has all of these things, two LED lights, battery backup, camera, wireless keypad for $279. This is $299 at Lowe's and Amazon doesn't have it. I can get the wireless keypad "thrown in" at Costco.

I said earlier I thought I wouldn't get a GDO with a built in camera, but I figure I'll blow that dough, $14 more, and get it, and get the keypad as well.

 

[boog]

Sounds like a great deal on the Costco purchase! The camera would be a nice feature, especially for so little extra. The notification of opening and closing will have to be enough for us. I had installed an aftermarket “smart open device” last year on the old opener which worked well and let me check from afar if the door was open or closed. It is redundant now with the myQ feature, but I hooked it up anyway as a backup. It required an optional piece which the company sent free upon request. It uses a magnetic switch attached to the garage door, so there’s little chance of a false notification.

 

[ls99]

My garage door is so smart..... Never mind.

 

[CardsFan]

FYI, you can buy a wireless keypad for $20-30 at anytime. Easy to program. I have the app, but the key pad is convenient, and I would always get one again. We use the garage door more than the front door. Easy in and out without a phone in my hand or pocket.

 

[kgtest]

I did a retrofit on my older unit. Not that you should, but the mechanism is simple and works great. The unit plugs into my opener and connects to my wifi. Any smart opener will do that. The simplicity comes in at the switch that lets me know the door is open or closed. It's a simple magnetic switch. A magnet in a static position and the switch rides with the door. Switch open, door open. Switch closed, door closed. Notification is pretty much instantaneous. In addition to that, my ring camera shows enough of the door that I can see whether it is closed or not.

Keep in mind. None of these things work without the internet (obvious), so every once in a while, something you rely on may not work. That's one of the frustrating things about the internet of things. You need the internet. When power goes out, I lose internet but since I have a generator, my in house wifi works fine. So, the device can be seen on my network (while my phone is on the network), but it won't work because it needs input through the internet. Very frustrating. Thankfully, about the only internet of things that I've found that works reasonably well with no internet is my smart light bulbs.

Bingo.

If the internet goes down, so do the internets "things" lol. Not realizing this can be a frustrating tail-chasing exercise. I think we are so used to being "always on" that when things do go offline, it becomes confusing.

I have the same setup as you Jerry1, not surprising since great minds think alike.

My magnet is still there, but I need to re-configure the box to my network's Subnet. I believe after power outages the IoT device resets its subnet defaults back to a 192.168.1.1 or something, so I always need to reset my router to that subnet, do a scan to connect the device, then update the IoT's subnet mask to my desired to match my network... reboot the IoT, update the Routers subnet back to my desired and reboot that bad boy.

 

[kgtest]

Sounds like what I’m looking for. Who makes it? I was thinking these will still work locally as long as wifi is connected, though.

Unfortunately it won't work if you do not have the internet hook to the Service Provider.

 

[JoeWras]

I'll tell you about my Chamberlain with myQ. I used the myQ for 1 week and decided it wasn't necessary. I disabled it and removed the app. It was just not needed. I do like the Chamberlains in general. Very reliable and quiet.

One thing about all this Iot stuff is when your router or wifi access point changes, you have a ton of work to do to re-attach all the devices. You probably did this 5 years ago and now can't remember how to reconfigure it.

 

[VanWinkle]

MyQ conversion from non wifi to full app control of most openers for about 30 bucks. I did
mine last year and it has worked flawlessly. Now when SO asks 2 miles down the road if I closed
the garage door, I say "check your app".