How often have you asked yourself, “did I close the garage door?” With a smart garage, you won’t have to wonder. That’s just one of the many reasons to bring smart home technology into your garage, too.
Start With a Smart Garage Door Opener
Unless you have a carport, it’s very likely your garage has a garage door, and thankfully there’s no shortage of options to make your garage door opener smart. And that’s good too because you’ll get a lot of peace of mind when you switch to a smart opener. If you can’t remember if you closed the garage door, for instance, you’ll be able to pull out your phone and check. Did you forget? You can then close it too.
Depending on your smart garage door opener you buy, you may even be able to close it using Alexa or your Google Home. Just keep in mind that most smart garage door openers won’t let you open them by voice for security reasons. Some smart speakers can hear commands through a closed window. You wouldn’t want someone to yell the command to open your garage door to break into your home.
You have two basic options for smart garage door openers: add a device to your existing dumb garage door opener to make it smart or replace your garage door opener with one that is already smart. Adding a smart device to your existing opener is an easier and cheaper option. Generally, that’s probably the way you should go unless you have a specific reason for replacing the entire opener (like wanting a quieter model).
Most smart garage door openers work by placing a sensor on the door that measures current tilt or aiming a laser that hits the door when it’s in the closed position. They then mimic your wireless garage door opener to send an open and close signal.
While there are plenty of smart device add-ons to choose from, which one you choose will be determined in part by who made your existing garage door opener.
If you have a Chamberlain garage door opener, you may have to use Chamberlain’s hub. The company uses a proprietary protocol that prevents many other smart devices from seamlessly operating your Chamberlain door openers.
If you don’t have a Chamberlain, you have plenty of options ranging from Nexx to Garadget.
And if you want, you can always buy a garage door opener, like Ryobi’s Opener, that comes with smart home tech. It’s more expensive and harder to install. But if your existing garage door opener is older, a new one may come with additional benefits like a quieter opening mechanism or better lights.
Combine a Camera with Sensor to See Who’s There
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