With the advent of smart home technology, many household devices have seen remarkable improvements, and garage door openers are no exception. If you still have an old garage door opener, upgrading to a new model will make your life easier and your home safer in numerous ways.
To prove our point, here are eight top benefits of new automatic garage door openers:
1. Wi-Fi Connectivity
These days, smart home technology assists us with more activities than we could have imagined a decade ago. Artificial intelligence (AI) bots like Siri and Alexa can turn our lights on and off, play our favorite music, send recipes to our phones, read bedtime stories to our children and operate garage doors.
While your first reaction to a Wi-Fi smart garage door opener might be to wonder if you really need a new garage door opener, you should ask yourself the following questions:
- How many times have you been running errands when you wondered, “Did I really shut my garage door?”
- How often has the battery to your garage door opener died on you?
- How many times have you dropped your opener into the crevices under your seat, where the spaces are too small to retrieve it?
Once you get your Wi-Fi-enabled garage door opener, it will be hard to imagine how you ever managed to live without one. Just like with any small gadget designed to make your life easier, your door opener will prove to be a valuable investment once it’s installed. With LiftMaster’s myQ-connected garage door openers, your phone becomes your garage door opener. You can turn on the lights and operate your door from anywhere.
2. Enhanced Security for Your Home and Garage
An automated garage door can secure your house through various methods. One feature that comes with many automated garage doors is automatic lights, which help deter burglars and improve visibility when the weather is bad. Some other security features that come with many automatic garage door openers include the following.
Vacation Mode
Many systems come with a feature called vacation mode, which prevents your door from being opened while you’re gone for an extended period.
When set to vacation mode, burglars will be unable to break into your garage. Garage door remote controls can only operate on a limited number of frequencies. When burglars try to gain access to a home and burglarize it, they often attempt to open automatic garage doors with a device that uses every frequency combination. That allows them to enter the garage in just a few seconds. However, they are prevented from doing this when vacation mode is on.
Rolling Code Technology
The most modern garage door openers feature rolling code technology. This means the frequency changes constantly, so your garage doors won’t be vulnerable to the kind of hacking mentioned above.
Guest Keypad Code Feature
With an automated garage door, you can also set a temporary keypad code for guests. This way, you won’t have to change your code constantly for security reasons. Instead, any time a guest needs to access your garage with your permission when you’re not there, you can create a temporary guest code for them.
3. Increased Safety to Prevent Injuries
Garage doors are generally very heavy and tend to weigh over a hundred pounds. With all this weight over your garage’s entrance, you don’t want your garage door or opener breaking down, as this can seriously damage your vehicle. Much worse, your garage door could cause an injury.
Luckily, new automatic garage door openers come with various safety features to make these doors safer than ever. Some of the most useful features are listed below.
Non-Contact Photo Eye Sensors
The photo eye sensors on your garage door are perhaps the most critical safety feature. Photo eye sensors project a break beam along the bottom of the door to sense objects beneath the door. When the sensors identify an obstacle, the garage door will stop closing and reverse direction automatically. This safety feature keeps your door from causing injury before it makes contact with any obstructions.
The auto-reverse feature in modern garage doors openers is highly reliable. If you want to test whether it works properly, place a strong piece of lumber, such as a 2-by-4, where the garage door meets the floor when it closes. Then, close the door. When your door makes contact with the obstacle, it should automatically reverse.
If it continues moving downward instead, this means the feature is not working. In this case, have a professional garage door technician come to fix it right away.
Backup Batteries
When you have an automatic garage door opener, you might take your smooth, easy operation for granted. You pull up in your driveway, hit a button and the door opens before your very eyes. When a power outage strikes, it could be a different story.
If your garage door opener doesn’t have a battery backup, you’ll need to step out of the vehicle and open it by hand. If the power outage is due to a storm or freezing weather, you don’t want to be outside during this time of the season to open the door manually. If you’re parked in your garage during the outage and have somewhere to be, you may not have the time to figure out how to disconnect the opener and lift the door.
The high-tech garage doors from LiftMaster have battery backups in place to avoid this hassle. Even when the power goes out, you can still access your garage with the touch of a button or through your myQ-connected app.
Motion Detectors
This safety feature offers extra security in multiple ways. When a person or car crosses the path of the motion detectors located in your doorway, lights will turn on automatically and remain on for several minutes.
One benefit of this lighting is that it provides you with increased visibility, which helps you step out of your vehicle without tripping or injuring yourself in some other fashion.
Another benefit of these bright lights is that they’ll likely deter any burglars trying to break into your house through the garage. If they somehow manage to open the door, this will trigger the motion detectors, at which point most burglars will flee. Lighting, after all, is one of the most effective ways to scare off robbers.
Manual Control
If you’re wondering why you’d ever need or want to lift your automatic garage door manually, we understand. However, there’s a reason why all new automatic garage doors come with an option to control them manually.
This feature exists primarily to allow you to enter and exit your garage in the event of a power outage. If you need to get to work and there’s a power outage, you’ll be stuck unless you can lift your garage door manually.
The manual control feature allows you to bypass the opener’s motor and open your door by hand. To do this, you use the override feature, which disconnects the door from the electronic system. Since your door will stay on the tracks, you can lift it with your hands. Then, once the power comes back on, you can easily reconnect it to the electronic system.
4. Energy Efficiency
If you’re considering whether you should buy a new garage door opener, this tip might be enough to convince you. Garage door openers consume relatively little energy, so they won’t significantly increase your energy bills. The most recent models consume even less power, which is another reason to buy a new garage door opener. You’ll receive a greater benefit from a system that costs you less money.
Some models also offer a solar panel-powered structure. While the upfront cost of this setup is higher, you will save money over time in the form of lower energy bills.
5. Lighting for Your Garage
New automatic garage door openers come with built-in lights, which increase visibility in your garage and the path leading up to it. This lighting is extremely helpful when visibility is low, such as at night or during inclement weather.
The LiftMaster 87504-267 model offers superior lighting options for your garage door opener. The 87504-267 model has Corner to Corner Lighting™, with 2,000 lumens. Plus, the backup battery means you won’t be in the dark, even during a power outage. LiftMaster also offers a mountable wall light to brighten any garage, also connected to the myQ app. At 1,500 lumens, the myQ remote LED light is 50% brighter than standard LEDs.
Through the myQ app, you can set a lighting schedule so you never have to pull up to a dark garage. The app can also enhance security by letting you turn lights on and off remotely, so your house will appear occupied even when you’re away.
6. Less Maintenance
Yet another benefit of new automatic garage door openers is that they require relatively little maintenance. However, always make sure to follow any maintenance tasks recommended by your manufacturer to keep your opener in top condition.
7. Affordability
How much is an electric garage door opener? With all the convenient features mentioned above, you may assume automatic garage door openers are prohibitively expensive, but this is not the case. If you have a family, store lots of valuables in your garage and use your garage door frequently, an automatic door offers a tremendous amount of value for the price.
8. Convenience
Your life will be easier in multiple ways with a new garage door opener. Today’s modern smart garage door openers available from LiftMaster have many features that make life a little more convenient, such as:
- Ultra-quiet operation: A noisy garage door is a nuisance. Older garage door openers tend to have loud, rattling operators you can hear throughout your house. With one of LiftMaster’s ultra-quiet motors, you don’t have to worry about disturbing or waking up your family when you use your garage door.
- Away-from-home controls: Old garage door opener remotes have a limited range. With a Wi-Fi-enabled garage door opener, you can open and close your door even when you’re not home. If you’re away and unsure if you closed the door, you can quickly check its status from your myQ app and shut it. Your myQ app can even alert you if you’ve left your garage door open too long. If someone locks themselves out of the house, you can open your garage door to let them in even when you aren’t home.
- Delivery protection: Does your neighborhood get the occasional porch pirate? LiftMaster garage doors offer Key by Amazon garage delivery integrations to protect your packages. When your delivery driver arrives, they can leave your Amazon Prime packages safely in your garage, which will close again as soon as they go. You’ll also get delivery alerts in real time.
- Built-in camera: The LiftMaster 85503 has a built-in video camera. Whenever you receive a garage door open alert on your myQ app, you can tune into your security footage to see who is entering. You can rest assured your kids get home safe and look at the backlogs to see what time they got home. You can even use two-way audio to communicate with whoever is in your garage.
- No remote needed: A traditional garage door opener remote is like another key to your home and is an easy target for theft. With a Wi-Fi-enabled garage door, all you’ll need to operate your garage door is your phone. Since you carry your phone with you wherever you go, your garage is more secure.
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Additional Advantages of an Automatic Door Opener
If you’re wondering whether you possess the tech-savviness to operate a smart garage door opener, the answer is yes. These devices are so user-friendly that anyone can operate them. Check out some additional benefits of purchasing an automatic garage door opener below.
It Provides You With Peace of Mind
If your garage is attached to your house and you primarily enter and exit your home via this entryway, you can benefit from a smart garage door opener. Smart garage door products often allow you to monitor garage activity.
If you have an app that controls your doors’ locks, you can also make sure your home is secure by using your phone to lock both doors in your garage — the garage door itself and the door connecting your garage to your house.
When you have a smart garage door opener, you can enjoy an added sense of safety and security. Having constant and unconditional access to your garage door’s status is a great benefit for those who spend much of their time away from home or have long commutes to work.
Whether you live in a neighborhood where several break-ins have occurred recently, or you just want to be extra careful, purchasing a Wi-Fi-enabled garage door provides you with peace of mind while you’re away from home.
It Can Be Operated From Anywhere
There are many smart garage door openers on the market, and virtually all of them can be operated from your smartphone, hence the word “smart” in their name.
Apps made for smart garage door openers let you know whether your door is closed or open. If you’re out somewhere and find out you forgot to close your door, you won’t have to rush back home to do so. This convenience alone is enough reason to buy a smart garage door opener.
Just imagine — you pull into the driveway, your garage opens up automatically and the lights in your home come on. The future we could only dream about — where our homes function automatically and adjust to our routines — has finally arrived.
Even if you’ve only set up your smart home system partially — like locks, lighting, security systems or doorbells — why not add on a smart garage door?
It Can Connect With Other Smart Devices
Smart garage door openers can connect to Google Home, Amazon Alexa or Apple HomeKit. There are a ton of AI-powered products on the market, but it’s simple to find high-quality ones that can connect with the devices you have already.
Although being able to sync your smart home on a single platform is ideal, multiple third-party applications will let you hook up to the home assistants you’ve already established. When searching for a smart garage door opener, you can be as choosy as you want. Numerous products exist on the market, and most can integrate into your smart home.
Request an Estimate From Consolidated Garage Doors
If you’re wondering how to get a new garage door opener and you live in or around Chicago, the answer is simple — come to Consolidated Garage Doors. We’re a Northern Illinois-based company that sells, services and installs garage doors and garage door openers in Batavia, St. Charles, Geneva and various other towns in the region. With 240 years of combined experience in the industry, we make sure we provide SOLID SERVICE with every job we complete.
To request an estimate, call us at (630) 761-1976 or write to us using our form.