With advanced and evolving technology, so many aspects of your home are more streamlined, secure and accessible than ever, from your doorbell and thermostats to your indoor lights. Now, with the latest smart garage door opener models, you can also easily monitor and control your garage door from anywhere in the world from your smartphone.
Smart garage door openers can do so much more than simply raise and lower your garage door using a remote like many dated models. While standard opener machines offer reliable operations, the added benefits of smart garage door openers will increase your home security and simplify your life.
What Is a Smart Garage Opener?
A smart garage door opener is a solution that can turn your smartphone into a remote control for your garage doors. That means you can open or close your garage door with a tap on your smartphone.
LiftMaster smart garage door openers use the free myQ® app, which lets you operate the door with your phone. The motor is Wi-Fi-enabled, so you can receive alerts whenever your garage door is opened or closed. Alongside activating your garage door, you can control the built-in lights or other lights around your garage linked to the system.
You can also operate the door from your phone from anywhere, essentially allowing you to control who can enter. LiftMaster smart openers even enable integration with a security camera, letting you watch over the comings and goings of anyone you provide access to.
A smart door opener works using a Bluetooth sensor attached to the garage door. This sensor sends a signal to the opener and to your phone application via Wi-Fi connectivity, alerting you when the door is opened or closed. With this setup, you can control the garage door activity from anywhere.
Reasons to Upgrade to a Smart Garage Door Opener
According to Parks Associates research, 48% of smart home device owners access their garage daily using an app, making a smart opener the most frequently used smart home device. So many homeowners are already realizing the advantages of smart garage door openers. By connecting your opener to your home’s Wi-Fi router, you can easily monitor your door activity and control your door from your phone or computer. Some of the benefits of a Wi-Fi garage door opener include:
Accessible Monitoring
Using your smartphone, you can easily monitor your garage door’s operations. Check whether you accidentally left the door open when heading for work in the morning, let a dog walker into your home while you’re on vacation and receive real-time alerts any time your door opens or closes.
A garage door opener will give you a complete log of when the garage door was used. This feature makes it easy to check that your kids got home safely, particularly if you can’t meet them at the school bus or are enforcing a curfew with your teenagers. Some garage door openers are integrated with features like two-way audio, so you can check in with your kids or other visitors right from your smartphone.
Improved Safety and Security
Improving home security is a common goal for many smart home products, and it’s one of the main benefits of a smart garage door opener, too. Easily monitor the activity of up to two garage doors and improve your home’s security with many advanced safety and security features, such as:
- Rolling door codes: LiftMaster smart garage door openers feature Security+ 2.0™. This technology generates a new security signal from billions of possible codes every time you use your door. This makes it nearly impossible for someone to generate a false signal to open the door with another remote or use a previously used code to open the door.
- Battery backup: A battery backup kicks in automatically whenever the power to the opener cuts out, such as during an electrical outage. This means you can still open your door through the automatic opener and will not have to step out of your car and open the door manually. When rain, wind, snow or lightning is raging outside, you can still safely pull into your garage.
- Programmable lights: Using the myQ app, you can program your lights to turn on and off at set times throughout the day, adding a layer of security by making it look like someone is home, turning the lights on and off. You can also log into the app and turn on the lights at any time.
- Timer-to-close: If you accidentally leave your garage door open, the timer-to-close setting will close it automatically after a set number of minutes.
- Motion detection: Motion-activated lights turn on automatically when you walk into your garage, increasing your visibility at night.
- Automatic garage door lock: LiftMaster garage door openers are compatible with a smart deadbolt lock, ensuring the door is locked while in the down position. It’s connected to the opener, so it automatically unlocks itself when you operate the door.
- PosiLock®: Keeping the garage inaccessible to unauthorized users is vital to home security. With a smart garage door opener from LiftMaster, your garage door is compatible with PosiLock®, which keeps the door locked and can monitor for forced openings. When it detects a forced opening, it will signal the door to close automatically to prevent entry. Your myQ app will also send you an alert when the door is opened, whether manually or automatically, giving you an instant notification if someone tries to get into your home.
- Other safety features: With a myQ smart opener, the opener will beep and the lights will blink while the door is completing a cycle, giving you and your family recognizable signals to stay clear of the door. As a standard feature of any garage door opener, the door will automatically stop and reverse directions when it detects something in its path.
Smartphone Capabilities
Is the garage still open? Undoubtedly there have been plenty of times when you wondered whether you closed your garage door when you left the house.
With a smart garage door opener, you can rest assured because you can close the door via an app. You’ll have no need to rely on memory, as the sensors on the garage door will give you an instant alert whenever you forget to close it and even shut it for you automatically.
Smartphone connectivity also has the advantage of helping you keep your garage door remote secure. The garage door remote provides instant access to your home, so keeping it safe is essential. A string of garage burglaries in Ohio shows that thieves in our area targeted homes using a garage door opener. They swipe the remote from a car parked in the driveway and gain easy access to the garage. And, if it’s an attached garage, this may also provide access to the rest of your home.
If you instead use an app on your phone to access your garage, you can keep your garage door remote securely in the house at night, with less concern that you’ll forget it when you leave the house. Your myQ app acts as a convenient backup remote that follows you wherever you go. By keeping the physical remote indoors and not in your car, you eliminate the possibility that someone can nab your garage door remote from your parked car.
Scheduled Opening and Closing
By using a smart garage door opener, you have the flexibility to control your garage door opener’s movements from anywhere in the world. You can also give access to your staff, such as housekeepers, pet sitters and nannies, without giving them your extra key or the access code to the garage.
Whether you need to let a house sitter inside while you’re away or give other guests access to your home, you can easily schedule times for your garage door to open and close. With scheduled closing, you will improve your home’s security efforts and have added peace of mind wherever you go. You also have the option to open the door for them remotely on command when you know they’ve arrived.
As a third option, you can generate a temporary access code to give to friends, family and visiting workers without giving them your main code. You can program the code to work for a predetermined number of entries or to work during certain times throughout the day. Thus, they can only access your garage on your schedule.
Package Security
Along with keeping your house safe, a smart garage door opener can also secure your packages. In one report, 43% of respondents said they had a package stolen. Deliveries left on the porch or doorsteps are easy targets.
Smart garage door openers with myQ connectivity offer Key by Amazon, free to Amazon Prime members. When you choose “in-garage delivery” at checkout, your Amazon delivery driver can access the garage during the set delivery window. If you have a myQ Garage Camera or a Cloud Cam (Key Edition), you can even watch the delivery occur in real time. Once your package is securely in your garage, the door will close again automatically, keeping your delivery safe and porch pirates at bay.
Simple Setup
While smart garage door openers seem complicated, they’re actually incredibly easy to set up. Follow basic instructions to wirelessly connect the opener to your home’s internet connection, then download the myQ app to your Apple or Android device. Once your smart devices have been connected to your Wi-Fi garage door opener, you can enjoy no subscription or service fees.
Seamless Integration
Almost every smart garage door opener model can be paired with your smartphone, with support for both IOS and Android operating systems. MyQ can also provide additional features for integration with Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Nest, Wink, XFINITY Home and Apple HomeKit devices using the app.
It’s also compatible with HomeLink®, a control system for your vehicle that lets you access your various smart home devices from the road. HomeLink offers built-in rearview mirror controls, an attachment for your sun visor and other ways to control your garage door opener and other smart home devices while on the go.
LiftMaster garage door openers are also compatible with the myQ Smart Garage Camera, which can be attached directly to your garage door opener or positioned strategically somewhere in your garage. With this simple integration, you can check in on your garage via a live feed on the myQ app and view recorded activity later on. The myQ Smart Garage Camera also features two-way audio, so you can talk with your guests, kids, housekeepers or delivery personnel when they access your garage.
Can Your Smartphone Now Be Used as Your Garage Door Opener Remote?
Keeping track of a clunky garage door opener remote can be challenging for many. Once you upgrade to a smart garage door opener, can you replace your old remote with your iPhone or Android device?
While Wi-Fi openers can help you easily monitor and open or close your garage door from anywhere, it’s best to avoid using your phone as a replacement for the opener remote. The myQ app wasn’t designed for daily garage door raising and lowering, and the process wouldn’t be as simple or streamlined as merely using the garage door opener that came with the door or your vehicle.
Instead, the myQ app acts as a backup for your traditional opener remote and gives you access to your door even when you’re not in range of your garage.
Enjoy Unmatched Convenience and Security With the Latest Smart Openers From Quality Overhead Door
If you’re looking to improve your daily life and upgrade your dated, inefficient garage door opener system, check out the selection of LiftMaster smart openers available at Quality Overhead Door. We offer a range of LiftMaster Premium and Elite opener models with belt, chain and jackshaft drives. They all feature the latest operational improvements and technology features, such as Wi-Fi connectivity and myQ intelligence.
As a LiftMaster ProVantage Authorized Dealer, our team is dedicated to offering our Toledo, Ohio, area customers only the finest, most dependable products that meet specific needs and long-term expectations.
Contact Us Today for a Free Installation Estimate
At Quality Overhead Door, we understand the need for local Toledo homeowners to have safe, dependable and efficient garage door products. We’re a family-owned and operated company with more than 35 years of experience. Our team of trained technicians believes in always offering our customers efficient, comprehensive and affordable garage door opener installation and repair services.
We invite all Toledo homeowners to visit our local showroom to explore our variety of residential smart garage door openers and understand the undeniable benefits they can offer your home. Learn more about our smart garage door openers today by calling 419-578-8700 to speak to a specialist or complete our online form to request a free installation quote.
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