Whether you like it or not, technology is a part of everyday life nowadays. Many electronics today are being labeled “smart”. This, in essence, means that they can communicate with each other to allow the user to monitor areas and perform tasks from any where they want with a touch of a button or a swipe of their phone. It could be from a hotel room thousands of miles from their home, or it could be from the comfort of their couch. The garage door is no different and has become “smart” over the last few years. We are going to touch on a few of the accessories that Garage Door Man provides from the trusted brand Liftmaster that can make your garage door opener “smart” and hopefully make your life a little easier.
Liftmaster uses a system called MyQ technology and both the chain drive model 8065 and the belt drive model 8355 that Garage Door Man installs are MyQ compatible. This means that they will communicate with any of the MyQ accessories. The first accessory we are going to discuss is in my opinion the easiest for technology novices. It is the Door Monitor. It does not need any other equipment to operate, unlike the other two accessories that require a Liftmaster gateway. This is a small device that can be kept in any room of the house and is able to monitor up to four garage doors at a time. There are Led lights that alert you of the status of the door and tell you when the door is being opened or closed. There is also a nifty button that allows you to close the garage door without having to go out to the garage. There is no fancy phone app necessary and it is extremely helpful for people with limited mobility or people that constantly find themselves having to walk out to the garage to close it once the kids have hopped on their bikes and ridden off.
Liftmaster Door Monitor
The next two accessories we are going to talk about require a Liftmaster Gateway to operate properly. The Gateway is plugged into your modem in the home and creates a home base for the MyQ technology. You then download the free MyQ app to your phone or tablet, register your opener and you are off to the races. The phone app will tell you whether the door is open or closed which can be helpful when you are four blocks down the street and cannot remember if you closed the door behind you. It can also lend a hand when you get the phone call from your teenager that they are locked out of the house. From where ever you are you can easily open the door for them and not have to listen to the incessant whining that makes you wonder why you had kids in the first place. For safety’s sake it will also alert you when the door is open and allow you to take the steps necessary to either close it or alert the officials if you think that somebody could be accessing your garage that should not be.
Another “smart” device that Liftmaster offers is the upgraded MyQ wall control panel. This control panel allows you to program your remotes and other MyQ accessories directly from the control panel. This is in contrast to the standard way of programming which includes balancing on a ladder to access the learn button on the opener itself. It also has a timer-to-close feature. This timer-to-close feature allows you to set a designated amount of time after which the door will close automatically. So, what happens if you are at work and your app alerts you that the door has just been opened and you thought everybody was gone for the day? Thinking it must be a fluke you shut the door from your phone, not knowing that your husband got off early and wanted to go for a bike ride. Luckily, the wall control has audible and visual alerts to warn your husband that the door is closing before he plows into it on his bike. It also has features to control the lights on the garage door opener to keep the garage safely lit when it is necessary but also turns the lights off when no one is around to keep that electric bill down.
