What Is a Smart Garage Door Opener? Complete Guide to Features and Benefits

  AUTHOR: Jon Welling
 UPDATED: March 30, 2024

The electric overhead garage door was invented in 1926 and wireless garage door openers have been around since the 1930’s. Over 90 years later and with the advent of smart home technology, new innovations have been added to these long-standing devices.

In this article, we are going to talk about smart garage door openers. I am super excited about this because they are one of my favorite smart home devices.

I’ll walk you through the key features and benefits of smart garage door openers. We’ll also go over the different types that are available and their connectivity options. Let’s get started!

What is a smart garage door opener? A smart garage door opener works like a conventional garage door opener, but has the ability to connect to a Wi-Fi network. This allows for remote control and monitoring of the garage door directly from an app on a smartphone.

Smart garage door openers fall under the umbrella of smart home automation devices. One could argue that they can be considered a security device as well, and that wouldn’t be too far from the truth.

Smart garage door openers fit into the larger scheme of automating your house, but can also help make sure your garage isn’t a point of access for thieves and criminals.

Now that we know what a smart garage door opener is, let’s see what they have to offer and how they can benefit you.

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Features and Benefits of Smart Garage Door Openers

One of my favorite features is the ability to know when your garage door was opened or closed. This is very helpful for those times when you wonder if you remembered to close your garage door or not.

Imagine this, you’re outside doing yard work or cleaning and you have the garage door open all day. You finish up, go inside, and forget to close the garage door. I can’t count how many times I’ve done this. I hate when that happens.

I live in a rural part of town, so it isn’t such a big issue. Still, it’s nice to be able to check on your garage door from your phone, instead of having to get up and walk outside.

That’s just me being lazy though. There’s also a real security aspect to consider.

You can program the app to notify you, in real time, when your garage door is opened or closed. You’ll be alerted immediately if and when suspicious activity is occurring.

Most apps will let you view an event history as well, so you’ll have a log of when your garage door was opened or closed.

Smart garage openers can link to your existing home automation system. Depending on your smart home strategy, you can set your system to trigger a security camera to take a picture, start recording, or have your smart assistant notify the police if your garage door opens at an odd time.

This brings me to my next point. Many smart garage door openers can be connected to the IFTTT (If This, Then That) service. IFTTT is a powerful service that connects smart home appliances, apps, sensors, and other devices together.

As the name implies, you can set up rules and sequences so that “if this happens, then that happens”.

For example, you can set a sequence so that when your garage door is opened, your living room light will turn on. Or, if your garage door opens after 7pm, then your security camera starts recording.

Smart garage door openers can also connect to a voice assistant like Amazon’s Alexa or Google Assistant. This allows you to control your garage door and check on its status (if it’s open or not) with simple voice commands. You’ll have to make sure the smart garage door opener you are planning to purchase is compatible with the voice assistant you are currently using.

And, of course, there’s the ability to control the smart garage door opener remotely from your smartphone. You can use your phone to open or close your garage door even when you’re miles away from your house.

If you forget to close your garage door and realize it once you get to work, you can close it through the app on your phone. Plus, you won’t have to keep track of garage door remotes anymore. Adding a new remote is easy because you would just need to download the app onto a smartphone. Now that’s convenient!

Types of Smart Garage Door Openers

Smart garage door openers come in two forms, full systems and add-on devices.

Full systems include the whole package: the motor, drive mechanism (I’ll explain more about this later), and all the necessary mounting brackets and hardware.

Add-on devices, like the NEXX Garage (link to Amazon), come in the form of a controller or hub that connects to an existing, conventional garage door opener to give it smart technology features. These devices are basically a fancy, Wi-Fi enabled electrical switch with app control.

So, should you get a full system or an add-on device?

If your current garage door opener is aging and needs replacement you should definitely go for a full system. You will get a brand new, and most likely, quieter system, along with all of the features we mentioned earlier.

However, if your garage door opener is fairly new or you don’t want the spend the money on a full system, an add-on device would be the better option. These are often reasonably priced and are very easy to install.

Both the add-on devices and full systems are easy to integrate into an existing home automation system. As mentioned earlier, be sure to verify if the smart garage door opener you are purchasing is compatible with your current platform.

Smart Garage Door Opener Drive Mechanisms

Smart garage door openers are available with different mechanisms to open the garage door. Some require more maintenance then others. Some are more affordable. While others offer quieter operation and are a bit more expensive.

Here’s a look at the different types of drive mechanisms.

Chain Drive

Chain drive garage door openers are the cheapest and most common type. They use a stationary motor mounted on the ceiling and a chain to open and close the garage door.

These types of openers are often the loudest, but are able to handle a much heavier garage door. Chain driven garage door openers require more maintenance and have a shorter life span than other types of garage door openers.

Belt Drive

A belt driven garage door opener operates the same way as a chain driven one. The only difference between the two is that one uses a chain and the other uses a rubber belt.

Belt driven garage door openers, like the Chamberlain B970T (link to Amazon), are quieter than chain driven models, but are also more expensive. It’s important to keep in mind that belt driven models have a more limited load capacity. They can’t safely lift a heavier garage door.

Direct Drive

Direct drive garage door openers don’t use a pulley system to open a garage door. Instead, the motor itself moves along a track to open the door. An arm is attached from the motor to the garage door.

Direct drive garage door openers aren’t difficult to install, but are on the more expensive side. Like belt driven openers, they can’t handle a super heavy garage door. Some claim that direct drive openers are quieter than belt drive.

Screw Drive

Screw drive garage door openers can lift larger and heavier doors than a belt drive opener and typically cost less than a chain drive opener. They are also one of the quietest garage door openers available, though not as quiet as a belt drive.

The mechanism used to open the garage door is a threaded rod. It spins to move the garage door. Screw drive garage door openers require very little maintenance over the life of the product. Maintenance consists of cleaning and oiling the threaded rod a few times a year.

Jackshaft

Jackshaft garage door openers are the "Porsches" of garage door openers. They are finely tuned machines that operate differently than the other types of openers.

Everything must be perfectly balanced and aligned for jackshaft drives to work properly since the motor sits on the wall instead of the ceiling. Because of this, a professional installer is recommended to install this type of opener. Jackshaft garage door openers are also more expensive than the other options.

Which type of smart garage door opener is right for you? You’ll have to weigh the pros and cons and decide for yourself.

Your first and most important decision should be the type of opening mechanism you prefer. This decision effects everything from the price, maintenance schedule, noise level, and longevity.

Are Smart Garage Door Openers Easy to Install?

I mentioned earlier that smart garage door openers are one of my favorite smart home devices. Why? I love this product category so much because of the DIY aspect of it.

Smart Garage Door Openers aren’t too difficult to install and you can probably do it yourself. If you’re pretty handy, you can install one in less than an hour. There are plenty of YouTube videos available to walk you through it and most manufacturers have installation tutorials available as well.

If you aren’t that confident with your handy-man skills, you could always hire a professional or get a friend to help you.

Add-on devices are much simpler to install than full systems. I would venture to say that most people will be able to get this done themselves.

Installation for an add-on device is typically done by attaching the device to your existing garage door opener with double-sided tape, then connecting two wires to the open and close terminals of the existing opener. Next, download the app on your phone and you’re all set.

Connectivity

How do smart garage door openers connect to the internet and the app on your smartphone? The short answer is Wi-Fi, but let’s talk about the different connectivity methods anyway.

Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi is the recommended form of connection and is available on every add-on device or full system option you choose. Wi-Fi is ubiquitous. Pretty much everyone has it in their house nowadays. It makes adding devices on to your home network simple and easy. You will need a strong enough signal to reach your garage though. A Wi-Fi extender may help in this situation.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth would only be used for device setup. Smart garage door openers don’t depend on Bluetooth to connect to the internet. There’s a simple reason for this.

Bluetooth creates what’s called a PAN, or personal area network. It’s meant for hardware devices to connect to each other, not connect to the internet. Other smart devices might use Bluetooth for things like authentication.

Personal area networks have a very short, but reliable range. Typically, you'd want to interact with your garage door from more than a block away from your house. That puts it out of range for anything Bluetooth might be useful for.

3G/4G/5G – Mobile Connectivity

I debated whether to keep this section in the article because cellular options really don’t exist for smart garage door openers. Ultimately, I felt it was best to at least keep this blurb here. It’s worth a mention even if only to say there really aren’t any options at this time.

Zigbee and Z-Wave

Zigbee and Z-Wave are two competing wireless protocols for smart home devices. These protocols are made specifically for smart home devices like garage door openers, blinds, lights, etc.

You’ll need a smart home hub that can connect to Zigbee or Z-Waves devices, like a Aeotec Smart Home Hub (link to Amazon) or the Elevation Home Automation Hub (link to Amazon). Setup for these types of devices is typically easy and performed through your smart home hub.

Bring Your Garage Door Opener Into the 21st Century

Advancements in smart home technology have added new features to the conventional garage door opener. The ability to remotely control and monitor your garage door from a smartphone brings a host of new benefits.

Whether you go with a full system to fully replace your existing opener or an add-on device for a simple conversion, adding smart home technology to your garage brings an added a layer of security and convenience. And that’s something everyone can be excited about.

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