Auto Open Risk, Or is it just me?

[Zythryn]

It's funny how I was reading this thinking, "boy, people don't pay much attention." Then I read the comments about people backing in. Ah.. paradigm shift. The best way to work around this is just disable auto-open. The second best way is to pull into your garage instead of backing in - but I realize that's not always possible or desired.

Due to where the electrical power is, I back into my garage.
That said, I have never had a situation where the garage door was going to hit my car.
Seems to me you would have to be very careless, even backing up, to have this happen.

That said, for those that have run into this issue, try increasing the range. I increased mine from the default to about 40 feet.
This opens the garage for me as I approach.

If I somehow miss seeing that my garage door is open as I am appoaching my home, well, that just seems like I am not paying attention at all. I just don't see how you can miss an open garage door?

 

[ohmman]

Due to where the electrical power is, I back into my garage.
That said, I have never had a situation where the garage door was going to hit my car.
Seems to me you would have to be very careless, even backing up, to have this happen.

To be clear, I've never had this problem. I enjoy auto-open and -close. I'm just not going to quickly dismiss that some situations might be different than the ones I originally envisioned.

 

[Todd Burch]

I could easily see this happening to anyone who unintentionally let their guard down for a minute (backing in). If you were staring at the rear view camera (as I often do when backing to watch the guidelines), the garage door wouldn't be visible until it's too late.

It's one of those things you slap yourself about after it happens, but the fact that it happened does not at all make this driver a moron.

 

[Electroman]

I absolutely love auto-open feature and I'm amazed at how nicely it works every time, all the time. I never use auto-close feature though for the simple reason I'm worried that I would never know if the garage door really closed or not, until I get back.

Moreover folks who have been using garage doors should know by this time that their system is only capable of performing toggle function. So asking for a function in Tesla that your garage door does not even posses is a bit silly.

 

[AWDtsla]

I'm just going to say it - the driver of that Tesla is a complete moron. If they don't see that door coming down they have no business driving on public roads.

You understand that what this camera sees is NOT what the driver sees right? Visibility in the back is very very poor. Doesn't matter what you do with your mirrors. Not to mention even the side view mirrors tilt down for parking in reverse.

 

[strider]

I could easily see this happening to anyone who unintentionally let their guard down for a minute (backing in). If you were staring at the rear view camera (as I often do when backing to watch the guidelines), the garage door wouldn't be visible until it's too late.

It's one of those things you slap yourself about after it happens, but the fact that it happened does not at all make this driver a moron.

You just need to live in an old California house! I can hear my door squeaking and popping even with the windows rolled up.

 

[scottm]

The root of the issue that garage doors have 1 button for up and down. It's a toggle.
There should be 2 buttons, one for up and one for down.

I've been using auto-raise for a few weeks. Works very good, because most often the door is closed upon my approach. So the exception is for me to cancel the function.

I've just enabled auto-lower, and so far so good. It hits the button about when I would upon backing out of the garage. It does worry me though that if I have to pause while backing out (surprise!! a kid jumps onto the garage pad behind the car!), that in ... 3. ... 2.. 1.. that door is coming down on my car. Before I collect myself to stop it.

And the safety beam is gleefully shining under my car between the axles and won't stop the door either.

On second thought, I'm going to disable auto-close. Just thinking about that makes me sick.

 

[thimel]

The root of the issue that garage doors have 1 button for up and down. It's a toggle.
There should be 2 buttons, one for up and one for down.

I've been using auto-raise for a few weeks. Works very good, because most often the door is closed upon my approach. So the exception is for me to cancel the function.

I've just enabled auto-lower, and so far so good. It hits the button about when I would upon backing out of the garage. It does worry me though that if I have to pause while backing out (surprise!! a kid jumps onto the garage pad behind the car!), that in ... 3. ... 2.. 1.. that door is coming down on my car. Before I collect myself to stop it.

And the safety beam is gleefully shining under my car between the axles and won't stop the door either.

On second thought, I'm going to disable auto-close. Just thinking about that makes me sick.

I moved my safety beam up to match the height of the nose cone. Also, note that when exiting the garage it triggers the door after moving twenty feet. So pausing while backing out shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Andyw2100]

I absolutely love auto-open feature and I'm amazed at how nicely it works every time, all the time. I never use auto-close feature though for the simple reason I'm worried that I would never know if the garage door really closed or not, until I get back.

If you have a Liftmaster (or Chamberlain) opener manufactured after 1998 you could probably install one of these:

LiftMaster MyQ Package - - Amazon.com

$68 on Amazon right now.

I did this, and it was really simple. Once installed, you can control your garage door from your cellphone, and also monitor it. You can set up alerts for any time it is opened, or, as I have done, for any time it is open more than say 15 minutes.

I decided to get one of these and install it after arriving back at our secondary location to find the garage door open a couple of weeks after the software update that had given us auto open and auto close. Our best guess is that my wife had watched auto-close function, but had then driven away in a non-standard way, to retrieve the mail, and probably did not realize that the car had then also "auto-opened" the garage as she approached the mailbox.

I think I paid $75 or $80 (the price is lower now), but it was money and time well-spent for the additional control I now enjoy.

 

[AWDtsla]

If you have a Liftmaster (or Chamberlain) opener manufactured after 1998 you could probably install one of these:

LiftMaster MyQ Package - - Amazon.com

$68 on Amazon right now.

I did this, and it was really simple. Once installed, you can control your garage door from your cellphone, and also monitor it. You can set up alerts for any time it is opened, or, as I have done, for any time it is open more than say 15 minutes.

I decided to get one of these and install it after arriving back at our secondary location to find the garage door open a couple of weeks after the software update that had given us auto open and auto close. Our best guess is that my wife had watched auto-close function, but had then driven away in a non-standard way, to retrieve the mail, and probably did not realize that the car had then also "auto-opened" the garage as she approached the mailbox.

I think I paid $75 or $80 (the price is lower now), but it was money and time well-spent for the additional control I now enjoy.

You only need the gateway, not the package. $42.

I would not use autoopen/close without this.

 

[mikeash]

I discovered a different sort of auto-open risk last night. We parked on the street for a while to save a spot for some friends who are visiting. Once they got here, we swapped their car into the spot and then headed out for dinner in our car. We got home from dinner to discover our garage door wide open. At first we thought we had forgotten to close it or something, but finally realized we had driven past the garage on our way out, and of course the car had activated auto-open as we did so, and we just didn't notice it.

Thankfully, no enterprising criminals took advantage of the opportunity.

 

[Andyw2100]

You only need the gateway, not the package. $42.

Are you sure about this? From the review below, it would seem the package enables compatibility with many more garage door openers. The Gateway alone may work if you have the right opener. Do you agree?

--
Amazon.com: Norm's review of Liftmaster 828LM Garage Door Opener Intern...

Short and simple, this product works. Granted, the application for smartphones is a little bit on the clunky side, but it is well worth the investment. The negative reviewers are a perfect example of why this product isn't sold on the Liftmaster website. It only works on certain doors and even then, you need a very basic understanding of connectivity. Many don't have that and blame the product when it is the type of door they are using it on. If you want this product to work on just about any door, you can do what I did. I have a Liftmaster door opener that doesn't use security plus or MyQ. Simple solution. Purchase the LiftMaster 888LM Security+ 2.0 MyQ Wall Control Upgrade. Just search Amazon for 888LM and there you go. Install the new wall control first, then program the 828LM to the wall control. Took me just over 10 minutes to install both and have it working on my smartphone. Works like a charm.
--

Note--The 888LM plus the gateway (the 828LM) make up the "package" in my post up thread.

 

[Andyw2100]

I discovered a different sort of auto-open risk last night. We parked on the street for a while to save a spot for some friends who are visiting. Once they got here, we swapped their car into the spot and then headed out for dinner in our car. We got home from dinner to discover our garage door wide open. At first we thought we had forgotten to close it or something, but finally realized we had driven past the garage on our way out, and of course the car had activated auto-open as we did so, and we just didn't notice it.

This is essentially the same situation that resulted in our door being open for quite some time that I described a couple of posts up thread.

I highly recommend the Liftmaster inexpensive monitoring solution. It's cheap peace of mind.

 

[mikeash]

This is essentially the same situation that resulted in our door being open for quite some time that I described a couple of posts up thread.

I highly recommend the Liftmaster inexpensive monitoring solution. It's cheap peace of mind.

Oh yes, I must have missed that paragraph. I added the Liftmaster unit to my Amazon wish list and I'll check it out. I have a homemade solution installed right now, but all it can do is trigger the door, it can't sense position, so it can't alert me when it stays open too long.

 

[AWDtsla]

Are you sure about this? From the review below, it would seem the package enables compatibility with many more garage door openers. The Gateway alone may work if you have the right opener. Do you agree?

--
Amazon.com: Norm's review of Liftmaster 828LM Garage Door Opener Intern...

Short and simple, this product works. Granted, the application for smartphones is a little bit on the clunky side, but it is well worth the investment. The negative reviewers are a perfect example of why this product isn't sold on the Liftmaster website. It only works on certain doors and even then, you need a very basic understanding of connectivity. Many don't have that and blame the product when it is the type of door they are using it on. If you want this product to work on just about any door, you can do what I did. I have a Liftmaster door opener that doesn't use security plus or MyQ. Simple solution. Purchase the LiftMaster 888LM Security+ 2.0 MyQ Wall Control Upgrade. Just search Amazon for 888LM and there you go. Install the new wall control first, then program the 828LM to the wall control. Took me just over 10 minutes to install both and have it working on my smartphone. Works like a charm.
--

Note--The 888LM plus the gateway (the 828LM) make up the "package" in my post up thread.

You're right if you don't have MyQ already then you need the kit. I didn't need it.