Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

Garage door opener alternatives

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
I'm using my old school opener. I didn't want to mount it on the visor, so I used some Velcro to attach it inside the driver door bin near the big cup holder. Much more hidden down there near the power seat controls. It's natural to reach down there and hit the button.
Thanks for the tip, I’ll have to try this area. I tried to Velcro it behind the screen but it somehow interferes with the opener.
 
I just noticed that the Homelink Automatic Garage Door Opener is now available on Tesla’s accessory site as an after purchase retrofit for SR and SR+! It’s $300 which includes installation at the service center. A bit pricy for a garage door opener but I’ll likely do it.

I bought it and had it installed at my local service center. I have a home icon now at the top, works great! For the integration and auto open/close features, I think it's definitely worth the price.

 
When you pay $65K for Model 3 and now cost cutting on Model 3 but they are passing cost saving to customer and now charges $300 for Garage Door Opener. Lots of cheap gas model offer's and cheap version Tesla can't offer. Tesla trying to reaping of their customer.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jboy210 and tvad
I used a android/apple external trigger device that simulates the garage door button. The below Eachen worked for me, you just need to get pass the poor UI, have wifi access in your garage and a cellphone with data access. I also added a WiFi camera in the garage so that I can confirm if my garage is opened or closed.

UI display:
Off = fully closed
On = opened

This dual channel device uses both a set magnet contacts and momentary switch concept. Triggers the garage door to open/close (momentary switch) and uses magnetic contacts to determine if the garage door is partially opened or fully closed. There is no additional magnetic sensora to determine if the garage door is fully openned

https://www.amazon.com/EACHEN-Contr...r&qid=1561955885&s=gateway&sr=8-26&th=1&psc=1

Took me about an hour to install the box near AC outlet and garage door motor.

Irwin (yes ...your neighbor)
 
After upgrading from my MR to my P3D-, I didn't realize this doesn't come on all models now. I thought only the SR models didn't come with homelink. I refuse to pay $300 for that. Thankfully I already have a smart garage door opener and can open/close it with my phone.

Homelink was always a bit of a headache for me anyway where:
1. Occasionally it wouldn't close (again thankfully my smart garage auto closes after 5 min)
2. It doesn't know the difference between open/close so it can be reversed if you for example open the garage door manually with car parked in front of garage, then start to pull in (sometimes it gets confused thinking you're leaving and starts closing it while you're pulling into the garage!). I had it close on my car one but thankfully on the roof of my Model S that had vinyl wrap so it didn't do any damage.
3. Similar to #2, if you and your spouse are driving home together, you have to remember to touch 'skip' to open if your spouse pulls up first and opens it. The garage door closed on my wife's car once since I forgot and she opened it and was pulling in as I pulled up behind her, causing my Tesla to toggle the garage door, which of course since it was open, now started closing on her car as she pulled in.

So Homelink was 'OK' for me but had plenty of annoyances for me. I will not be paying $300 for an 'OK' feature
 
I don't care about the cost. $300 in the scheme of a $62K car is insignificant to me. I don't like stories like yours where the garage door closes on the car because it doesn't know when it's open or closed. And I don't like that it apparently takes weeks to get it installed after you take delivery of the car. That's why I thought an alternative like an aftermarket mirror would be better. But apparently that's not possible as I've yet to find one that says it's compatible with Tesla.
 
I was disappointed that our new Model 3 didn't have Homelink, but I came up with a workaround that works for us for $36. I bought a Meross wifi garage controller (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07L5DPK8P/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1) and installed it, and set up webhooks to activate opening it and closing it, and then I made a free webpage to access from the in-car browser to activate it. Obviously you will want to password protect your page and set it to not be web searchable (you don't want the controls to your garage to be showing up in people's Google search results, with strangers opening and closing your garage all day). In any case, it's not perfect, but it works for now. It has the added benefit of working from anywhere, so we can open the garage for family or a package delivery from anywhere on earth, not just our driveway.... Video attached (I used post-its to block the web address and other text).

 
  • Like
Reactions: generalmilk
I run Home Assistant in a docker container at home. It can connect to both Tesla and MyQ and hundreds of other devices. I’ve tied it in with Apple HomeKit and I can open the garage by simply lifting my Apple Watch and saying “open/close single/double garage”.

Tesla delivery person told me I got one of the last P3Ds that included home link, but if i didn’t have it, I sure wouldn’t pay $300 for it. Id just use my watch. On almost every ICE car the three button home link is included for free...
 
My solution was using my Garmin speak (which is Alexa enabled $50) paring it with a WIFI garage door opener (which is also Alexa enabled $40 on Amazon) I tell Alexa to open the garage door or close it. I also tell it to play all of my music and turn on the house lights when I come home at night. No need to touch the screen or wait. You could also get the Eco Auto.
 
+1 for MyQ. I have an alarm from Link home security through Costco. The included alarm.com app interfaces directly with MyQ. Created home automation scenes in alarm.com so it's 1 button to arm the alarm and close the garage door. I also have it set to turn off all the lights and lock the doors (alarm.com panel controls z-wave). The alarm/MyQ is easy. Home automation is a little more involved.
 
The Tailwind system is $70 on Amazon.com and is more comprehensive than the Homelink system in a lot of ways. It is also getting really positive reviews on Amazon.

1) It automatically knows which vehicle you're driving, so if you have a Tesla and another vehicle, you can have the auto-open for all your vehicles with the same system - not just your Tesla vehicle.

2) It has a lot of automations beyond just opening / closing as you come and go.
Closing the doors at night regardless of when the last person comes home (Night Mode)
Timer to close during the day

3) Notifications of door activity
Notifications if you leave the door open too long (you can set the time)
Automatic closing after a pre-determined time (you can set the time)
Receive notifications when your door opens / closes, and who opened / closed it
Door activity history

4) Door control options
Siri, Google Assistant, Google, Smart Things, IFTTT, mobile app, automations, location based

5) Extremely flexible sharing access
You can give others access to your garage door on a full-time or restricted basis and decide which notifications they're allowed to receive. So your whole family can have the auto-open feature when they drive any of the vehicles, and control the doors at any time, and if you need to give someone else restricted access like Wednesday mornings from 9AM to 11AM you can do that too.