Homelink usefullness vs regular garage door opener

[Jbapckfan]

I use a regular garage door opener and it works fine. The range isn’t great, but is acceptable. I also have a MyQ which works perfectly through my phone but don’t use it because it makes a loud beeping noise when the door is closing (as a safety feature) and I leave early in the morning and would rather not bother my family or neighbors. So my question is, why Homelink? Why is this better than a regular garage door opener? Is it so no one can break into your car and steal your opener? Is it convenience of not pushing a simple button? Is it so you don’t have a garage door opener clipped to your visor? I feel like I am missing something here. Like most Tesla owners I’d be happy to pay $300 for a useful feature, but I just don’t get it. Please, help me to understand.

 

[1speed]

Well it closes the door when you leave, and it opens the door when you pull up to your house. If you have multiple garage doors, you can program those as well. I'm guessing there is no reason you couldn't program, say, your parents garage door as well. You can also activate it from your phone manually (under Controls).

 

[Jbapckfan]

My garage door opener controls my two garage doors fine. Either way I’m gonna sit there and make sure my garage closes before I leave in the morning, whether it happens automatically or not. This seems like the smallest convenience gain I can imagine. Maybe I’m just not the target demographic here. If I disabled the alert sound I’d set up something with HomeKit to do this through MyQ but I guess I don’t consider a 4 second wait a big deal.

To me the big MyQ benefit is letting people into my garage (and house through a separate app) remotely.

 

[PDX-Y]

It's nice to have, but glitchy to set up. It does what it says it does on the cereal box. It's not like your life is going to be changed by not having to mount a plastic box in your car or push a button twice a day, but it's nice.

 

[RatsFPV]

I found a great alternative that works just like the Homelink and cost me less than $100. Check it out

 

[eCharcoal]

There’re people who want everything integrated into the car. I personally don’t want to spend $325 on it. I’m using an old school garage door opener. That’s a button I press twice a day most of the time.

I also don’t want my garage door to open automatically. I only want it to open when I press a button. Our Model 3 has the home link but we turned off the auto open feature. All personal preference.

 

[iamnid]

I don't use the automatic feature at all -- don't trust it. That said, I'm glad I spent the $300 (at the time) for homelink in both of our Teslas. We have three separate locations (home, office, cabin). It's nice to not have three different openers in the car. I like that it's integrated and simply pops up on the screen when you get close to open the associated door/gate. Is it overpriced? Probably but, in the long run, I'd rather have the functionality than deal with something clipped to my visor or have an opener rattling around the interior.

 

[sleepydoc]

It’s really nice to have the automatic feature that closes the door as you leave and opens it when you come home. Aside from that, a minor benefit is security. If your car is in the driveway, people can steal the garage door opener and/or use it to gain entry into the garage. Homelink is inactive unless the car is turned on.

 

[Pianewman]

I have to admit that I haven't worked up enough courage to program in the "auto close" feature. I'm afraid it might experience a glitch and close either my garage or my heavy steel gate on the car.

 

[dgstan]

I found a great alternative that works just like the Homelink and cost me less than $100.

If it works "just" like Tesla's version, then it works 90% of the time. That's my experience. I hope Tailwind is better than Tesla.

 

[Tedkidd]

Mine only works if you pull in forward, and pull out in reverse.

Reversing in doesn't count down, nor does pulling forward leaving.

 

[OCJeff]

I agree with those that appreciate the auto-open and auto-close.

What I do find stupid is that the "chime" on open/close happens when the signal is sent to activate the opener. Not when the "Skip’ option pops up that allows you to skip the auto-open/close for that approach/departure. The chime should sound when the pop up shows up to remind you to skip it if you don’t want it to activate.

Small gripe but it just makes no sense to me.

 

[Cares]

I much rather pay extra to have an integrated solution and also be able to use it a multiple locations.

 

[Mike_TV]

To me the big MyQ benefit is letting people into my garage (and house through a separate app) remotely.

If your Model Y is in the vicinity of your garage door, you can do the same thing with the Tesla app. The Homelink button shows up under the "Controls" menu in the Tesla app.

I don't find it particularly useful today but maybe someday the car will open the garage, park itself and close the garage door...all automatically.

 

[RatsFPV]

If it works "just" like Tesla's version, then it works 90% of the time. That's my experience. I hope Tailwind is better than Tesla.

I have had it on my car for over a month and it has yet to fail to close the door. It has worked perfectly for me.

 

[RatsFPV]

I much rather pay extra to have an integrated solution and also be able to use it a multiple locations.

The Tailwind is able to be used in multiple vehicles and to buy the vehicle sensor is $20 and you can add it to any car. Cant do that with Homelink.

 

[Jbapckfan]

If I had multiple garage doors I needed to open with multiple openers this is a way of consolidating them it sounds like a great solution. For standard opening purposes seems unnecessary. With my luck I would rely on it thinking it had closed when it hadn’t, driving away with an open garage door… getting an earful later.

 

[TomServo]

I'll be honest, after living with the Tesla-installed GPS door opener, I wish I had saved the $300 and just used the clicker that came with our new Chamberlain opener.

 

[Jbapckfan]

Appreciate the responses everyone. It seems both more and less useful to me now. Less useful for my current needs, but more useful if things change in the future both with increased self-driving ability and additional garages to open.

 

[Mourron]

I just double-sided taped mine to the lower back of the screen. I don't see a reason to pay 300 for the door to open without my input.
I also don't always park in the garage, so I don't want it to open the door when I'm not using it.