When the time comes for a new garage door, there are likely to be a few things you'll look out for. Obviously, the look of the thing is a major factor, as it needs to complement your home, and it's a given that it needs to be an automatic door. But should you worry about how smart your garage door is? If you're upgrading an old garage door, you should think about making the new garage door a smart one. What are some of the features you might want to consider?
The Remote Control
A smart garage door allows you to do away with a traditional remote control, but this control should still be kept in your vehicle. You can operate the various functions of your smart garage door via your smartphone (and some of them can only be accessed with a smartphone), but you don't want to be unable to get into your garage if your phone should be lost, broken or simply have a flat battery.
System Compatibility
Your choice of interface will depend on your smartphone's operating system (iOS or Android), so make sure your choice of smart garage door is compatible with your phone. This also determines the voice assistant and commands that will be needed to open the door. Even if you don't use Siri or Alexa throughout your home, they can easily be summoned if only to be used with your garage door, so you might find yourself saying, "Alexa, open the garage door" or whatever command you prefer.
Access Notifications
Although you could conceivably use a smart garage door to track the comings and goings of all the vehicles in your household, its intention is as a security feature to notify you of unauthorised access (as in, if someone forced your garage door open). A notification will be sent to your smartphone, and if you should know that nobody is expected home at that point, you will know that something is amiss. Some systems come with an optional camera unit, allowing you to actually see what is going on inside your garage, allowing you to immediately contact the police if needed.
Geofencing
A geofence is essentially a predetermined virtual perimetre, and in terms of your garage door, geofencing tracks the distance between the base (your garage) and the target object (your vehicle). This means that when the perimetre is breached (which could be set for the end of your driveway), the garage door automatically opens, without the need for you to push anything or issue a voice command. However unlikely it might be for someone to be hanging around, waiting to dart into your garage as soon as it opens, it can be wise to only enable geofencing when you have a clear line of sight as you approach your garage.
Garage doors have sure come a long way since that new-fangled technology first allowed you to open the door with a click of a button.