Is A WiFi Garage Door Opener Necessary?
The first step to determine if you need a smart garage door opener is to check your pocket. That’s right, check your pocket. Do you have a smartphone in your pocket? Then you need a WiFi connected smartphone-enabled garage door opener.
The concept is simple, you will always have your phone in your pocket or in your car. Most Americans would rather lose their wallet than their phone. With this level of desire to keep your phone on you at all times, it would be easy to transition your primary device for opening your garage door to your iPhone rather than a garage door opener remote or exterior keypad. It is one less thing to keep track of and need to change its’ batteries.
The Genie Aladdin Connect smartphone garage door controller can be purchased as an add-on unit for most existing garage door openers for just over $50. The unit itself installs in about 30 minutes and the app download is free. We are not talking “Freemium” either. There is no charge to upgrade options or it is only free for two weeks then it is $10 a month… No free means free. You can download it to as many devices as you want and all of them cost you nothing to use.
The other option is to buy a new garage door opener that has Aladdin Connect built into the garage door opener itself. There are about a dozen garage door openers on the market that have this Aladdin Connect WiFi integration standard. You can differentiate them by the word “Connect” in the title. On HomeDepot.com for example, you can purchase the premium screw-drive garage opener known as the Genie MachForce. It will have all the common accessories like a wireless exterior keypad, two pre-programmed remotes, and Homelink integration standard, however; you will not be able to use your smartphone to operate your garage door. For that, you would either need the Aladdin Connect smartphone garage door controller added on or you can purchase the exact same unit but the WiFi enabled unit known as the Genie MachForce Connect.
Once you have a connected garage door opener you can set up access to your home in any way that you would like. You no longer will have the security concerns about giving your PIN to the exterior keypad to any service/repairman that needs access one time and never again. How many of us have given our keypad PIN to people and never changed it? In reality, all of those people could still access your home at any time without your knowledge. This is where the Genie Aladdin Connect Virtual Keys are so important. This allows the homeowner to grant access to certain people only for a limited period of time. It also allows for certain rebellious teenagers to only operate the garage door opener from their smartphone certain hours of the day. It puts you in control of who comes and goes when.
Additionally, the smartphone alerts can be set up to tell you every time the garage door opener is used throughout the day. This puts you in control of who is coming and going regardless of the device they choose to use to get in and out. If the door opens, you know about it. There is also now no chance that you forgot to close your garage door. The Aladdin Connect Door Position Sensor is affixed to each garage door that you have, and you can see its position within the Aladdin Connect app. It will clearly tell you that door #1 is still open and needs to be closed, that is unless you have auto close enabled. Another handy little feature of the Aladdin Connect app, you can set up auto close. If the door has been left open for more than so many minutes, it will close itself. What a time to be alive.
In summation, if you do not have a WiFi enable garage door opener you need one. If your garage door opener is still running strong and you would rather do the simple upgrade get the Aladdin Connect smartphone garage door controller. If your garage door opener is a bit iffy, loud, and on the older side, it is time to upgrade to a Genie connected garage door opener. Either way, you can have next-generation technology and convenience today.
