Garage door openers have come a long way in recent years, with manufacturers solving concerns we’ve had for years. Some of the improvements include a battery backup system, an automatic closure setting, very low noise levels, and the capability to operate it remotely from another location.
One of the biggest changes is the addition of battery backups to garage door openers. If your power goes out and you need to leave, how will you get the garage door open? For lightweight doors, you can pull the red handle and then open them by lifting, but if you have a heavy wooden door as I do, it is too heavy for most women or for older people to lift by themselves. One of the models I reviewed boasts that their backup system will allow you to open/close the door up to 20 cycles from the battery. That is a lot of backup capability and should be enough for most people in most power outages.
My wife and I recently drove off to attend church on Sunday, then after a few minutes had to turn around and come back to see whether we had closed the door. It is a frustrating issue for us. Does it ever happen to you?
Another nice feature that is added to many of these backup garage door openers is the ability to set an automatic closure timer. You could set it at 1, 5, or 10 minutes so that it will close by itself if you forget to close it. And if you forget to set that automatic timer, you might also be able to open the app on your phone and close it remotely. What will they think of next? If it is time to replace your old garage door opener, or if you are building a new home and need to buy one, consider one of the models with backup power and other convenient features.
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