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Smart garage door openers are great for people who are forgetful and often leave their garage doors open. Even if you are out, you can still close it and keep your home safe. Two of the best-known smart garage door openers are Garageio and MyQ Smart Garage. Which one should you buy?
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Garageio
If you have an existing garage opener, Garageio can turn it into a smart device that you can control through your smartphone. The Garageio package comes with the Blackbox and door sensors. For only $129, you can get Garageio from the site’s online store, or from online retailers such as Amazon.
Design
The Blackbox measures 3.1 by 3.1 by 1.3 inches and houses everything that’s needed for your garage door to connect to your Wi-Fi network. Garageio also includes door sensors that measure 1.8 by 2.6 by 1.0 inches. These sensors can communicate with the Blackbox to let you know if the door is closed or open.
Features
What functionalities are present in Garageio?
- Control the garage door from anywhere
Garageio has a companion mobile app that allows you to open or close your garage door remotely. You will also get notified with real-time alerts when there is some activity involving your garage door.
- The Blackbox
The Blackbox is the module that turns your old garage door to a smart one. One Blackbox can control up to three garage doors.
- Easy setup
Garageio is very straightforward to set up. You install the Blackbox and then connect it to your Wi-Fi network. You can then pair the Garageio to your mobile phone using the companion app.
- Dashboard
Garageio works with a dashboard, which is web-based and does not need a smartphone to visit. You can use this to see the garage door’s activity and share access to family and friends.
- Works with a lot of compatible openers
Garageio can probably work with your existing garage door opener. There are more than 10 dozen garage door openers that work with Garageio, including AccessMaster, Chamberlain, and LiftMaster.
- Connected
Garageio works with other connected home products such as Amazon Echo and Amazon Fire TV. It also works with IFTTT recipes and Stringify. That means that the garage door opener will be able to interact with other objects. You can use voice commands with the Garageio.
What’s in the Box?
Each Garageio package includes:
- Garageio controller
- Power adapter
- Opener cable
- Wireless door sensor
- Two AAA batteries
- Installation card
Ratings and Reviews
Garageioreceives an average rating of 3.5 stars out of 5.0 on Amazon. With around 69 percent of reviewers giving it a 5.0-star rating, the Garageio is praised for allowing the use of voice and IFTTT recipes to operate the garage door. Some reviewers say that they do not have any use for their physical controllers anymore. Others like how easy it was to install the device, and how easy it is to use. The company’s excellent customer service is also mentioned in some of the reviews.
However, some reviewers say that the Garageio feels like a beta product that is not yet ready for primetime. Others recommend going for another device because Garageio, for them, is poorly built and poorly designed.
Meanwhile, CNET gives this device a 7.6 out of 10 rating, providing the highest marks for performance, and lower scores for design and features offered. CNET says that the Garageio is more customizable than rival products, but some of the functionalities feel half-baked and do not really work that well. The mobile app also offers very few features.
Final Say About the Garageio
The Garageiois an excellent retrofit device if you want to make your garage door smart. It has the potential to become a great product, with IFTTT compatibility and Amazon Alexa integration. However, it offers very few features, and it does not implement these functionalities well. For instance, there is some delay for the notifications to come in, sometimes with alerts coming in after 20 minutes.
Nevertheless, it works to make your garage door smart. You can quickly open or close the door even when you are halfway across the world.
MyQ Smart Garage
Like the Garageio, MyQ has two components. The base station, which you place near your current garage door opener, and the sensor. The main unit has a square form factor that measures 4.4 inches on all sides with a thickness of 1.3 inches. However, unlike the black brick appearance of the Garageio that makes it look like a portable hard disk drive, MyQ has a wide round light at the center that makes it look like a camera.
Features of the MyQ Smart Garage
MyQ Smart Garage allows you to control your garage door from your smartphone. You can now open or close your doors even when you are away. You can have it alert you when the status of your garage door changes. MyQ makes your existing garage door smarter, and you only need a few minutes to install it.
- Compatible with most garage doors
You can use MyQ with almost any existing garage door. For the most part, this device is compatible with door openers that were manufactured after 1993. It also features safety sensors.
- Plays well with other devices
MyQdoes not only control your garage door opener, but it can also work with smart home platforms such as Nest, XFINITY Home, and Wink. It also works with Google Assistant. Furthermore, you can use IFTTT recipes to make the device work with other services such as e-mail and geolocation.
What’s in the Box?
- MyQ base station
- Mounting bracket
- Mounting hardware
- Door Sensor
- Fastening strips
- Warning label
- Power adapter
Reviews and Ratings
With more than 1,600 reviewers, the MyQ Smart Garage gets an average rating of 3.4 stars out of 5.0 on Amazon. Reviewers like how the MyQ Smart Garage does what it is supposed to do. There are also others who commented that this device has a good enough Wi-Fi range, which is helpful because you are probably putting it far away from the router.
However, some complaints about the product focus on the mobile app, which may not be easy to use. Others warn that MyQ seems to be hell-bent on living on an island in the middle of a sea of connected devices. Some reviewers do not understand why the company would charge customers to activate the connectivity features of MyQ. There are also complaints about the product’s reliability, with verified users saying that the notifications can be confusing.
GearBrain gives this garage door opener a rating of 8.5 stars out of 10, while CNET gives it an average rate of 4.0 out of 5.0.
Final Say About MyQ Smart Garage
Priced at around $70 to $80 on the company’s website, you can buy this cheaper from online retailers such as Amazon, where you can get it for around $20 less. At that price, MyQ Smart Garage is one of the most affordable smart garage openers that you can retrofit to an existing mechanism. It delivers the same set of features that you have come to expect from these devices and it does the job of letting you know when your garage door is open and allows you to close it from anywhere in the world.
Garageio vs. MyQ Smart Garage: Which One Should You Buy?
Garageio currently sells at $120 to $140 on online retailers and on the company’s own website. That makes it more than twice and nearly thrice as expensive as MyQ. If you need a smart garage door opener that allows you to check on your garage doors and close them whenever you want and wherever you might be, then you will save a lot of money with the MyQ Smart Garage.
However, that kind of savings comes with a big sacrifice: You need to pay a monthly fee to get connections with IFTTT or HomeKit. The MyQ Smart Garage also does not work with Amazon Alexa, which is a turn-off for those who have an Echo and want to open their garage by voice commands. What’s more, Garageio implements smart connections better than MyQ, and it’s all free. Garageio works with IFTTT recipes, Amazon Alexa, and connected home platforms such as Zubi Car, MyKnock, and Stringify. So if you want to have your smart garage door opener work with other devices in your connected home, thenGarageio is the one to buy.
Apart from these major distinctions, there are minor differences between these two that might make you decide to choose one over the other. For one, Garageio has an incomplete list of compatible garage door openers, while MyQ makes it easier to confirm if it will work with your current setup.
When it comes to alerts and security, both of these devices can tell you if you left your garage door open. They will notify you after 30 minutes or after a specific period that you prefer. However, Garageio’s alerts can be delayed. MyQ has a customizable set of notification features that allow you to get alerted in the way you want and when you want it. It also has a flashing light that warns people that the garage door is closing.
The Bottomline
In short, if MyQ ever decides to make its smart connections free, it would be hard to beat. For now, however,MyQ is an excellent device that does everything well, and if you do not mind having to pay a monthly fee for a smart home connection, then this one is for you.
You can go with Garageio if you currently have a smart home and you do not want to be bothered with recurring fees. However, you will have to put up with a buggy mobile app and a need for a few refinements in the features.
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