Which garage opener to get?

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1

I need to get a new garage opener. I was thinking Chamberlain MyQ but by searching here it seems that they are a mess to work with their wifi. Is there a garage opener that works best with Hubitat? Thanks Scott

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I have an older Genie and use a Tuya zig bee controller. I had a HomeKit opener from Meross already so it was a breeze to swap out. It has worked great.

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I have an Chamberlain MyQ and never had a problem with the Wi-Fi, in fact it has been rock solid now for 6 years.

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Hmm .. like everything with a cloud dependency, there are times that MyQ doesn't work well. Not a lot, but not zero.

But if you intend to control with Hubitat anyway (a relay, a Garadget, and a contact or tilt sensor), MyQ wouldn't be involved. In this case, I'd get the best opener that suits all your other requirements, but I wouldn't let MyQ make or break the deal.

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Thanks. I wasn't worried about MyQ for working as much, as I want something that works with Hubitat too.

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I've been using GoControl/Linear GD00Z-4 Z-Wave Garage Door Opener for several years and has been rock solid and dependable. Look for GD00Z-4 not GD00Z-8. I have seen more incidents reported with their latest model. Also stay away from GD00Z-2 (which you can still find on eBay).

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I had to replace my opener last year, and just got a bare-bones dumb Genie opener with no bells-&-whistles... Reinstalled my Zen17 with wired dumb reed sensors, and it all works great.

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Then that is what I think I will do. I have Genies now. one good (replaced 2 years ago) and this other one that is dead. With these suggestions I will just get a quiet bare bones one and use the zwave add on's

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If you use Ebay, be sure it's not missing the tilt sensor. Sometimes it's not in the pics yet nothing is said. The Tilt sensor is also being sold on ebay, but who wants to build a bundle. :smiley: Also make sure it includes the metal mounting brackets, especially if the item says "everything included is in the pic" :slight_smile:

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I have a Chamberlain MyQ garage door opener which has been working great for several years now. No issues with connecting or maintaining a wifi connection with my home wifi router. I really like the back-up battery which came in handy during a few home power outages allowing me to open the garage and get my car out.

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I have been very happy with the ZEN17 as well. Removed the wifi config from my opener and just use the 17 now.

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I use Tailwind. It's easy to install, WiFi based, works with hubitat, supports android and Iphone. It has a lot of nice features. I highly recommend it

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I have an issue with my where when I lose power the ZWave never comes back and I have to reset it for it to come back on my hub. Do you experience this as well?

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Hi All. I went with Genie 7155 because it has the wired inside opener that I can use with Zen17. That and battery backup. I like the write up on the Zen17 because it can handle both garage doors. Seems solid looking and I am sure in 1 year it will be out of date... LOL Thanks so much for everyone's suggestions! It definitely helped me get to a decision. Scott

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15

It looks like the wired inside opener is more than a simple momentary contact button. Since the wall button can control the light as well, that says there's some electronics in the wall button. What this means is you probably need to take the wall button apart and solder leads to the physical pushbutton. Alternatively, buy a compatible wall button or remote and solder leads to it. In either case, you will then be able to connect to your ZEN17 relay.

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Odd, the Z-Wave radio in the hub or the Z-Wave in the garage opener? I didn't experience either, but I also don't have frequent power outages. You may want to consider putting the device on an UPS, if power outages happen often.

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The opener itself. I’ve considered putting it on a UPS but I have to figure a way to mount it to the ceiling so been looking for a smaller UPS to handle the minute outage before my generator kicks on. It’s just a pain because I remember I had to factory reset the device and remove it from hubitat before I could add it back in. Screwed with all my rules too so the last time it happened I haven’t readded it back in. I’m obviously not needing to use it too often. Lol

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I will look into it. I am sure I can figure out how to separate them out. Its probably not a CAN bus or anything. :slight_smile:

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I have that same wall switch with my Genie - it's no problem as far as Zen17 connection. I don't know how that Genie wall switch actually controls the light and vacation mode, but I suspect it's wireless (no idea?) -- at any rate, those functionalities continue to work just fine with the Z17 wired up -- just proceed as if they're not in play.

I have some kind of mental block where I can't keep "series" and "parallel" straight, so I'll just use plain language...

I left the wall-switch-to-GDO wiring basically as-is... I used 2 3-port Wagos to connect the wires from wall switch, wires from Z17, and then pigtail wires down to the GDO.

You could connect both the wall-switch wires and Z17 wires directly to the GDO, but I just always prefer using pigtails to create a single connection point.

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This is precisely what you need to do with a newer Chamberlain. I have the Refoss (same as Meross) HomeKit opener module and this is how I solved the issue. Newer Chamberlain openers are designed so that shorting contacts isn't enough. It has to receive a encoded signal from the button.

Three things I like about the Refoss (Meross) connected opener module over simply using a Zigbee or Z-Wave relay.

  1. It includes a wired contact sensor so the state of the door is always known in HomeKit without the need to worry about changing batteries in a wireless contact or tilt sensor.
  2. It is fully HomeKit compatible, so I always have it available in the Home app and CarPlay, regarless of what's going on with my Homebridge. That's not to say my Homebridge isn't stable, it is but after a long power outage, the Mac it runs on will have shut down, so publishing a relay to HomeKit via homebridge would fail in that situation. So if my front door lock battery was dead (it's a keyless lock), then I wouldn't be able to use my alternate door from the garage and would have to use a 9 volt battery to boost my front door lock.
  3. It isn't reliant on my hub. Don't misunderstand. My Hubitat hubs are rock solid stable and have been for a couple of years now. However, I like to experiment with new devices every so often, and there's always a chance that either I or a faulty repeater could introduce a problem. My Apple TV on the other hand, has a longer history of perfectly stable operation.

If you're not a HomeKit user, then I can understand not wanting to go this route, but if you are this is what I would recommend without hesitation. I don't expose my garage opener to Hubitat, but if I wanted to, that could be easily accomplished with a virtual switch and a HomeKit automation. However, I'm not fond of doing something like that becuase virtual switches and HomeKit devices don't share state, and so I would always need to verify in HomeKit if the garage was actually closed, or I'd have to add a second sensor so Hubitat also knew the garage door state.