You Can Add HomeKit Support To Your Garage Door: Here’s How
HomeKit is Apple’s smart home platform, similar to Google Home or Amazon Echo. It lets you control all of your smart home devices, from lightbulbs to thermostats, in one place. Of all themost useful things that work with Apple HomeKit, your garage doors are one and possibly the most useful. Sometimes homeowners forget or don’t have the time to close their garage when they’re running late for work. And in those rare instances that you misplace the garage remote, you’ll be happy you incorporated your garage door to yoursmart home ecosystembecause you’re less likely to misplace your phone.
HomeKit users have had to be patient because not every new smart device has been compatible with the platform. It’s only available to iOS users, and Apple didn’t launch its first smart speaker until 2018, four years after Amazon launched its Alexa speaker. As a result, fewer brands have made HomeKit compatible smart devices. That number is gradually increasing, but it’s still not quite at the same level as Google or Amazon’s platforms.
Luckily, when it comes to smart garage door openers, a few options exist for HomeKit enthusiasts. Connecting garage doors to smart home hubs is the easy part. A few clicks of the buttons on your phone here and there and that’s it. Unlike other smart devices that merely need to be plugged into an outlet, the bridge between your garage door and HomeKit needs to be hardwired into the physical opener and/or the wall switch. For the best advice on that part of the installation, check the product’s instructions, the garage door’s documentation, or contact a professional for help.
How to connect Meross MSG100 garage door opener to a garage
The Meross Smart Garage Opener is a handy device that claims to work with all modern garage doors, even old ones manufactured in the ’90s. Meross also offers adapters for unusual models. Once you have the contents of the device in front of you, all you need to do is:
If there are any issues, such as the app saying that the garage is open or closed when it’s not, the Meross app may need an update.
Connecting Meross MSG200 Smart Garage Door Opener to garage doors
Meross makes two smart garage products, with the MSG200 being the second option. If you’re unsure if your garage opener is compatible with a Meross device, you cancheck the compatibility liston the Meross website before making a purchase. The setup isn’t too different from the MSG100 installation, and this one supports up to three separate garage doors. The entire setup comes with the Smart garage opener device, a USB adapter and cable, a sensor cable, a test wire, a stick of double-sided adhesive tape, four screws, and a zip-tie. To connect it to your existing garage door opener, complete the following steps:
Connecting iSmartGate Garage Opener to HomeKit
ismartgate sells a few smart home solutions for garage openers that pair with HomeKit. Just like Meross, it also has acompatibility liston its website to ensure the device works with your garage opener. If the website doesn’t list the manufacturer for your garage door opener, ismartgate asks that you email its support team. If you own a Craftsman, Chamberlain, orLiftMaster opener, you need to see if there’s a yellow “learn” button. If there is, you need to also purchase ismartgate’s switch adaptor and connect it directly to the wall button. To simplify matters, the following directions guide you through the setup using an iPhone, but there are directions on the ismartgate website if you’re doing it from a computer or Android.
Using the Remootio 3 with Homekit
Remootio manufactures the Remootio 3 and 2, which can control gates and garage doors via HomeKit, Alexa, Google Assistant, and Samsung SmartThings. It will connect to your smart home via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, whichever you prefer. The biggest problem with the Remootio devices, which may scare away some in the market for a smart garage opener, is the complexity of installing the device to a garage door opener because it requires a screwdriver and removing the face of the Remootio device. Once you get past that and install it, connecting it to your HomeKit is easy.
Tailwind iQ3
The Tailwind iQ3 is similar in many ways to the other smart devices mentioned above. Tailwind only recently began including HomeKit support, but its integration is pretty straightforward. There’s no special setup required beforehand or during installation, just set up the device according to the product’s instructions.
Adding the Tailwind iQ3 device to HomeKit is the last step in the setup process. Once you install the device to your garage opener, and it’s been configured in the Tailwind app, head to Device Settings, where you’ll find a button to generate a HomeKit code. Make sure the firmware in your Tailwind iQ3 is up-to-date. Otherwise, the code won’t work, and you won’t be able to connect it to HomeKit. you’re able to update the device via the Tailwind app.
Once the iQ3 is updated, it will show up in your HomeKit app. Sometimes the Tailwind app will say the device’s firmware is already up-to-date, but it still won’t appear in HomeKit. Manually tapping the “Update” button anyway should force an update that will fix this issue.
