Garage door openers yes or no

[supernatural400]

Do you leave them on all the time or shut them off at night or when you leave the house for a few days. I'm thinking about throwing the breaker at night as I worry that somehow a button or switch will short out or something and cause one or more of the doors to open. with all the stuff I have in there right now, would be and open invitation for someone to walk in. Not too mention the heat at would continue to run all night

 

[Rowdy1]

I'd Turn It Off

I know of a few cases including my Mom's door opener where something sets it off and opens it. Possibly another remote, we never figured it out but on a few occaisions her garage door was open. After my Dad passed away, we sold his car and I found the door open a couple times as did my sisters, so I pulled the plug and if we need to get in the big door, I plug it back in. My $.02

 

[DkBG]

I shut mine off at vacation time but thats all . I do make sure it stays down when it shuts . A couple of times it went back up and I went to work with the place wide open . Cliff

 

[c4ever]

There should be a lockout on the interior switch.

 

[supernatural400]

Mine does not, just have 3 push buttons in the kitchen. one for each door

 

[B/STOCK]

There should be a lockout on the interior switch.

Mine was installed in 96 and it has a lockout on the interior switch. I use it every night. My wife leaves her car unlocked (with a remote in it) outside quite often. This would give theives easy access to the house.

 

[vettepilot]

I shut mine off at vacation time but thats all . I do make sure it stays down when it shuts . A couple of times it went back up and I went to work with the place wide open . Cliff

I usually have that happen a couple of times a year, the culprit here is usually something is cutting the safety beam on the electric eye, or my wife has hit one of the components with her gardening tools. The other day I hit the door button and was entering the kitchen when I heard the door suddenly reverse... I checked on it to see what was up, my mountain bike handle bar was sticking out far enough for the door to hit it and the pressure safety switch caused to door to open again. DUH
vettepilot

 

[thevettenet CA]

Ours has a cord you can use to disengage the motor from the opener screw - one quick tug & the motor will freewheel if activated.

 

[jeepie]

The door at the house is usually on, except when we go away, then I unplug it. Never had it go up so far. The door where I keep the vette is only plugged in when I take the car out, otherwise the breaker is off, I also padlock the bolt on the door when I am not there. It might not make much difference but I feel better about it since I don't live there. At least a thief would have to cut the lock off rather than just lifting the door.

 

[Bob Chadwick]

About 10 - 15 years ago there was a scam where a crook would get a bunch of openers, bolt them to a 1x4 and drive through a residential neighborhood stealing from anyone whose door would open. Since then, the openers have gotten more sophisticated with more frequencies and code switching.

Bob

 

[MsSchroder]

I am getting paranoid from reading this. I've never locked it before when going on vacation. but next time I think I will.

 

[supernatural400]

since I've posted this I've been throwing the breaker off at night, just a little piece of security. Since I have a webcam going in their 24/7 I set it at night for motion detection to snap a picture if someone gets in, then that PC moves the snapshot to another PC in the house. At least if someone gets in there at night I'll have a photo of them.

 

[vetahlk]

Boy! I'm also getting paranoid reading this. I'm running right over to where my vette is stored and pulling the breaker on the opener. I guess I'll just have to open up the house and throw the breaker back on when I want to visit her.:eek If anyone did try to take her

 

[VetteGarage]

I have had Genie Door openers on the house garages for over 20 years. I unplug one of them when I go on vacation. The detached garage where I keep the vette is usually on, but again when I am on vacation, it is disabled. I have updated all openers with the latest encrypted controls. I have two of the new ones that open twice as fast as they close. Great for sneaking the vette out FAST!

 

[MsSchroder]

... Since I have a webcam going in their 24/7 I set it at night for motion detection to snap a picture if someone gets in, then that PC moves the snapshot to another PC in the house. At least if someone gets in there at night I'll have a photo of them. [/B]

Wow, I would love to hear how to do this. Can you provide details? I've got lots of pc's floating around but don't know anything about webcams.

thanks
Tammy

 

[supernatural400]

Well there are a few things you need one being a webcam or a video camera that you can hook up to your video card. once you have that you'll need webcam software I use visiongs

http://www.visiongs.de/

then you need a webpage or place that you can FTP (upload a picture) to you website.

Pretty simple to set up

I have a 3com camera( which they don't make anymore) that's extremly good in low light conditions and another kodak which is not that great.

On my website I have it snap a picture and FTP to my home page, at night when I have my offline picture loaded. the webcam software is set for motion detection and will only snap a picture and upload when motion is detected. at the same time Since I have a detached garage I have my house PC FTP into my site every hour or two and grab any picure by it's file name that the other PC uploaded during the night. Most times I don't bother to have the house PC do this as I can just check in the morning my site by filename if any pictures have been uploaded. I just give the normal daily picture one filename and a motion detected one a different name,, sounds easy..it is..

I'm going to be changing over soon to live streaming video with a tilt and pan feature, so when you go to my site there will be buttons for a visitor to pan around my garage . this way also if it's raining or snowing and I don't feel like going out side I can check the inside of the garage from my house

I already have both PC's setup for remote control so I can view the others screen to see what's it doing

Pretty lazy,,huh. not wanting to walk 30 feet outside to the garage. If I could only find a way for one of the PC's to change my oil and make coffee I'd be set
:crazy

 

[MsSchroder]

very cool, thanks for the info!

 

[Vanity Plate Bob]

Why do we buy $7000. worth of gym equipment, for exercise, and have to have $7000. of electronic equipment to open the garage door? he he American way

 

[nhisfan]

It's not a bad idea to put surge protectors on your openers, too. I got hit by lightning last year and it took out the logic board in both of my openers.

Of course, Sears wanted $129 to replace each of the boards - duh - or $99 for a whole new unit!!!

I have also had the doors open all by themselves during a thunderstorm, too.

GT

 

[Vanity Plate Bob]

Are surge protectors sufficient protection from lightening?
I heard a safety instructor say that "surge protectors should not be used with a unit that operates continually". Fact? The package does not portray this message.