New favorite gadget, Garage Door Opener
 

Bought it the moment I saw it. QoL, improved.

vid unavailable.

Is that different than the one described here?
https://www.bikeforums.net/electroni...seriously.html

I bought one of those (DoorMate). Worked for about a month. I assume the battery died. But was supposed to last a year I think. You have to unwrap your bars to install and to replace the battery. Really poor design in that sense, though I'm sure it wasn't done without a lot of thought. So, it will go into the bin the next time I rewrap the bars.

Maybe I got a bad unit, bad battery. I don't care, uses an odd size battery, requires unwrapping the bars to replace the battery. Just not worth the hassle to me.

I see they now have a DoorMate 2 that uses a standard 2032 coin battery and can clamp to your bars, or even replace your stem cap. I would have bought this had it been available. Probably won't buy one because it is only a very minor convenience for me.

No problem with mine, so far. Fingers crossed.

Left home yesterday and remote is dead. I have a spare battery but if it dies in 4-6 weeks, I’ll give up on it.

Could be they got some bad/heap batteries they shipped with the units. Big mistake to cut corners that way, if they did. No excuse for a garage door opener not lasting years between battery changes. I have garage remotes years old that have never needed a new battery.

I just found the whole thing a bit of a hassle. I had assumed it fit in like a bar plug. Having to wrap over it and subsequently unwrap the bars to replace a battery is a bridge too far for me. I wish the stem cap version had come out before I bought mine. I'd have gone with that. Looks to be much more convenient and takes standard coin batteries.

Please post how it goes with your battery replacement. At this point, I don't plan to bother buying a new battery and even trying it again.

can you post a picture of it/ preferably installed.

I just wrapped a piece of foam tape around mine and shoved it in like a bar plug. I haven't lost it yet.

I roll up to my garage and type in the code...voila my door opens...amazing...and I don't have to carry something or mount something on my bike...it's a garage, not the bat cave and I'm not in that much of a hurry.

Yesterday the cheap $12 remote I have hanging from a D ring on my handlebar bag worked just fine. If I do not use my handlebar bag, I put the remote in a jersey pocket. Battery is at least two years old.


I did not have to push the buttons with my code.

I just ordered this. The reviews are mixed but with a heavy cargo bike with two kids on board, I think it will be worth it.

Perhaps eschew the motorized opener and go manual on lifting the door. It's only a garage door, not a safe and Im looking for exercise anyways!

lol ...it's a two stall, one door, garage...the door is also insulated...i've had to lift it manually once...not going to try that again...

If the door was initially installed where an electric opener was to be used, there might not be a handle on the door to grasp for lifting it.

Doors are supposed to be balanced with a spring so that it is much easier to lift. Ideally lifting the door should take very little effort.

If a spring breaks, your motorized door mechanism will probably fail much faster, the motors are not designed to handle the full weight of a door.

Our door is pretty heavy. I think when I replaced it, I might have kept the original springs. When one of them broke recently the old one looked really old. It turns out around here getting a spring replaced takes a couple of weeks and two visits from the door installers $$

Under normal circumstances, you can't lift our door manually from the outside because the release is well-hidden. I probably should take the old garage door opener down so the robbers don't screw up the door getting to the release that doesn't do anything.

I had my garage lift motor replaced and new belts installed 2-3 years ago and it had a link to an APP to control the door. I can't remember the number of times I have left the house and get blocks or miles from home and couldn't remember if I had closed the door. Now all I have to do is look at the APP and it tells you if the garage door is open or closed. If it's open you can close it with the APP. If someone else opens or closes the garage door I will get a text stating the door has been opened and another text when it closes. Love it.

Btw, my bar end remote’s battery went dead after 6 weeks and it’s sitting on my bench waiting for me to buy a battery. I’m hoping the original battery was old or something because I’m not buying a new battery every 4-6 weeks.

Totally bummed. I got this for my Yuba. Programmed perfectly. It doesn’t fit inside the handlebar. The bar is quite a bit too narrow on the inside. It’s a Yuba, not a nicer bike, but I assumed the inside diameter of the bar would be the same. Now I’ve got to decide whether it’s going back or if I think I can ream enough of the inside out to make it fit.

Was actually pretty excited to have something that wasn’t a big deal to install. I didn’t want the one for the outside of the handlebar.

Just updating the thread with a video showing the range of the DoorMate unit. Watch the house on the left.

Cool

Just saw this now. Thanks for reporting back. I was in a position to consider replacing a battery and trying mine again. You've made that decision easy. Not going to bother. The whole thing just makes no sense. Why can common, cheap battery operated garage door openers go years without needing a battery change, and this thing can only go 6 weeks.