Garadget WiFi Smart Garage Door Controller - Control Existing Garage Door with Free iOS/Android App, Alexa, Google Home, IFTTT & Home Automation. USA Servers.

This was a great choice for my needs (more on that below), and I highly recommend it. I found installation to be quite easy. Follow the instructions on their website and you’ll be done in less than half an hour. Yes, it can be done in 10 minutes, but why rush. I played around with the app, device, and the reflector inside my home office while setting it up (before heading out to the garage) and I still probably completed the job in 20 minutes.BEFORE YOU BUY, check out what you’ll need first:1. You’ll need a garage door opener with a pair of screw terminals for a “dumb” hard-wired button that is usually mounted next to the door that leads from the garage into your home (mine is a actually a doorbell button). The Garadget connects to and controls the opener via an included wire connected to those same 2 screw terminals, at the same time, as used for that button (see photo #1). Both Garadget and the button will continue to work once installed. Most door openers, including mine, have these screw terminals for a regular button. If your opener doesn’t, Garadget probably isn’t the right product for you.2. The next thing you’ll need is an open power outlet fairly close to the opener to power the Garadget. Usually, there is a ceiling-mounted double outlet directly above the opener that the opener is plugged into and you can use the other outlet (see photo 2).3. Finally, you’ll need a decent WiFi signal in your garage near the opener. Garadget connects to its app (and Alexa) via WiFi. I recommend checking the WiFi signal level with your mobile phone near the opener to make sure you have coverage there.If you look at photo #1, you’ll see the wire from the Garadget to the opener is pretty short (maybe 12 to 16 inches), and the power cord from the Garadget to the outlet (photo #2) is probably around 5-6 feet long. The Garadget needs to be mounted to something (via included adhesive pad) and pointed with an unobstructed view to a spot at the top of your garage door. It shines a laser dot at that spot, and that’s where you’ll put one (2 are included) of the reflective sticker disks (see photo #3). You’ll need to be sure that you can plug in the Garadget and have enough cord length to mount it to the door opener, while still giving it a clear path to the top of the garage door (photo #2).They recommend mounting the device to the bottom of the opener, but as my opener has a light on the bottom, I mounted it on the side (photo #1). The device will also need to be close enough to the opener’s screw terminals to connect the two via the shorter included wire. The included wire worked fine for me, but if you need more length for this its standard “18/2 solid thermostat wire” (according to product website) that you can get an any hardware store.My Needs:I was looking for a garage door controller/monitor for use with my existing door opener, an 8-10 year old "Overhead Door" model. For me, there were two important criteria:1. The controller needed to control the opener via hard-wired (not wireless!) connection.2. I have Amazon Echo's in my home, and I wanted to be able to open/close and obtain status of the garage door using Alexa voice commands.The Garadget device delivers on both requirements with an elegantly engineered design and a choice of two existing "skills" for Alexa to choose from. The reason for my first criteria is that my current opener is limited to only 4 wireless remotes, and all those slots were already in use: 2 cars via HomeLink, 1 exterior keypad remote, and 1 standard remote. I needed a solution that wouldn't take up one of those slots. Plus, training remotes with my opener is a real pain. For perspective, the entire process of setting up the Garadget took about the same amount of time as the last time I had to train a new car via HomeLink.The reason for my second criteria? Alexa is fun. :-) Garadget offers two skills that are identical in functionality differing only in the "invocation name" that Alexa recognizes them by: "Alexa, ask Garadget to..." vs. "Alexa, ask Smart Garage to...". I'd read some user reports that Alexa would confuse the former with another product's skill ("Garadio" or something), so I chose the latter and it works like a champ. I can ask Alexa to open the door, close the door, and tell me the status of the door (whether it is open or closed).Bottom Line: it was an easy install and works well for my setup.

I just bought a house with a very old garage door opener. It is so old it wouldn't sync up with the garage door opener button on my car. I called the car company and then the Home Link people and after trying several things, they concluded I couldn't link it and I'd have to either buy a new garage door opener or spend $80 on a "conversion kit". I started looking at the smart garage door openers and they were about $200 or more and so I looked some more and found Garadget.I read the reviews and then looked at other types of add on's that would allow me to use both my phone and Alexa and the only one that seemed to fit the bill was Garadget, so I ordered it. The concept is great, it uses the same connections as the door opener button so it doesn't have to deal with any remote codes. It connects to the Wifi and then emits a laser light that reflects off a small round reflector you place on the inside of the door. If it sees the reflector, then the door is closed. If it doesn't see the reflector then the door is open. It is simple and elegant and the thing worked right away. It took me about 30 minutes to program it to connect to my WiFi, and attach it to my opener. Now I have the oldest and smartest garage door opener in the neighborhood.I connected it with Alexa and found out that there are two skills for Garadget. The one that uses Garadget as the key word doesn't work, but the one that uses Smart Garage as the keyword works great. The only issue I had is with the app, which is pretty straightforward, but it was a problem to change the name. I couldn't see any way to save the name change or any other change I made and it was hit or miss whether it would take it. I still can't get the location alert to do anything If I enable it, I get the option for Door Radius (and I don't know what that means). It has 15 meters listed and if I try to change that, it won't take, then I can't save it. Again, I don't know what it does, maybe automatically opens the door when my phone is 15 meters away?Bottom line, the thing is fantastic and being able to open and close the door with my phone or Alexa is a great benefit. I assume the app will be upgraded soon and even now it works fine to open and close the door. I would definitely recommend this product to anyone wanting to make their garage door smarter