Garage door openers have come a long way from the simple push-button remotes many homeowners grew up with.

Today’s smart garage door openers can connect your garage to your smartphone, allowing you to check whether the door is open or closed, operate it remotely, receive activity notifications, give trusted people access, and—in some models—even see and communicate with someone inside the garage through an integrated camera.

For homeowners in Lancaster County, those features can be useful every day. They can be especially valuable for busy families, frequent travelers, rental-property owners, Airbnb hosts, and anyone who has ever driven away from home and wondered:

“Did I remember to close the garage door?”

What Is a Smart Garage Door Opener?

A smart garage door opener combines the normal operation of an automatic opener with internet-connected controls.

Instead of relying only on a handheld remote or wall button, compatible systems allow you to use an app on your smartphone or tablet.

Lancaster Door Service carries several LiftMaster® garage door openers with MyQ® Technology, which allows compatible openers to communicate with the free MyQ app. Depending on the opener and accessories installed, homeowners can remotely check door status, open or close the garage, receive notifications, establish schedules, share access and use additional monitoring features.

Never Wonder Whether You Left the Garage Door Open

This may be one of the most useful smart-opener features.

You leave for work, get halfway across Lancaster County and suddenly think:

“I don’t remember closing the garage.”

With a compatible MyQ-connected LiftMaster opener, you can check the status from your phone rather than driving all the way home.

If the door was left open, you can close it remotely.

MyQ can also provide real-time notifications when the garage door opens, closes or is left open. Homeowners can therefore stay informed about garage activity even when they aren’t physically at home.

That can be helpful for everyday situations such as:

  • Checking whether the kids arrived home from school.
  • Knowing when another family member leaves or returns.
  • Making sure the garage was closed after leaving for vacation.
  • Checking the house while you’re at work.
  • Confirming that someone who needed temporary access has left and the door is closed.

Give Access Without Handing Out Another Garage Remote

Traditional garage access usually meant handing someone a physical remote or giving them the permanent keypad code.

Smart access gives homeowners more control.

MyQ allows an account owner to share garage access with trusted users through the app. Current MyQ guest-access features support access for up to five additional users.

That can be useful when someone needs access while you aren’t home.

For example:

A contractor or repair technician: You may need someone to enter the garage while you’re at work.

A neighbor: Someone checking your property while you’re traveling doesn’t necessarily need your primary garage remote.

Family members: Adult children or relatives can have access without carrying another transmitter.

Pet sitters or house sitters: A trusted person can enter through the garage while you are away.

The advantage isn’t simply being able to open the garage remotely. It is being able to manage access without distributing physical garage-door remotes that can be lost, copied or forgotten.

Smart Garage Access for Rental Properties and Airbnb Hosts

Smart garage technology can also make managing a rental property easier.

Imagine owning an Airbnb, vacation rental or second home.

A guest arrives after you do.

Rather than coordinating the handoff of a garage-door remote, a compatible smart-access system can give the property owner additional options for controlling access.

For example, the owner could:

  • Verify whether the garage door is open or closed.
  • Receive notifications when the door operates.
  • Give approved users access through MyQ.
  • Remotely open the garage when necessary.
  • Make sure the door has been closed after guests leave.
  • Avoid having multiple physical remotes circulating among renters.

With compatible MyQ keypad products, unique PINs and scheduled access can provide additional ways to manage entry for family members, guests and service providers. Those capabilities depend on the opener and accessories installed, so it is important to choose the right equipment for the property.

For a short-term rental owner, that means the garage can become part of the property’s overall access-management system rather than just another key or remote that needs to be tracked.

Package Delivery Can Get Smarter Too

Smart garage technology can even be used for certain in-garage deliveries.

Compatible MyQ systems work with Amazon Key In-Garage Delivery, allowing eligible Amazon Prime customers to have certain packages delivered inside the garage rather than left on a front porch.

For an authorized delivery, the driver receives verified one-time access rather than your permanent garage code. The garage is opened for that delivery and the package can be placed inside, helping protect it from weather and porch theft.

Availability and eligibility depend on the homeowner’s equipment, location, Amazon account and delivery type, but it demonstrates how much the role of the garage-door opener has changed.

It isn’t just a motor hanging from the ceiling anymore.

Cameras Add Another Level of Awareness

Some LiftMaster smart openers go beyond door control.

Lancaster Door Service currently carries models such as the LiftMaster 84505R and 87504-267, which include a built-in Secure View™ wide-angle camera.

Through the MyQ app, compatible camera-equipped models allow homeowners to see and hear what’s happening in the garage remotely.

Consider a few examples:

You receive a notification while you’re away and want to see who entered.

You remotely give someone access and want to confirm that they arrived.

A delivery has been placed inside the garage.

A family member tells you something was left in the garage, and you’d like to check before driving home.

For homeowners who already use smart cameras and connected-home devices, a camera-equipped garage opener can bring the garage into that same connected environment.

Smart Schedules and Notifications

Another useful MyQ feature is scheduling.

The app supports schedules that can automatically close the garage at selected times and control compatible MyQ lighting.

For example, if your household normally settles in for the night around 10:00 p.m., a closing schedule provides another safeguard against accidentally leaving the garage open overnight.

Notifications can provide another layer of awareness.

Instead of discovering the next morning that someone forgot to close the garage, your phone can alert you when the door has been left open.

Smart Doesn’t Replace Safety

Connectivity and convenience are important, but an automatic garage door still needs reliable physical safety systems.

Lancaster Door Service’s LiftMaster® models feature The Protector System®, which uses safety-reversing sensors near the bottom of the garage-door opening.

If an obstruction interrupts the sensor beam while the door is closing, the system is designed to stop and reverse the door. LiftMaster also incorporates warnings for unattended closing operations on supported systems.

Hörmann® residential openers use their own Safety Beam System. Hörmann describes its EL201 Safety Beam as sensors positioned at the bottom of the opening that stop and reverse the door when something breaks the beam.

These systems are especially important in homes where children, pets, bicycles, vehicles and other objects regularly pass through the garage opening.

LiftMaster® 83650-267: Smart Technology With a Proven Chain Drive

One of the residential models available from Lancaster Door Service is the LiftMaster 83650-267.

This model is manufactured by Chamberlain Group and combines a traditional ½ HP AC motor and industrial-duty chain drive with modern Wi-Fi connectivity and integrated Bluetooth technology.

The chain-drive system provides dependable lifting power, while the smart capabilities bring smartphone control into the equation.

The 83650-267 also meets UL 325 requirements for automatic garage-door operators.

For homeowners who like the reliability and familiar performance of a chain-drive opener but want modern connected features, it offers a good example of how traditional garage-door technology and smart-home technology can work together.

Not Every Smart Opener Is the Same

“Smart garage door opener” describes a category, not one particular type of machine.

Different models can offer very different features.

Lancaster Door Service currently offers LiftMaster choices ranging from the 83650-267 chain-drive Wi-Fi opener to models with:

  • Ultra-quiet belt drives
  • Built-in cameras
  • Two-way audio
  • LED garage lighting
  • Battery backup
  • Wall-mounted operation
  • Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity
  • MyQ smartphone access

For example, the LiftMaster 84505R combines a quiet belt drive with built-in camera technology, while the 87504-267 adds battery backup and extensive LED lighting. The LiftMaster 98022 uses a wall-mount design that frees overhead ceiling space.

Hörmann also offers smart-capable residential openers. Current SilentDrive® models can use the company’s BluSecur app through Bluetooth, with an optional Wi-Fi gateway providing additional smart-home connectivity.

That is why choosing an opener based solely on horsepower or price can mean overlooking features that could be useful every day.

Which Garage Door Opener Is Right for Your Home?

The right opener depends on much more than whether you want smartphone control.

The Lancaster Door Service team can help you consider:

Door size and weight: The opener needs enough power for the garage door it will operate.

Noise: A belt-drive opener may be especially appealing when there is living space above or beside the garage.

Smart features: Decide whether you want basic smartphone control, guest access, cameras, notifications or additional connected features.

Backup power: A battery-backup model can keep compatible garage-door operation available during a power outage.

Garage layout: A wall-mounted opener may make sense when you want to preserve overhead ceiling space.

Rental or second-home use: Remote monitoring and managed access can be particularly useful when you aren’t always at the property.

Safety: Properly installed safety sensors and reversing systems remain an essential part of any automatic garage-door system.

Bring Your Garage Door Into the Smart-Home Era

For many homeowners, the biggest advantage of a smart garage door opener isn’t technology for technology’s sake.

  • It’s convenience.
  • It’s being able to check the garage from work.
  • It’s knowing whether the kids made it home.
  • It’s letting a trusted person inside without leaving a remote under the flowerpot.
  • It’s checking your rental property from miles away.

And it’s no longer turning the car around because you’re wondering whether you closed the garage door.

Lancaster Door Service offers a selection of LiftMaster® and Hörmann® residential garage door openers designed for different doors, homes and lifestyles.

Whether you’re looking for dependable chain-drive performance, an ultra-quiet belt drive, smartphone control, camera monitoring, battery backup or a space-saving wall-mounted opener, the Lancaster Door Service team can help you determine which features make the most sense for your garage.

View Lancaster Door Service’s Residential Garage Door Openers →

Or visit the Lancaster Door Service showroom at 1851 Lincoln Hwy East, Lancaster, PA, or call (717) 394-4724 to discuss your garage-door opener options.