Question about garages, garage door openers and home security.

[tRidiot]

Ok, so I just ordered a mirror for my Z that was pulled from a Nissan Maxima, I think. It's the auto-dimming, built-in compass, blah-ditty-blah-blah which I don't care about, but it has the Homelink system in it. Meaning I can program it for my garage door and it'll look factory (it was an upgrade option on my Z). I currently have a ~$35 opener from Lowe's that doesn't work unless I'm sitting in the garage. Fat lotta good that does me... I can get out, but not back in. Since I have a wall-mounted button, I don't really need an opener for getting OUT.

So... I park the Z in the garage, and the wife parks her Escape in the garage.

My niece is in college and she has a Camry and uses the old opener to get in and out because she parks on the street. Well, she will when she comes back from Italy later this week anyways.

And since I have the Z, I park my Tahoe either in the drive behind my Z (which is inside) or on the side of the house in the grass. The Tahoe has a center console up top with 2 programmed door-remote buttons. I've never thought about it in the past, because the Tahoe was always parked in the garage... but now I realized that the garage door opener on the Tahoe is always powered, not ignition-powered. So if someone gets in my truck, they can open the garage door. Not good.

Now, I have a super whiz-bang alarm on the truck, with multiple sirens, inside and out, battery backup, etc. But... I still don't feel all that comfortable with it, and I am going to have my alarm guy rewire it so the garage-door remote controller built-in is switched power instead of constant power. So it won't work unless the key is in. It may be slightly less convenient at times, but it's the best option I can think of.

The niece will continue to park on the street, and I am considering doing the same for her car... buying one of these Homelink mirrors, having it installed and having it only switched power, not full-time. She also has a high-end 2-way paging alarm on her car (always one of my first investments in a vehicle).

Inside the garage, we have only a crappy hollow-core door leading into the house. One swift kick by a 9-y/o girl and it's shattered. I know I need to fix this... I am going to put in a solid-core door and move the existing keyed lock and deadbolt into it.

We do have an alarm system with an entry sensor on the interior door coming in from the garage, but no sensors on the garage itself or the single small window into the garage. I'm wondering if I should put entry sensors also on the garage doors? But this will complicate things significantly when coming or going, as you only have a 60-second window from arming to close all entry sensors, or when opening one to disarm the alarm. I believe we could change that to a couple of minutes, but I am a bit concerned that this substantially reduces the effectiveness of the alarm in a smash-and-grab situation. When unloading kids, groceries, etc, no way 60 seconds to get into the garage, out of the vehicle, into the house and disarm is feasible on a regular basis.


Open to ideas... do you guys have the in-car mounted garage-door openers and still park outside? Do you know how this affects your home security? And if so what have you done to improve things, or have you done anything? We don't always think through these things, sometimes, and this one stood out to me lately as something I really need to fix. Kinda like how people will lock all their doors and windows, but don't think about the window air conditioning unit hanging out a window in the back of the house...

Tell me what you think? Any better ideas? I really would like the garage doors (and that window in the garage, ultimately) tied in to the home alarm somehow, but I'm not sure if it's feasible, really.

 

[ChuckC]

I leave my remote in my truck outside (the wife gets to park inside for some reason) but my wall mounted switch has a "lock" button that when pressed and held a couple seconds makes the remotes nonfunctional.

So, when its "locked" the only way to operate the opener is with the wall button beside the door from the garage into the house or using the keypad on the outside garage door jamb.

I suppose the lock feature is a function of the opener and not the wall button.

Probably not much help but that's all I got.

 

[rickm]

If u have a smart phone u can have(most of the newer security systems) it set up to where u can turn ur security system on and off with the phone from anywhere.

 

[backspur]

Some alarm systems have key fobs with seperate buttons that open the garage door and arm/disarm the system. They use an led light on the front wall of the garage to indicate the alarm status. It shows if the system is armed/disarmed or if it has been triggered. Another benefit is you never have to worry about leaving your garage door up at night. You can't set the alarm if it's open.

 

[Shadowrider]

I have the lock thingy and an outside keypad. So I turn off the light switch so I don't have to worry about locking myself outside.

 

[dennishoddy]

We had a thread on here awhile back about burglars breaking into garages with a wire. They go through the top of the door, looking into one of the windows, snag the release cord and trip it, opening up the door.

I have mine zip tied now.

 

[Point and Laugh]

I have the power to my garage door opener wired through a timer. No power to the opener during the day when I'm not home. No power to it at night. I have a switch to bypass the timer if I need to.

 

[tRidiot]

We had a thread on here awhile back about burglars breaking into garages with a wire. They go through the top of the door, looking into one of the windows, snag the release cord and trip it, opening up the door.

I have mine zip tied now.

I still need to do this with mine. However, I have no windows in the garage doors, AND they have styrofoam layered on the inside of the doors, which would make it slightly harder to poke a wire through (certainly not impossible), but seeing the hanging cord is impossible. I still need to do it, though.

The wife told me last night that the garage window has a sensor on it now, she just put one on the other day. So that is better.

 

[TerryMiller]

Tacky-time.

You must live in a bad neighborhood. I suggest moving.

Seriously though, if you have a "side door" for individual access, consider doing something to make that door impenetrable. A lot break-ins are through those doors.

As for all the wireless remotes and such, and with your Tahoe having an always-on remote function, I'd also suggest a new garage door opener. That might also fix your problem with how close you have to be to operate the remote.

 

[SMS]

The garage can be a weak link for sure. We have alarms on all doors and windows and the exterior doors, including the door to the garage, have deadbolts. If they get in the garage well, they get in the garage, but they aren't getting in the house any easier than through any other point. Maybe they'll clean it for me while they're in there LOL.