A New Trick for an Old Garage

This post is sponsored by Genie®.

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I live in a neighborhood of old houses. Most have a garage (some have carriage houses!) and they’re almost always detached, facing the alley. Ours is a two-car garage that borders our backyard, with a side door beyond the fence and a big beige garage door with raised panels. The door seemed fine but it was always so noisy! Loud creaking and rattling as it opened made me wonder if it was in need of repair or replacement.

And because our garage isn’t attached to the house, we could only access it if we had our keys on us. Not a big deal, except that we store the kids’ bikes and other outdoor toys inside of it. Some of our gardening tools are in there too and since I don’t usually carry my keys while we’re hanging out back or when I’m working on the yard (most of what I need is stored under the back porch), it was always a minor inconvenience to go back inside to find them if I needed to open the garage for things.

Genie reached out with information about Aladdin Connect^®, and as I went into research mode I realized it would be a really nice upgrade. The loud creaking as we opened the door was due to the old opener itself, so we replaced it and the new Genie model we chose has Aladdin Connect^® built right in. The door is so quiet when we open it now! I didn’t even realize it was possible. I assumed that some of the creaky noise must have been coming from the door (maybe banging against the guide rails or bending as it retracted?) but nope. It was all that old motor! So glad we had it replaced.

You could use Aladdin Connect^® if you just want to add its smart features to your home too. There’s a separate Add-On Kit with a Door Control Module available that can control up to three doors. The installation is an easy DIY project, it works with most residential garage door openers (Genie brand or not), and most iOS and Android mobile devices. A Door Position Sensor gets added to each door so the actual position is monitored, letting you know if the doors were open or closed even if it was done manually. There’s also a history you could reference to see which openers were used and when.

It has been so convenient to be able to open the garage from the app on my phone, since inside the house or out, I do usually have my phone on me. I also like that I get an alert each time the door opens or closes. Obviously I hope we never have a break-in, but it does give me peace of mind, knowing that I would be alerted if the door opened when we weren’t expecting it. And if I open the garage from my phone and then send the kids out there to grab their bikes, I like getting a notice when the door is closed again so I can be sure they actually remembered to hit the button when they were done. I even used the ‘Rules’ section of the app to add a rule that will automatically close the garage door if it has been open for 60 minutes. Just in case someone leaves it open and I’m not paying attention to the notices on my phone.

(That fridge, and the washer and dryer taking up space in there all came out once the laundry room was tiled.)

Aladdin Connect^® has come in handy for giving other people access too. Our house was pretty torn up after having some plumbing problems repaired, so we hired someone to fix the worst of the damage. He set up his materials and equipment in the garage, and then he would send me a text each morning as he arrived and I could open the door for him right from my phone. Very handy when he was unexpectedly early and I was still in pajamas or right in the middle of something with the kids.

You can find out more about Aladdin Connect^® and check compatibility with your existing model on Genie’s website. It’s one of my favorite smart features we’ve added to this old home of ours!