Douglas

Does anyone have recommendations for garage door and man door sensors?

I've got two garage doors and a man door that I would like to monitor, and I wouldn't mind having a couple of occupancy sensors.

It doesn't need to connect to any smart home stuff but that wouldn't be a bad thing, either.

Jun 25 at 1:03amWeb
Show threadDouglas3d ago

I actually would be interested in some window and door sensors for other places as well. Maybe it's time to initiate a Home Assistant installation to do some automation...

It would be nice to know we forgot to close a window before bed.

Show threadAI6YR Ben3d ago
@douglasvb I've been looking at this myself. ZWave or Zigbee devices do what you want, the question is how you monitor them upstream.
Show threadDouglas3d ago

@ai6yr I've got zigbee devices already so it would be easy for me to integrate into that framework.

Hadn't thought about using zigbee for this. Thanks!

Show threadAI6YR Ben3d ago

@douglasvb Looks like the easiest is this (which you could build yourself) with a Zigbee USB dongle.

https://www.home-assistant.io/green

Home Assistant Green

The easy-to-use, versatile, and trustworthy smart home hub for everyone.

Home Assistant
Show threadCoach Sankhavaram ®3d ago

@ai6yr @douglasvb

Praise be all the people that can say the word without even internally cracking.

Show threadBryan Haskin3d ago
@ai6yr @douglasvb
Show threadScott Murray 3d ago
@douglasvb I used to use Eve door/window sensors because they worked with Apple Home (what I was using at the time) and had the best privacy stance. I would recommend them IF your physical layout is such that the signals reach your server. (There are various bridges and extenders but I didn’t want to get into that.)
Show threadDouglas3d ago
@scott thanks! That might work for me.
Show threadScott Murray 3d ago
@douglasvb as I recall they are a bit pricier because they don’t suck your data out and sell it to Google etc :) also very solid construction. At the time they didn’t make a garage-specific sensor but I just used the regular door/window sensors
Show threadDavid Nelson3d ago
@douglasvb Yeah I think I’d be looking at Home Assistant with commodity Z-Wave/Zigbee/whatever. I have a bunch of Ring sensors that I bought before they became part of Amazon. I’d like to switch away and that’s probably the way I’d go.
Show threadDouglas3d ago
@dmnelson we've got a bunch of echo devices that I would like to move away from but my 👸🏼 really likes them especially for syncing music across the house. So we're in a similar boat to you in terms of the Amazon issue.
Show threadScott Francis3d ago
@douglasvb I like the sensor that came with my August smart locks (retrofit on any existing deadbolt, no swap required). For garage door it's just what came with my opener I suppose.
Show threadDouglas3d ago

@darkuncle the opener on these doors is about 15 years old and we're not going to be replacing it so I think I'll have to get some independent sensors 😬

My parents garage door has the new modern sensors built in which is probably similar to yours and it's pretty useful!

Show threadWeather_Rock_Wx3d ago

@douglasvb

Okay, I had to look up what a man door is. I thought perhaps it was a door to a man cave. Then again, maybe it is?

Show threadDouglas3d ago
@Weather_Rock_Wx haha just a regular human door rather than an automobile door 😅
Show threadTerry R3d ago
@douglasvb https://www.amazon.com/GarageDoorBuddy-Monitor-Garage-Anywhere-separately/dp/B01C9QFX0Y
I got one of these back in 2021 to notify me if I leave the garage door open. Was a 2 second install and have replaced batteries once, otherwise worked well for me and i get notifications on my phone when garage is open/closed or when its continued to be left open
Amazon.com : Brocel GarageDoorBuddy Monitor - Monitor Garage Doors from Anywhere (Not for Controlling The Garage Door) : Electronics

Amazon.com : Brocel GarageDoorBuddy Monitor - Monitor Garage Doors from Anywhere (Not for Controlling The Garage Door) : Electronics

Show threadDouglas3d ago
@Starorstone thank you!!
Show threadNikola Kotur3d ago
@douglasvb I use Thirdreality tilt sensor for garage door, works like a champ, connects to zigbee network 5m away behind 2 walls.
Show threadDouglas3d ago
@nikola thanks!! Just ordered a couple of them.