The Right Number of Garage Door Openers for Your Household

Your garage door probably comes with one or two openers, but is that enough for your household? Every member of your family who needs access to the garage should have their own opener. Luckily, almost every garage door system lets you program additional remotes.

One Garage Door Opener for Every Car

The basic rule of thumb is that you should have one remote for every car in the household. Everyone who drives needs to be able to access the garage at their convenience. If you have a family member who likes to travel on foot or by bicycle, they may also appreciate adding a garage door opener to their kit.

In addition to the openers in your cars, you should also keep at least one backup garage door remote somewhere in the house. You never know when you’ll need to open the garage while both cars are out of the house. You can also lend the extra opener to visiting relatives or a friend who is housesitting while you go on vacation.

Programming Extra Garage Door Openers

Programming garage remotes is simple. First, check to see if your manual opener has a code switch or a “learn” button. If it uses a code switch, both the manual opener and the remote should be flipped to the same code. If it uses a learn button, hold the button down until the light flashes green. Then, hold down the learn button on your remote until it also flashes green.

Some garage door systems have a learning limit, which you can find by reading the instruction manual. This limit is usually somewhere between 4 and 8.

When the Remotes Won’t Work

If your new remote simply won’t open your garage door, there are two possible problems. You might not be using the right type of remote, or you may have already exceeded the limit of openers that your garage door can “learn.” Either way, the solution is to call a garage door service in Los Angeles to find out what’s going on.