The humble garage door opener has gained a lot of smarts over the years. New models come complete with battery backups and wireless connectivity, even niceties like laser proximity detectors. But, if you live in a house of an older provenance, the machine that hauls your garage door up and down is probably a simpler sort.
The openers in my garage pre-date the Reagan administration. They're Genie models made of stamped metal and painted a period-appropriate shade of avocado green. They are about as far from smart as a device can get.
Thankfully, the Internet of Things (IoT) is here to help inject a little more IQ into even vintage openers like these. The $54.98 Wyze Garage Door Controller is one of the latest. Yes, Wyze, the company known for its impossibly cheap home security cameras. At just $35 a pop, I've peppered my property with many of the company's little white wireless, waterproof streamers.
The downside
The catch, of course, is that every few months Wyze locks yet another formerly free feature into the company's Cam Plus plan. For $1.99 per camera per month, or $19.99 per year, Cam Plus re-enables things like endless cloud video recording and "AI-powered" detection of cars, packages, and even wildlife.
It doesn't take long before that ultra-cheap Cam starts looking a little more spendy, but by then you'll probably have enough of the things to make the $9.99 monthly Cam Plus Unlimited subscription seem worthwhile.
As, indeed, I have myself.
This is the modern, services-based equivalent of a bait-and-switch. I must confess this leaves a bitter taste in my mouth whenever I add another Wyze product to my IoT network. But, when the company behind my last "smart" product gave up on supporting its own product, I decided to swallow my misgivings and pay the $110 for a pair of Wyze's Garage Door Controllers.
What’s in the box
Why two? While many Internet-connected garage door adapters can cover multiple doors, Wyze's is strictly one-per. So, my setup was a bit pricey. However, if you happen to have an extra Wyze Cam v3 floating around, you can buy the Garage Door Controller add-on separately for just $18.99.
Indeed, the Controller is just a little white box that plugs into a Wyze Cam. The camera detects whether your door is open, while the Controller box handles the process of interfacing between Wyze's online services and your offline garage door opener.
I won't attempt to iterate through which openers Wyze's system is compatible with, but most common and many rare brands are supported, old and new. You can see a full list here.
My openers were vintage Genie units, nearly as old as I, yet far more consistently functional. Despite literally predating the Internet, they're compatible with Wyze's add-on.
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