Learn me garage door openers-remotes and wireless exterior keypads

I moved into a new place earlier this year, and the garage has an electric door opener. My old place was a highrise with a shared underground parking garage, and the offsite garage/shop I rented at that time had a manual garage door, as did my home before that, so automatic garage doors are not something I have a ton of experience with.

The new place is a brownstone row-house style townhouse with a good-sized garage on the ground level, only accessible from the back. There is a gated driveway that runs the length of the back (sort of like a wide alley) that is shared with the other houses in the row.

When I bought the place, I was told there were two remotes (for two cars) each of which has one button to open the gate to the community, and a second button to open the garage door. There was also a keypad remote fixed to the outside on the back, but it was non-functional. I tried to revive it by disassembling, cleaning off corrosion, and new batteries, but she's totally dead. This is the setup I've been living with.

I wonder if I go for a simple fix to maintain the status quo, or rethink things and possibly change my setup if it would be possible to make things work better for me.

Issue number one is that I have three cars and five motorcycles, so I'm always shuffling remotes around.

Issue number two is that the supplied remotes are huge! Roughly 4" x 6" x 1.5" or so! The remote for the shared garage door at the old place was about the size of a silver dollar and maybe 0.5" thick...granted it only had one button. The remotes for the new place are designed to clip to a sunvisor, but they rattle all the time and fall off on occasion. They are also quite bulky and impractical for the motorcycle unless I take a tankbag or backpack.

None of my vehicles are new enough/fancy enough to have any integrated garage door opening function.

At my old place, I had one little remote for the shared underground garage in each car, and one that I put in the pocket of whichever riding jacket I was using for that season. This worked pretty well for me.

It would be nice to have keypad access on the outside of the garage door as a possibile solution for use when riding a bike. I also don't have a walk-through door out the back, so it would also be really nice as a way to walk out the back to check the mail, visit the neighbors, etc without needing to dig a brick-sized remote out of the car and carry it with me.

Just get a new keypad for the back and live with shuffling the clunky remotes between the cars?

Is there a programmable small remote that might work with the existing openers for both the gate and my garage door? How do I figure out what frequency/code the gate uses, as it shared by everyone, so I can't reprogram the gate, and it doesn't have a function to send the code to a remote that I'm aware of?

Is there some slick new tech I'm not aware of? Something I can do an integrated install in the car? I'm on the fence about phone apps...what if my phone runs out of juice/wifi is down?

Just call one of the garage door places and pay them to figure it out?

I can't tell you the brand, but the openers in my house in FL are fantastic!

They have a programmable exterior keypad, but can also be worked through an app.  We never use the remote openers- we use our phones. 
 

The unit hooks to WIFI and has a camera. I can open the door for a delivery, watch the guy set it in my garage, and close the door behind him from 300 miles away.

Look for apps and features. 

In reply to SV reX :

Good to know; thanks for the input!

Regarding my previously-expressed skepticism of apps, I rather like the idea of a smart remote! I'm skeptical of an app to completely replace the remote. I'll keep digging...

I have a 10 year old Sears model and bought the Q pad app and hardware - we can open on the app or use the remote in the car.  The Honda has buttons for the garage but they don't always work.  We also have a pad on the outside from Sears.

Since we are getting older we get down the block and ask - did we  close the door?  Check the app. What time did the college daughter roll in?  Check the app.....

Our elderly father-in-law lives in his own home so we hid a key inside his attached garage and put a pad on the outside. 

If we don't hear from him we can call in to the police to get a wellness check and we can get them into his house without breaking down any doors.  I do believe the police/Fire suggests lock boxes for these type issues?

In reply to ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) :

The app doesn't completely replace the remote. It just works better!

We have remotes. We just don't use them. 
 

BTW, a keypad IS a remote. 

I bought this 3 years ago after a friend bought one, told him if it still worked after a few months I'm in.  I haven't touched the remotes that came with it, I use my phone or the keypads at the house.

I can open remotely if I need to let a friend in, you can add people to your network for access, and I don't have to remember which car has the remote(s).  Quieter than the old thing that came with the house, much nicer LED light.  I can add a camera later if I want.

Amazon

We added one of these My Q Smart Controllers and we dont use the remotes anymore. The app is not perfect but its better than moving remotes around and always seems to work. 

We have the same one Jerry posted, and it's been great. We use the apps and remotes. Sometimes it's easier to just hit the button on the remote than to bring up the app. Also, our more recent Fords have Homelink in the sun shades, so you can just program one of the buttons on that to act as your remote so you don't have to have one hanging there all the time.

My truck sits outside with no remote inside so I use the wall pad or the Q app or I come in the front door unlike 66% of the people living here. 

My wife thinks if we leave a remote in our car someone will break into the car, open the garage door and come into the house and murder us all.  

I have a Chamberlain like above except its the wall mount so it's quieter and no overhead track. Works great like others have said. 

It does not solve the gate issue, but I'd be tempted to suggest that gets switched to one as well (if that is possible) and everyone splits the cost.

Datsun240ZGuy said:

My truck sits outside with no remote inside so I use the wall pad or the Q app or I come in the front door unlike 66% of the people living here. 

My wife thinks if we leave a remote in our car someone will break into the car, open the garage door and come into the house and murder us all.  

That's actually a common theft method (according to my local law enforcement).

...except the murder part. 🙄
 

People leave their remotes clipped to their visor. It can be seen from outside the car. They keep their registration in the unlocked glovebox (with their home address).

A thief can take a quick walk through a mall parking lot, find an unlocked car, snatch the remote and check the home address while they are in there.  It's pretty simple to get into someone's house within the next few days.  
 

I'll echo the comments about not keeping an opener in the car, and add to not program the garage door remotes in your vehicles as well. I was surprised to discover that they are powered 'on' even when the vehicle is off in all the cars I've owned. GM, Ford, Nissan, Toyota. Someone can't shatter the window of my car in the driveway and gain entry to the garage / house.

In addition, my vehicle registration address is a PO box. You can't steal my car (from Long Term Parking at the airport) and go to my house to take my E36 M3 since you know I'm gone.

I just hooked up the MyQ garage hub on My Daughters garage opener that is at least 20 years old.  It took 10 mins and did not replace any of the existing remotes, etc.

It's only $25 on Amazon and seems perfect for what you need