LazKat
Active member
FNG here with a second post. 
Last year, my wife called me at work saying she was on her way to drop the kid at school then go to work, and she thought she had left the garage door open. "And that's my problem how?" I asked. "I have to be at work today!" came the reply. I'm 23 miles from home at this point, so I called my neighbor who looked and he said the doors were both closed.
Two weeks later it happened again. Phone call to the neighbor confirmed the doors were closed.
A few days later I had two Garage Butlers in my hand. "How much did these cost?" my wife asked. "About $150 or so." She asked "Isn't there a cheaper solution?" I cashed in a lot of spousal good will with my reply of "Yes, you be a responsible adult and close the *&^@! doors!!!"
I liked the Garage Butler units because although they're all hard-wired and a bit more work to install, there's no batteries to replace. The brackets supplied didn't work so I fabricated new ones from sheet aluminum. They use reed switches which I now have activated with rare earth magnets (salvaged from old hard drives) which I've riveted to the garage doors.
The units work beautifully and are set to close the open door after 10 minutes (they may be set to close after as much as an hour or put on hold altogether).
Looking at it, I wonder what else might go wrong. Let's see... wife goes out, round to the back yard... door closes and she's locked out. My fault no doubt!
I'll put on a keypad! Let's see... keypad batteries die, wife is locked out... again, my fault. I found a hard wired keypad that works perfectly and there's no batteries to replace anywhere in the system! 
The only scenario not covered is a power outage... but I don't cover acts of God!
Anybody else using something like this?
Last year, my wife called me at work saying she was on her way to drop the kid at school then go to work, and she thought she had left the garage door open. "And that's my problem how?" I asked. "I have to be at work today!" came the reply. I'm 23 miles from home at this point, so I called my neighbor who looked and he said the doors were both closed.
Two weeks later it happened again. Phone call to the neighbor confirmed the doors were closed.
A few days later I had two Garage Butlers in my hand. "How much did these cost?" my wife asked. "About $150 or so." She asked "Isn't there a cheaper solution?" I cashed in a lot of spousal good will with my reply of "Yes, you be a responsible adult and close the *&^@! doors!!!"
I liked the Garage Butler units because although they're all hard-wired and a bit more work to install, there's no batteries to replace. The brackets supplied didn't work so I fabricated new ones from sheet aluminum. They use reed switches which I now have activated with rare earth magnets (salvaged from old hard drives) which I've riveted to the garage doors.
The units work beautifully and are set to close the open door after 10 minutes (they may be set to close after as much as an hour or put on hold altogether).
Looking at it, I wonder what else might go wrong. Let's see... wife goes out, round to the back yard... door closes and she's locked out. My fault no doubt!
I'll put on a keypad! Let's see... keypad batteries die, wife is locked out... again, my fault. I found a hard wired keypad that works perfectly and there's no batteries to replace anywhere in the system! The only scenario not covered is a power outage... but I don't cover acts of God!
Anybody else using something like this?
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