Tips for Improving Home Access During the Busiest and Hottest Time of the Year
Over the past twenty years, the American garage has undergone a considerable number of changes. Whether it houses the family car, serves as a work room or craft corner, or offers extra space for entertaining and recreation, the garage has been adapted to serve as an extension of the home. As the garage has evolved to fit the ever-changing lifestyles of homeowners, so too have the means of accessing it. Once considered a personal luxury, the automatic garage door opener has become a necessity due to the convenience, security and safety it provides. In fact, today, more than 55 percent of homeowners use the garage door as the main entranceway into their home, relying on the automatic garage door opener for home access every day throughout the year.
Since the garage door now plays such a key role in many homeowners' daily lives, it's important to safeguard this primary access point from the elements of each season. Whether anticipating strong winds, heavy rain, extreme heat or even just increased traffic this spring and summer months, ensuring that the main entranceway to the home is in gear for this time of year is an imperative task for today's homeowner.
The Chamberlain Group, a leader in residential and commercial access solutions and manufacturer of LiftMaster®, the world's number one brand of professionally installed garage door openers and access solutions, offers homeowners Total Home Access products with the big picture in mind – to work seamlessly in conjunction together to make access easier. With a history of bringing innovative and reliable Total Home Access products to homeowners, The Chamberlain Group, with help from their network of LiftMaster professionals, offers tips on how to reassess home access and prepare the garage for the hottest and busiest time of the year for more homeowners and families.
Spring into a New Access System
According to a survey conducted by the Soup and Detergent Association (SDA) in 2008, seventy percent of Americans say they regularly engage in spring cleaning. As part of this annual ritual, homeowners are also more likely to decide to tackle a new home improvement project during this time as well. With the start of a new project, people tend to spend more time in their garage where tools, wood and other building supplies are stored, transforming the garage into the main hub of activity for many homeowners and families. After a long winter and with the increased usage of the garage and garage door opener, spring is an ideal time to ensure that the heaviest and largest moving object in the home – the garage door – passes a safety and security check-up.
First, homeowners can test the opener's safety reverse mechanism monthly by placing a piece of wood or a roll of paper towels in the path of the door, and then close it. If the garage door does not automatically reverse and retract back to the open position, then the door needs to be adjusted. All LiftMaster garage door openers are built with The Protector System® safety sensors which project an invisible light beam across the garage door opening and automatically reverse the door if anything interrupts the beam while the door is going down. This sensing technology will stop the door from closing if contact is made with a person or object. As an additional warning to homeowners, the opener light turns on automatically when The Protector System's infrared beam is broken, so homeowners are alerted to the problem immediately.
Heat Up Home Access During Summer
With longer days in the summer months, the family schedule is often overloaded with a wide array of activities, resulting in people coming and going at different times. As a way to ensure the access to the home through the garage is protected and controlled at all times, homeowners should consider having the Fingerprint Keyless Entry installed by a LiftMaster professional. At the forefront of security and technology, the Fingerprint Keyless Entry provides keyless, codeless home access. Designed to instantly open a garage door or gate with the touch of a finger, the Fingerprint Keyless Entry eliminates the need to memorize a code while preventing it from being shared with unwanted guests. This innovative product means no more digging for keys or worrying about kids in the neighborhood knowing the keypad's code. Instead, the Fingerprint Keyless Entry system can recognize up to ten unique fingerprints, so the homeowner has total control over who has access to their home.
Prepare for Spring and Summer Power Outages
During 2008, 15 hurricanes and tropical storms popped up between May – October, causing destruction as well as major power outages. Regardless of what area of the country homeowners live in, power outages are inevitably going to occur. It is important for homeowners to be prepared in order to protect their home, possessions and (most importantly) family.
During an outage, those who use an automatic garage door opener will quickly realize that their cars, as well as secure access to their homes, are inconveniently blocked by the garage door. In order to provide convenient, innovative and secure access solutions to homeowners, several LiftMaster garage door openers are equipped with the patented EverCharge® Standby Power System, a battery backup feature that continues to operate the garage door opener even when the power is out, helping residents and homeowners through unforeseen, inconvenient outages.
The EverCharge Standby Power System comes standard on the professionally installed LiftMaster 3850 Belt Drive garage door opener, the LiftMaster 3840 Screw Drive garage door opener and is an optional feature on the LiftMaster 3800 Residential Jackshaft opener. Quiet, yet powerful, these garage door openers will supply power for up to two days, so even after 24 hours of standby time (i.e. full-day power outage); each garage door opener will still perform 20 full “up and down” cycles.
To meet the ever-changing access and service needs of homeowners, whether that entails safely pulling the car in or out of the garage, protecting the possessions that are stored within, preparing for the seasons, using the garage as the home's primary entranceway or hosting a party for neighbors, the LiftMaster brand of innovative access products provide customized solutions to improve convenience, security and safety despite the weather report outside. For more information on these LiftMaster products and on tips on how to make your home a Total Access Home, contact a local LiftMaster professional dealer using the dealer locator tool at www.liftmaster.com.