Meross Smart Garage Door Opener review: Not your father's garage door opener

Posted:
in General Discussion edited December 2022
The Meross Smart Garage Door Opener is HomeKit-compatible, and allows you to control and know the status of your garage door right from your phone, wherever you are.




Just like with any HomeKit accessory, you can control them from anywhere. This means that you can open or close the garage door when you're not at home.

With deep HomeKit integration, the Meross Smart Garage Door Opener may be the smart home accessory you did not think you needed but is one that is useful to get.

Meross Smart Garage Door Opener set up

The Smart Garage Door Opener is operated through a small white box that has four cables coming out of it. One is for power -- where you have to plug it into an outlet, another is for two wires that plug into your garage door opener, and the last is for the sensors to know if your garage door is open or closed.

While you may think that setup would be difficult, it is relatively easy to do.

You do not need a newer garage door system to have the accessory work with it. The garage door system that was used in this review was installed over ten years ago and works quite well with the accessory. You can check compatibility on Meross' website.

You want to follow the instructions on your phone when setting up the Smart Garage Door Opener to know which wires go into which ports and how to test the system box to know everything is set up correctly.




When installing the sensor -- that tells you if the garage door is opened or closed -- you can run the black wire that connects to the sensors along your garage's ceiling. The wire is very long, so there should be no worry if it will reach the end of your garage or not.

Both sensors are magnetic, so you can attach it to part of your garage door that moves when opening and closing it. One sensor will be connected to the black wire, and it should be placed above the magnetic one that moves. One way to place it over one another is by screwing it into the ceiling for a secure fit.

When the two sensors are together, it will indicate that the garage door is closed, but when they have pulled apart, it will indicate that the garage door is open. You can test this out before installing the seniors to make sure everything is working accordingly.

The box that the wires are connected to is small and light and can place on your existing garage door system or taped to the ceiling of your garage. It is where you decide that it fits best.

Meross Smart Garage Door Opener and HomeKit

The garage door's functionality is as you would expect it to be -- it opens and closes your garage from your iPhone. It also will tell you the current state of the garage door.

Setting it up with HomeKit is very easy and simple. You scan the HomeKit code, wait for the application to recognize and pair with the device, and then you set it to the room that it is in (obviously the garage) and its name.

When the Smart Garage Door Opener is all paired up, you can open and close the garage door through the Home app or Control Center, and even add it to Automations you have created. You can create one that closes the garage door automatically when you leave your house -- if you wanted.

Being connected to HomeKit means that you can also use Siri to operate your garage. You can tell her to open or close it, but to open it, your device must be unlocked for safety reasons.

No matter how you control the garage door, you will get a notification stating if the door has been opened or closed. You can disable the notifications if you do not want them through the accessory's settings.




One area that was useful to use the Smart Garage Door Opener was with CarPlay. When in the dashboard view, an option to control your garage door will appear in the bottom right of the screen when in proximity to the accessory.




Under the Garage Door icon in the Home app, it will say the current state of the garage door, and sometimes it will say "Obstructed." Your garage door will still work, and you can open and close it from your devices, but it will not say if it is opened or closed within the Home app.

This isn't fabulous if you're using it as a monitor when you're way from home.

The app does not give you any more detail into how to fix the issue, or what is obstructed. Going into the Meross app and changing the Opening Time to 25 seconds in the accessory's setting has seemed to help people resolve the issue.


Left: Garage door controls. Middle: Accessory settings. Right: Meross app settings for Opening Time


Other than the Obstructed warning under the Smart Garage Door Opener's tile in the Home app, the accessory works very well with little-to-no lag time when operating it.

The accessory can be controlled from any Apple device that has the Home app installed or can access it.

Meross Smart Garage Door Opener pros

  • Easy to install

  • Easy to use and understand

  • Easy to connect to HomeKit

  • Little to no lag when operating

  • Gives optional reports when the garage door is opened or closed

  • Accessible from CarPlay

  • Works with older garage door systems

Meross Smart Garage Door Opener cons

  • "Obstructed" warning appears a lot when nothing seems to be wrong

  • Can say the garage door is opened when it may be closed (or another way around)

Meross Smart Garage Door Opener verdict

The Meross Smart Garage Door Opener is a great HomeKit accessory to add to your smart home when you want to be able to control nearly every aspect of it.

The setup process may seem daunting when first looking at it, but once you are doing it and complete it, you realize it was very easy to do. Also, the accessory is compatible with a lot of garage door openers, and you do not need a most recent one either.

The ease of use and integration with the Home app is deep and spreads out across the whole ecosystem -- from Control Center to CarPlay. You can operate your garage door from nearly any device, and your security is put at the forefront with the need of unlocking your device to open your garage.

While there is the message of "Obstructed" when one is detected, and the accessory sometimes gets confused if the garage door is open or closed, these are small missteps that rarely happen and fix on their own in a quick manner. It also does not take away from the function of the accessory; it still works as it should.

A smart garage door opener may not be on the top of everyone's smart home wish list, especially for people who may live in apartments or do not have a garage. But, if you are looking to upgrade your house and be able to control your garage from the comfort of your couch, then the Meross Smart Garage Door Opener may be the best fit for you.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Where to buy

The Meross Smart Garage Door Opener retails for $49.99, and is periodically on sale for around $39.99 on Amazon.

Read on AppleInsider

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 16
    I was also getting the "Obstructed" warning. It turned out that my garage door took a little longer to close than the Meross app default setting allowed. I changed the Opening Time setting in the Meross app to 25 seconds and everything has been perfect since. BTW it took me weeks to figure this out and it was only when the problems got bigger that I put the time into figuring it out. Meross should have addressed this in their product/app design. You average user would never figure this out and instead just give up on the product. 
    edited December 2022 Phoenix303cg27watto_cobramaltzITGUYINSDcaladanian
  • Reply 2 of 16
    I picked one of these this past summer and would give it 5-stars. Super quick and easy to install and it works 100% as advertised. I haven't seen any of the "obstructed" warnings or other issues at all myself. The bigger problem is Siri - when I say "Open the pod bay door", she'll often reply, "Do you mean 'open the pod bay door'?" - repeating verbatim what I just said. (Yes, I named the garage door "the pod bay door" for 2001 reasons). Instead of sinister HAL, I have ditzy Siri. 
    cg27Japheywatto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 16
    This is not a garage door opener, it’s a garage door controller.  Go to any big-box website, search for the former, and get back to me.
    Even the Amazon link knows the difference, even if the nomenclature is a little different.
    watto_cobracaladanian
  • Reply 4 of 16
    Does HomeLink still work when this is installed?
  • Reply 5 of 16
    Worth pointing out that this only works with a single button controller, which also explains why it can get confused about open and closed. 

    My garage door has separate open and close buttons, so as a lockdown project I built my own raspberry pi based controller — that was fun, and still works. #verysmug
    watto_cobrailarynxmaltzdewme
  • Reply 6 of 16
    My garage door has separate open and close buttons, so as a lockdown project I built my own raspberry pi based controller — that was fun, and still works. #verysmug
    Sounds fanstastic! Is there anywhere, where you have shared details, including the code?
  • Reply 7 of 16
    I have one of these and super simple to use and install, and super reliable. Works with HomeKit and remote opening garage door also super reliable. More so than any other remote device. Definitely recommend this myself.
  • Reply 8 of 16
    My garage door has separate open and close buttons, so as a lockdown project I built my own raspberry pi based controller — that was fun, and still works. #verysmug
    Sounds fanstastic! Is there anywhere, where you have shared details, including the code?
    I reused a GitHub HomeBridge dummy garage door controller for the basic HomeKit structure, inserting my own code. Plus a little strip-board circuit for voltage-shifting I/O; including actual obstruction detection/reporting!

    It was a giggle during prototyping when I had the door accidentally dancing a jig. 😂 I wrote a summary online somewhere once, but never properly published the details…
    edited December 2022
  • Reply 9 of 16
    chadbagchadbag Posts: 2,028member
    I’ve had one of these for a good while now.  It worked great for months.  Now I need to reboot it (unplug and plug back in) regularly.  Sometimes it lasts for hour and sometimes a few days.  Then it goes unavailable and doesn’t come back until I unplug it and plug it back in.  

    WiFi signal is strong where it is at.  I am not sure if the problem is the controller or my HomeKit installation but everything else in my Home seems to be working.  And it doesn’t show up in the Meross app either until unplugged and plugged back in, so I suspect the device. 

     My ladder is currently at our new home construction site so I haven’t been able to reset it recently so it’s not currently in use :(.   Also, the Home app claims there is a software update for it but the Meross app claims it is ok to date (when reachable).  


    caladanian
  • Reply 10 of 16
    I've got the $20 Chamerlain myQ controller from Amazon a couple years back.  myQ does scheduling.  Does this Meross unit do scheduling (close door every night at 6PM, for example)?

    myQ has been flawless now that they have the bugs out of the software.  Apart from needing to open myQ app to open/close (no Siri support), what does the Meross provide over something like the myQ controller?

    I think the feature I would like the most is location-based opening, i.e, when I get 200ft from my house, door opens automatically.
    edited December 2022
  • Reply 11 of 16
    ITGUYINSD said:
    I've got the $20 Chamerlain myQ controller from Amazon a couple years back.  myQ does scheduling.  Does this Meross unit do scheduling (close door every night at 6PM, for example)?

    myQ has been flawless now that they have the bugs out of the software.  Apart from needing to open myQ app to open/close (no Siri support), what does the Meross provide over something like the myQ controller?

    I think the feature I would like the most is location-based opening, i.e, when I get 200ft from my house, door opens automatically.
    You can set it to close as part of a scene or automation. However, opening isn’t so easy in HomeKit as it’s a security risk. I generally just ask Siri (on my watch) to open it as I get near home. 
  • Reply 12 of 16
    Bought one and it was totally unreliable, so returned to Amazon.   
  • Reply 13 of 16
    Meross garage door control purchased thru Amazon in April 2022.
    Installation was easy enough.
    Note: We are up-to-date on Meross firmware updates. There have been at least 2 updates. April 2022 - 31-Dec-22

    Function through the Meross app was and is predictable and reliable.
    Function thru Siri - not predictable or reliable. Even though we now have iOS 16.2 installed which was a big improvement for HomeKit and Siri. details follow.


    Meross door sensor - the right way to describe the two states of the sensor is: Door-Closed  _OR_  Door-Not-Closed
    This is not the same as Door fully Open

    Odd uses with the wall switch
    We can still use the wall switch inside the garage for the door and this permits stopping the door motion part way open. We open the garage door part way so we can warm up the car on cold winter days. Open the door 6 inches to allow airflow, hit the button to stop and run the car in the garage to warm up.
    Fresh air comes in through the doorway. The garage has roof vents so the deadly carbon monoxide does not build up too much.

    WHY warmup in a mostly closed garage?
    In the Minneapolis metro there are drive-by thieves looking for unattended running cars and the city has made it illegal to leave an unattended vehicle running.
    What goes haywire? Siri and Meross app both act as if the door is fully open, So if you ask Siri to open the door it will respond that the door Is already open. Then you ask to close it - wait for closure - and ask to open it. However, if you use the wall button to open the door part way and you decide you opened it too far you use the button again and it closes some and then you hit the button to stop motion. Now the door is partway open but the next action if you push the button will be to move toward open.
    If Siri believes the door is open in this situation and you ask Siri to close it the door the door will move up not down.
    Sometimes - Meross/Siri decide the door is obstructed.
    NET: My wife never uses the wall button and I deal with warming the cars.



    Issues with Siri

    #1. response delay - Siri always takes longer to activate the door than when using the Meross app.
    iOS 16.2 reduced the activation delay significantly but sometimes it still takes a long time.
    Perhaps the Wi-Fi signal is weaker in the garage? Although it is OK for other devices like iPhone/iPad.

    #2. Siri sometimes announces the door is taking longer than expected to respond.
    If I use the Meross app at that moment - No Problems.

    #3 Devices go temporarily missing within Siri/HomeKit.
    Siri sometimes announces that some device does not exist. This happens for the garage and other devices.
    If I use the Meross app at that moment - No Problems.

    Anyway - we are happy and no longer have garage door openers in the cars.

    muthuk_vanalingam
  • Reply 14 of 16
    Forgot to mention a feature we really love.

    If the garage door is open more than the 15 minutes we set it for i get a message on my phone.
  • Reply 15 of 16
    Great write up @JimBobHomieDe. The issue is that Meross doesn't tell HomeKit the full story, so Siri can't really cope. 

    Doors can have a current position of:
    0 “Open. The door is fully open.”
    1 “Closed. The door is fully closed.”
    2 “Opening. The door is actively opening.”
    3 “Closing. The door is actively closing.”
    4 “Stopped. The door is not moving, and it is not fully open nor fully closed.”

    Doors can have a target position of:
    0 “Open”
    1 “Closed”

    Plus a door can have an obstruction detected or not. See the HAP-Specification for more info...

    If 'you' build the system (hardware and software) correctly and report the state of the door properly, then it doesn't matter what happens in terms of using the door controls directly, the Home (Siri) State matches the Real door state and there are no problems. Apart from that is, HomeKit being stupidly slow and often unreliable.

    EDIT: It was nice to see that after iOS 16, Siri on my Watch started reporting Door Opening rather than Door Open after instructing it to open the door. Previously Apple ignored the reported current position of Opening and just reported the target position of Open. Nice to see a visible upgrade without changing the actual door controller.
    edited January 2023
  • Reply 16 of 16
    Forgot to mention a feature we really love.

    If the garage door is open more than the 15 minutes we set it for i get a message on my phone.
    Yes, I added that feature to my controller too. Another nice to have is a HomeKit notification of the door opening, but only when nobody is home.
Sign In or Register to comment.