The Meross is a simple device you add on to your existing garage door opener to enable automations (Image from Meross)
I’ve got a lot of HomeKit automation in my house. So when our HomeKit garage door opener stopped working, it was the one automation my wife wanted me to replace right away.
What is the Meross Smart Wi-Fi Garage Door Opener?
The Meross garage door opener is a device that works along side your already existing garage door opener…essentially adding a remote open capability (similar to the remotes you use to open your garage from your car but instead of a physical remote it allows you use automation with your existing smart devices). The Meross works with Apple’s HomeKit, Amazon’s Alexa and with Google Home. As I mentioned in the intro we use HomeKit in our house so I’ll mostly be covering it from a HomeKit perspective but the overall functionally is similar across all platforms. The specifications for the Meross are below:
— Dimensions: 3.7 x 1.8 x 0.9 in. or 9.4 x 4.6 x 2.3 cm
— Power Cord: 4.9 ft long or 1.5 meters long
— Sensor Wire: 23 ft long or 7 meters long
— Wireless Standards: IEEE 802.11 b/g/n, 2.4GHz, 1T1R
— Wireless Security: Support 64/128 bit WEP, WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK ( Does not support Enterprise Wi-Fi)
— System Requirements: Smartphone running iOS 10* or later (for Wi-Fi only), Android 6.0 or later for Google Home or for HomeKit version requires iOS 13 or later
The Meross garage door opener comes with the following:
— 1 x Smart garage door opener
— 1 x USB adapter or Power cord with plug
— 1 x Door sensor with sensor wire
— 4 x Screws
— 1 x Test wire
— 1 x Double-sided adhesive tapes
— 1 x User manual
The main hardware that comes with the Meross Smart Wi-Fi Garage Door Opener (Image by Skip Owens)
Installation
Installation of the Meross garage door opener is pretty simple. The instructions booklet that comes with the device has you do the following to get started:
— Download the Meross app to your smartphone
— Power up the Meross device (and make sure your smartphone is connected to a strong Wi-Fi network)
— Launch the Meross app
— Create a Meross app account (or login if you already have one)
— Add the Meross device to the app (and if you are using HomeKit like I am it is in this step that the Meross app configures the device with HomeKit)
At this point the Meross device has been electronically configured and the physical part of the install can begin. The Meross comes with a wired door sensor so you need to string the wire from the garage door opener already hanging from the ceiling in your garage across the ceiling to the top of your garage door. There are two halves to the sensor, one connected to the wire you just strung and the other is a stand alone piece. Once the two halves are in close enough proximity the sensor indicates (using magnets) that the door is closed and when the door is opened and the sensors move apart it indicates an open garage door. So one of the sensors needs to be attached to the door and the other sensor is attached to something other than the door (there are multiple configurations you can choose for this setup so refer to the app for the different variations). I attached my wired sensor end to the wall directly above my garage door and the other sensor half to the very top edge of the garage door itself. You have several options to attach the sensor, either use the included screws or the included double-sided tape. I would recommend the screws if you are attaching to wood and use the tape if you are attaching to metal.
I used the provided double-sided tape for the sensor that attaches to the door and wood screws for the sensor that attaches to the garage wall (Image by Skip Owens)
The last part of the install is to wire the Meross device to the connections on the back of your garage door opener, attach the wired sensor into the Meross device and plug the Meross device into Power. The connection to your existing garage door opener will depend on which brand and model you have. Essentially you will be connecting it to the same locations that are used for the wired control unit you have inside your garage (the one you use to open and close your garage door as you are coming and going from the house). You specific instructions for your garage door opener will be a good reference for this step. In my case, my garage opener was so old no instructions were available so I had to rely on looking at the existing wiring to figure out which connections to connect the Meross to. Once that is done it is simply a matter of deciding how you want to secure the Meross device. The Meross comes with a zip tie and with double sided tape so use what ever method works best for your configuration.
The Meross unit just sits on top of my existing and rather dusty garage door opener (Image by Skip Owens)
Automation
There is a lot you can do with automation once you have the Meross connected to your existing garage door opener. One automation that I use is a schedule automation. At 11pm every night I have HomeKit close my garage door. That way in the event we forget to close the door at night it will at least be closed by 11pm every night. Having personally woken up many time to realize we had left our garage door open all night you can see why this is my wife’s favorite automation. Another way I use HomeKit automation is with CarPlay. The main screen of my CarPlay display in my car automatically displays a control button for my garage door. So when I pull in my driveway and can simply hit the button on my CarPlay touch screen and my garage door opens (this is a great back up for when the physical remote on my ancient garage door opener doesn’t work). The third way I use this automation is when I leave the house to go on bike rides. I have a bike riding iOS automation that I run that starts the workout on my Apple Watch, starts playing my workout playlist, texts my family that I am goin out for a bike ride and it closes the garage door behind me. When I get home I simply raise my wrist and ask Siri on my Apple Watch to open the garage door.
Verdict
This is now my 3rd HomeKit enabled gararge door opener. The first died in our out of state move and the one the Meross replaced stopped working because it was not HomeKit compatible and the device I used to connect it to HomeKit stopped working. I have now bought two Meross devices, one for my ancient garage door opener and one for a new garage door opener for my second garage door. Out of all three types of devices I have purchased to date I have to say I like this one the best (I don’t mention the names of the other two because they are no longer sold). The Meross has a wired garage door sensor which make installation a bit more complicated but in the long run it makes the system much more dependable. So if you are looking for a way to automate your existing garage door opener then I would definitely recommend giving Meross a look. The Meross Smart Wi-Fi Garage Door Opener is available for purchase either directly from the Meross website or from Amazon.com for about $50.
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