Believe it or not, when a hurricane strikes, the most vulnerable part of your house is your garage door. As raging winds try to pry your garage door open, the momentum of the swinging door can rip off your roof.
That’s why the state of Florida requires that all homes have wind rated garage doors and garage door locks. These precautions help keep your door — and your home — grounded.
Protecting Your Home
First, you must find a garage door that can do its best to stand up to a hurricane. Look for a manufacturer that carries wind load compliant garage doors. These doors are specially manufactured to better withstand fierce storms. As for locks, it’s required to install two locks that fit into the lower side panels of your garage door. The locks will help hold the door closed so it is less likely to be blown open by hurricane-force winds.
While manual locks will do the job for you, there are downsides.
The Trouble with Manual Garage Door Locks
There is one big problem with manual locks: they are manual. So, in order to protect your home, you have to remember to set the locks appropriately. If you’re out of town when the storm strikes, and forgot to lock them, the locks won’t help protect your garage.
Just as importantly, you need to unlock manual locks as well. Many users forget to unlock them, then attempt to open their garage door. As the door tries to open while the locks attempt to hold it down, your garage door and opener can incur damage, resulting in costly repairs.
Automatic Garage Door Lock: A Simple Solution
As the name suggests, LiftMaster Automatic Garage Door Lock automatically locks and unlocks your door so you can feel confident that you have enhanced garage protection. When two Automatic Garage Door Locks are installed with certain LiftMaster Garage Door Openers on wind load compliant garage doors, the engaged locks assist automatically in holding the door in the closed position. This solution eliminates the added step of engaging manual locks and provides homeowners peace of mind knowing that once their wind load compliant garage door is closed it is hurricane ready. You don’t have to worry about it not being locked during a hurricane and you don’t have to recall whether or not you left it locked every time you want to open the garage door. It is an easy and convenient solution for your garage, whether you’re at home or out of town.
Additionally, in the event of emergency, the locks can also be operated manually. So, if you are out of power for an extended amount of time, you can unlock them yourself.
Choosing a Lock-Capable Garage Door Opener
Automatic Garage Door Lock is available with select LiftMaster garage door openers. If you are a choosing a new garage door opener, you can determine which model is most appropriate for your needs. Some models are listed below.
When space optimization matters, look to our most advanced wall-mount opener.
This opener secures and protects homes with heavy garage doors.
Our quietest and most feature-rich garage door opener system.
Keeping your home protected is imperative. Making the process easy and convenient is even better. A LiftMaster Automatic Garage Door Lock is a solution to help you do both.