Garage Door Opener keypad recommendations

George · 2010-11-13T15:09:18+00:00

I'm looking for recommendations on a garage door opener keypad. I normally use a wireless remote / homelink to operate the door, but I want a keypad as a backup, so that someone cannot be locked out of the house.My requirements seem simple, but I've had no luck with finding a unit that meets them:1. Wired - it will activate the door by triggering the manual pushbutton circuit2. No batteries - it must be A/C powered. If it has a back-up battery, for in case of power failure, that's fine, but I don't want the unit to fail because the battery died.3. The relay must be separate from the outdoor keypad. This would prevent someone from simply ripping the keypad off the wall and shorting the wires going to it.4. It must be reliableA unit exists that meets all of the above requirements except one: a Genie KEP-1. I've got one of these. In fact, I've had 2, and they have both died. The first one lasted many years, but it eventually stopped working. I bought a new one of the same model, and it died within the first year. I even had the power adapter on a surge suppressor, since I suspected that might have killed the first one. I it listed on Amazon, and from reading the reviews, it seems many others have had reliability problems with the KEP-1.So I'm looking for a similar device, but one that will last more than a few months. It seems that everything else I find is battery powered, and most of them are wireless. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Nov 13, 2010 66 Replies

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tourman 15 years ago

RHC: I am quite surprised that you would only get a couple of takeover requests a year. Perhaps this indicates something very different about the business environment you work in versus ours up here. I can't imagine what it would be, but I do know that most good companies here do loads of takeovers. Perhaps it has to do with no licensing here in Ontario, or perhaps the number of unskilled, untrained companies working on alarm installations leaves loads of marginally functional systems out in the market. When they fail, and these companies can't fix them properly, or service them properly, the owners go looking for someone who can.????

I really don't know, but it likely makes it more important in my environment to review the systems carefully before taking them on.....

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G. Morgan 15 years ago

The CK-DT450TC has an adjustable microwave range and IIRC correctly there was a jumper to select a µwave band to eliminate interference between up to 3 detectors.

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Jim 15 years ago

I don't actively look for takeovers so they just might be out there. Another thing is .... I think my market is more diversified than yours. I do CCTV, computer network wiring, CATV wiring, Structured wiring, whole house audio, Home theater from simple TV mounts to setup all the way through to a full blown home theater. ( not including the ultra hi end construction jobs) Front and rear TV projection, auto drop screens and blinds and home automated lighting. Just about anything that's a gadget that someone wants ..... I'll take it on. I think that all stems from the fact that I've been doing alarms for so many years that I need more of a challange, so I don't mind spending extra time to learn how to do something that I've never done before. Sometimes I don't make much per hour but the value of having the opportunity to learn how to do something that someone else doesn't know how to do .... makes it worth it on the next job. Also, remember, I don't advertise nor do I have a listed telephone number any more. So the only source of business is my customer base. I'd like to think that there aren't too many of my customers who can't figure out what all this "free" alarm crap is about. As I've said so many times, I just never considered those people who can't figure it out, as being my customers to begin with.

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George 15 years ago

Update: I ended-up building my own keypad and wiring it to the KEP-1 control box via a 7-conductor cable. I found a 3x4 matrix keypad online, and created a mounting box for it. The keypad is supposed to be weatherproof, but the box I made uses an outdoor outlet cover, so it should be doubly protected from the elements. So now I've got something that meets my original requirements, even if I did have to create half of it to get there. :)

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