If your area regularly experiences power failures, it’s a good idea to install a backup battery for your garage door opener. It can really help you out if there’s a blackout and you still need to get your car out of the garage. Here’s a guide from the garage door repair experts here at Garage Door Repair Chicago about these amazing devices that can be incredibly useful in the experience of a blackout.

What are garage door opener backup batteries?

These are most commonly tiny, 12-volt battery devices that the opener utilizes for power in situations where the land-power lines are down. Many types of door openers are built to accommodate these devices, including those made by brands as diverse as Linear, Genie, Chamberlain, Mastercraft, and LiftMaster. 

Additional features of garage door opener backup batteries

• When outages happen, fully charged up batteries will supply your garage door opener with at least 24 hours of regular power, which can usually operate at least 20 full opening and closing cycles – at temperatures between 60 and 70 degrees fahrenheit.
• These battery packs recharge fully in 4.5 hours.
• These batteries can be recycled just like any other kind of battery.

When is it time to change the garage door opener battery pack?

Depending on which battery pack you use, you will likely be hearing a notification beep at regular period between 2 and 30 seconds – as well as an orange or red light – which indicates that the battery  needs to be recharged.

Cost

These batteries usually cost around 100 dollars.

Can I buy an opener without an optional battery pack?

If you choose not to buy a rechargeable battery pack, you can hopefully manually open the door during power failures. You will have to pull the emergency release cord for the garage door opener, which will disengage it and allow you to manually lift and close the door. However, this will result in a severe security risk, as anybody can manually open your garage door, and potentially commit a burglary. If you want to prevent this risk, you can install a side lock on the inside of your garage door, which would involve pushing a steel bar over the lock on the vertical track – but will allow you to lock the door temporarily, while the opener is disengaged during the blackout.