While December ‘tis the season to be jolly, it’s also the season to help ensure that our home is safe and secure. Unfortunately, many homeowners overlook the garage door as a point of entry. To help you ensure that you are as secure as possible, we have put together some tips and tricks for you.
The first thing to be aware of is that your door & your automatic opener are two separate mechanisms. If you do NOT have an automatic opener, then you need to ensure that you are engaging the slide lock on the inside of the door or you are locking your door with the keyed lock (if you have one).
Your opener is truly a method of security. Once it closes, it is technically locked. Once upon a time a thief could drive around just clicking their own remote until someone’s door opened. Thankfully, modern garage door openers now feature a rolling code technology that has your remote transmit a new security code every time you click it. With over 100 billion codes available, it is highly unlikely that the code could be grabbed.
- If there is a door between your garage & your home, be sure to deadbolt it. Make it just as hard to break in through that door as it is to break in through your front door.
- Never leave your remote in the car. Oftentimes, criminals will rifle through cars and not take anything that you notice right away. They may take pictures of your registration, they will search for credit cards, wallets, etc.. and just take pictures of everything so that they can steal your identity. They will also swipe your remote so that you think you simply misplaced it, when in all reality? They now have a “key” to your house.
- Make sure your garage door is closed. Many times homeowners will either forget to close the garage door or they have something near the doorway that causes the garage door to reverse & reopen. Stay there and make sure it closes & stays closed!
- Be sure to set your opener on “Vacation” mode when you leave town – this will prevent any remotes or keypad codes from opening your door. Since you won’t be re-entering your home through the garage when you get back (Vacation mode prevents that), go ahead & engage the slide lock inside your garage door. Just don’t forget to disengage it when you get home!
- Make sure you have your garage door maintained on a regular basis. You want to make sure that your door is not corroded, that everything works smoothly and that you aren’t putting yourself at risk in any way with the garage door and opener.
- Install a camera in your garage. You don’t want to go out to the garage to see what that strange noise was. No need to make entry into your home easier. Instead, look at what the camera sees first.
- Have a garage door shield installed. This is a device that attaches to the garage door & prevents someone from using a hangar to manipulate the emergency release. You can simply type Garage Shield into Amazon to find one for less than $20.
Taking the time to ensure that your home is safe doesn’t just protect the holiday gifts… it ensures that you and your family are safe year round.