Is there a great universal garage door opener remote?

September 18, 2015 9:34 AM

I have 4 different garage door opener remotes and half of them are failing. I'd like to replace them with a single universal remote. I think I need a learning remote with 4 different buttons, but I'm open to suggestions.

I've gone looking online and quickly got baffled by the various incompatible garage door opener code schemes. Some universal remotes seem to involve dip switch settings, which I'm guessing only work with one manufacturer's codes. My 2005 Audi has a great learning universal remote built into the car that works perfectly. I want something like that but in a portable battery powered device.

I'm in the US and the installed openers are probably all 10–20 years old, some combination of doors and gates. I'll settle for fewer than 4 separate codes necessary.

posted by Nelson to Home & Garden (3 answers total)

To clarify, each of these remotes you are trying to replace are for different garage doors with different receivers? Do you have physical access to any of the receivers? Can you list the manufacturers of the openers in question?
posted by Aleyn at 4:50 PM on September 18, 2015

Response by poster: Yes, it's different garage door actuaters in different places. Not positive about all the manufacturers, but at least Genie for the garage and DoorKing for the gate. I do have access to all of the receivers, although I don't own them all (the gates).

The lack of response here is making me wonder if this "universal remote" thing is a hard problem. OTOH my car manages it with a built-in unit, surely someone sells a battery powered version of same?
posted by Nelson at 5:44 PM on September 18, 2015

My experience with "universal" garage door opener remotes is that they have a way to program them that involves pressing a button on the opener and the remote in a specific sequence to pair them, and it only works with manufacturers that set up their system this way. I'm not aware of a battery-operated remote that just "learns" from some other remote (honestly, that seems like a major security risk to me).
posted by Aleyn at 6:14 PM on September 18, 2015