Chamberlain CLDM1 Clicker Garage Door Monitor
by Chamberlain
|
List Price: Our Price: $18.00 You Save: $16.99 (49%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $15.36 (click here) Category: Tools See more product details |
|---|
Tools and Hardware Reviews of Chamberlain CLDM1 Clicker Garage Door Monitor
Customer Review: Comparison of Chamberlain CLDM1 and Skylink GM-318
Summary: 5 Stars
Quick summary: Both units work very well. The Skylink has a beep in addition to LED indicators. But, the beep starts as soon as the garage door is opened which is annoying. A 5 minute delay on the beep would be perfect for me. The chamberlain can monitor multiple sensors, but only has one LED indicator for all sensors. The Skylink has separate LED lights for up to four sensors of different types.
If you want the beep, or want to know which sensor is triggered, the Skylink may be better. Otherwise, both units work great.
---
I got the Chamberlain first and installed in 5 minutes. The transmitter attaches easily to door with provided double stick velcro. The receiver (with green/red LED indicators) has to be plugged in, which does limit the choices for mounting. In one month of usage I had to reset it once because it was showing the garage door open when it was closed. As another reviewer noted, simply unplugging the receiver and plugging it back in fixed the problem. If the door is closed a green LED shines, if open a red LED blinks. Odd that the red LED is dimmer than the green LED.
I thought it would be nice if it would also beep when the garage door is left open so I tried the Skylink GM-318. I got the Skylink today and it installed easily. I did have to fiddle with tiny dip switches on the transmitter and receiver, but it was pretty easy with the supplied tool. I think the receiver works from a bit farther away than the Chamberlain.
I was disappointed with the beep feature because it starts beeping as soon as the door is opened. I don't think my family will appreciate the beep when I leave for work early in the morning. If Skylink (or Chamberlain) reads this, it would be really nice if the beep could be configured to start beeping after the door has been open for 5 minutes. The beep volume can be set to off, low, or high with a switch. It also has a mute feature which you can press if you know the garage door will be open for a while. When the garage door is closed, it automatically turns off the mute and goes back to normal operation. The Skylink uses a different kind of sensor than the Chamberlain that is mounted at the bottom of the door with supplied two sided sticky tape and has a pencil shaped sensor that senses the floor of the garage pressing up on the pencil shaped sensor. The sensors for both units work well and appear to be well designed.
Overall both units work well. If the Skylink had a delay on the beep, I'd like it better, but I'll probably turn off the beep to keep from annoying my family and my dog. The Skylink can monitor up to 4 devices with a separate LED light for each, and a different beep pattern for each. Skylink has sensors that can monitor garage doors, motion sensors, water sensors, and other types of sensors.
Customer Review: Simple, easy, works!
Summary: 5 Stars
Mmmmm... Sleepy. Snuggling into a warm cozy bed next to the wife.
Just... falling... asleep.....
"Hon, did you remember to lower the garage door?"
"Wha... What!?"
"Weren't the kids riding their bikes this afternoon?"
"Do you think the kids remembered to lower the garage door?"
Rrrr. Get out of bed, run downstairs, through the basement, into the garage to see if the door is up or down. No matter the result, run back upstairs and dive back into bed.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!"
"Ya, my feet got really cold on the concrete basement floor. Thanks for helping me warm them back up."
I got pretty tired of this routine, so I was either going to build something with a proximity detector and a power supply and an LED, or see if somebody made something for less money than those parts. Yup, somebody does.
This device couldn't really be easier. Stick the small remote to the top of panel of the door using the included velcro squares. Put the base station on your nightstand.
Green LED = door down. Red blinking LED = door up.
In my case, the transmitter and receiver are no more than 15 feet away from each other with just an insulated floor separating the two, so it works flawlessly.
When first testing the unit, I placed the receiver so that I could see the LEDs, and walked away with the transmitter through the kitchen, dining room, down the hall, into a bedroom at the end of the hall, to the other end of the house. Probably at least 60 feet away and the thing worked fine. Tip the sensor and the LEDs would immediately change on the receiver.
One very minor quibble: They used a diffused green LED and a focused red LED in the receiver. That means that the diffused LED is easy to see at any angle, but the focused LED appears very dim unless you are within about 15° of exactly in front of it; in which case it appears very bright.
Another minor quibble: The remote uses a lithium coin cell. (CR2032, maybe? CR2016, maybe?) Hopefully it will last a long time, because I almost never remember to pick up coin cells at the store. I've got piles of AAs and AAAs and 9Vs and whatever, but my bathroom scale hasn't had a battery in over a year because as I am standing in front of the rack of batteries at Wal-Mart, I never remember which one it takes. I know that the same thing will apply here.
Overall I am very happy with this unit. Great piece of mind. No more cold feet. Happy wife. All is good. Mmmmmm... sleep.
Customer Review: Just works
Summary: 4 Stars
I have this product working for about a week now, and I am very happy with it.
Yes, it could have been better, but given the number of times I had to walk outside to check on that garage door, it it going to return its cost within the next week or two...
Pros:
- Trivial to install. Anybody can.
- Works...
Cons:
- The home-based receiver is not battery operated, and has a bulky, wired power adapter. I was not surprised as I read it in the Amazon reviews prior to purchasing (thank you previous posters!), but my original intention was to hang it on the wall next to the wireless remote opener. It won't make sense without a battery operated device. Instead I had to put it on one of the cabinets, with the wire, power adapter and antenna hidden behind the cabinet. Well, that works.
Notes:
1. My garage door is only 20 ft from the receiver, so I am not challenging the range and it has not failed so far.
2. It may be trivial to mention, but when choosing on which side of the garage door to mount the sensor, choose the one closer to the receiver.
3. Initially I thought the sensor is magnet based, like the one used in window alarm sensors. But in fact this is sensor is mechanical, and indicates open/close according to its physical tilt position: when it is vertical, it means "closed". As the door rolls up the sensor soon flips to become horizontal, with its back pointing and parallel to the ceiling. This flipping probably translates into flipping a switch, which starts transmitting "I am open".
While great for most garage doors in the USA (and surely for me) it is important to know that it won't work with any other situation where the door does not roll up and turn from vertical to horizontal.
Customer Review: Works As Described, Bought Two More
Summary: 5 Stars
This Garage Door Monitor (GDM) works as described. I bought a total of three units. All three have been working for for over six months with no problems.
Two were purchased from Amazon. One is the neighbor's who wanted one after his garage was pilferred after leaving his garage door open all night. We combined our order so Amazon gave free shipping. I gave the other to my son who has a young family and has left his garage door open all night also. The third that I use came with a new Chamberlain garage door opener I bought locally and installed. We are all happy with the GDM.
They were easy to install. Just hang and plug in the inside unit. Then install the battery and attach the door unit to the garage door with the velcro sticky tape, you are done in ten minutes. The hardest part is figuring where to put the inside monitor.
I live in Florida and the garage gets over 100 degrees. The door gets even hotter since it is a metal door exposed to the Florda sun part of the day. Imagine touching a car sitting in the sun. The unit works fine in the heat and transmits to the receiver about 50 feet away. The signal has to pass from the garage door through the garage wall (cement block), accross the outdoor front patio, then through a second cement block wall, through the living room, then through an inside drywall wall to the receiver in the bedroom. More than once it has alerted me that the garage door was open.
My preference would be a simple plug on the inside unit rather than a transformer plugged into the wall. I just hung the monitor about socket high which beats hanging the thing eye level on the wall with a bell wire to it.
Customer Review: Distance Issues, but got it to work most of the time
Summary: 3 Stars
I have a detached double garage, about 20 feet from the house. House and garage have aluminum siding. I installed the transmitters in the garage as per instructions. I ordered two of these (didn't know I could set it up for one receiver to do both, but glad I didn't) and installed the indoor receiver on the far side of my kitchen (40 feet from the farthest garage door sensor). The receiver could not get adequate signal from either of the transmitters. I changed the batteries, same thing. So, I moved the receivers to the other side of the kitchen (a lot of work, had to run a new electrical line into a cupboard, with a junction box of course). Still didn't work, and I was getting REALLY annoyed.
I read some of the reviews on here, and added about 7.2 inches of antenna to the receiver, which didn't work. Keep in mind, garage is only 20 feet away from the house!! I then opened the transmitters up and found the antenna. I added 7 inches of antenna and soldered it on to the internal antenna (C-shaped piece of brass, you can't miss it). That didn't do anything either. So then, I just added ANOTHER 7 inches or so to the receiver and it actually started working most of the time. I still get the occasional "green-red" blinking but it clears up within a few hours usually.
I just don't understand why they don't make the antenna big enough to cover 60 feet, or why they don't make the battery stronger to assist with that. You shouldn't have to do this much work to get the product to work. Truth in advertising please--if you have a detached garage, be ready to do some work to get this to function properly.