Chamberlain Wi-Fi Garage Door Opener review: Operate and monitor your garage with your phone

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TA-ratings-90As we get more connected, there are more smart home options available which help automate, manage, and monitor your devices. Our Chamberlain Wi-Fi Garage Door Opener review takes a look at the WD1000WF 1-1/4 HPS model to see how easy it is to install and use.

Specifications

The Chamberlain WD1000WF 1-1/4 HPS Wi-Fi Garage Door Opener has the following features and specifications:

  • HomeLink® compatible, works with the in-vehicle remote control system built into most cars. Compatibility Bridge™ (not included) necessary for certain vehicles. Visit bridge.chamberlain.com to find out if a Bridge is needed.
  • Battery Backup allows for normal use when the power is out
  • Ultra-Quiet with a heavy-duty, steel-reinforced belt
  • LCD wall control enables you to view the time, temperature, diagnostics, program additional remotes and turn opener lights on and off
  • 200 Watts of Light (bulbs not included)
  • Quick-Install Rail System provides faster and easier installation – rail assembles in 60 seconds
  • Includes Wi-Fi, Battery Backup, 2 three-button remote controls, wireless keypad, LCD wall control, safety sensors
  • Compatible with 8808CB for 8 ft high doors and 8810CB for 10 ft high doors (sold separately)
  • Horsepower: 1 1/4 HPS
  • Drive Type: Belt
  • Max Door height: 7 ft
  • Minimum ceiling clearance: 4 in
  • Door height extension kits: 8, 10 ft
  • Lighting compatibility: CFL
  • Total Max Wattage: 200 W
  • Number of Lights: 2
  • Voltage: 120 V
  • Included keypads: 1
  • Radio Frequencies: 310, 315, 390
  • Included remotes: 2x 3-Button

What’s in the box

  • Garage door opener (motor unit)
  • LCD wall control panel
  • 2x Remote control
  • Protector system
    • Sending sensor
    • Receiving sensor
    • 2x Safety sensor brackets
  • Keyless entry panel
  • Header bracket
  • Pulley
  • Door bracket
  • Curved door arm
  • Straight door arm
  • Trolley
  • Emergency release rope and handle
  • Rail (1 front and 4 center sections)
  • 2x Hanging brackets
  • Sprocket cover and screws
  • “U” bracket
  • Belt
  • White and red/white wire
  • Owner’s manual
  • Hardware
Chamberlain-WD1000WF-Wi-Fi-Garage-Door-Opener-review-0009
Just about everything you need is included.

Additional Items You May Need

While the Chamberlain WD1000WF 1-1/4 HPS Wi-Fi Garage Door Opener has just about all the pieces you need, depending on your setup you may need some additional items. Some of these include:

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  • 2x 2×4 pieces of wood
  • Support bracket and fastening hardware
  • Extension brackets (Model 041A5281-1) or wood blocks
  • Fastening hardware
  • Door reinforcement
  • Rail extension kit

Design

The Chamberlain Wi-Fi Garage Door opener looks pretty similar to many other garage door openers out there. The actual garage door opener motor unit is roughly square in shape and is covered with a blue metal shell. On the front and back are the Chamberlain logo, Wi-Fi logo, MyQ logo, and battery backup text. On the bottom is stamped 1 1/4 HPS WhisperDrive. All the logos and text are printed in silver on the unit. Each side of the unit has a curved white plastic shell which allows light to shine through when you have lightbulbs installed on the unit. The bottom area of the sides has a clear grey piece with holes of varying size which looks somewhat decorative but also allows more light to shine down.

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The Chamberlain Wi-Fi Garage Door Opener bottom view.

When facing the back of your garage (after the unit is installed) the right side shell snaps down to reveal a light socket, four wiring terminals, and the control panel buttons for adjusting the travel of the door and connecting your garage door opener to your wireless network. The left side shell also snaps down to reveal another light socket and a door which can be removed to access the backup battery.

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The control panel on the garage door opener for making adjustments and connecting to your wireless network.

Finally, the top of the main unit houses the belt sprocket and two hanging brackets.

Wall control panel

The wall control panel is about 3″ x 5″ and has a door opener button on the top, a 2″ x ¾” LCD screen below that, four buttons underneath the LCD screen, a motion sensor near the bottom, and finally the light button at the bottom of the panel.

The four buttons allow you to access different functions on the wall control panel which we’ll discuss further in the software section.

Protector system

The protector system consists of two small 2 ½” x 1″ x 1″ black rectangular boxes, each with a light (one has a green light and the other amber) on the side with a sensor on the front end of each. When the sensors are facing each other with no obstructions, the green light on the one sensor remains lit. If the sensor beam is interrupted, the green light turns off. One thing to note, the lights are only on while the garage door opener is in use or the lights on the opener are on.

Chamberlain-WD1000WF-Wi-Fi-Garage-Door-Opener-review-0031
One of the two protector system sensors.

Installation

Before you begin installation, you’re going to want to gather the required tools as outlined in the instruction manual. These include a ladder, hammer, tape measure, screwdrivers, power drill, socket set, locking pliers, level, adjustable wrench, wrenches, and pliers. You’ll also want to check your Wi-Fi connection in your garage using your smartphone to make sure you have a strong wireless signal. If not, you’ll have to move your wireless router or use a wireless extender to boost your signal.

Hardware Installation

I’m not going to give a step by step for the installation as the instructions are fairly well laid out in the instruction manual, and I’ll post the installation video below as well. During our installation, we were removing an existing chain garage door opener and replacing it with the Chamberlain Wi-Fi Garage Door Opener. Of course, this added a bit of time to the install as we had to remove the old system first. The existing system already had a protector system in place as well as a door panel so we were able to use the existing wiring which saved some time on the new install. It took about a couple of hours to remove the old opener, rail system, and protector system and replace them with the new one.

For the most part, the instructions were easy to follow and well laid out. As long as you take your time to read carefully and make sure you have the right pieces, you’ll do just fine. Some of the steps differ slightly for one piece and sectional doors, so you’ll need to follow the correct steps for the door you’re setting the opener up with. The only part of the instructions that could have used a tad more clarification was during the belt assembly. During this step, you have to place a threaded shaft through a hole in the trolley. What’s not mentioned, but quickly becomes apparent, is the threaded shaft has a flat side which lines up with the irregular shaped hole in the trolley. Aside from that, the only other issue encountered was during the Wi-Fi setup which I’ll mention in a moment.

While the installation could be completed with one person, it is much easier with two and the extra pair of hands is definitely helpful.

By far the biggest part of the installation is the hardware installation as shown in the video above. Once the garage door opener, protector system, and door panel are installed, you can configure the system. An external keypad is also included, but we chose not to install that component.

The first step in configuring the door is setting your maximum up and down travel which is easily done via a control panel on the garage door opener itself. Once that is done, you can program the remote controls and keypad (if you installed it) with the door panel. Once the remotes are programmed, it’s a good time to test and make sure the door stops once the protector system is blocked.

Smartphone/Wi-Fi Installation

To set up your garage door opener with the MyQ app and your wireless network, press the yellow LEARN button the garage door opener 3 times and connect to the wireless network with the MyQ- prefix to it. The installation instructions then tell you to visit a specific URL to connect to continue adding the garage door opener to your home network, but in my case, I had to tap on an Android system message to connect to the MyQ-#### network. Once I had done that, I was able to follow the prompts to successfully add the garage door opener to my home network.

Once you’ve connected the garage door opener to your home Wi-Fi network, download and install the MyQ app, sign up for an account, and add the MyQ serial number from the opener and you’re all set to monitor and control it from your smartphone.

Ease of Use

Once you’ve configured your remote control units to the garage door opener through the wall control panel and setup the MyQ app on your smartphone, your garage door is as easy to open as pressing a button on your remote, the wall control panel, or your smartphone. You can also disable the remote control units for times when you’re away on holidays or other extended periods, or in case one should get stolen or misplaced.

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The included remote control units.

Software

Wall Control Panel

The wall control panel lets you adjust the features and settings for the garage door opener. With it, you can set the clock time display on the panel in 12 or 24 hours clock mode, set the temperature to show in F or C, select English, Spanish, or French, and adjust the screen contrast on the panel.

Chamberlain-WD1000WF-Wi-Fi-Garage-Door-Opener-review-0025
The wall control unit.

You can also adjust the garage door opener light settings including how long the lights stay on, whether or not they turn on when the motion sensor is activated, and whether or not the motion detector is active. Remote control operation can also be disabled which still allows access from the wall control panel or the keypad, and you can also set a “Timer-to-Close” duration which will automatically close the door after a specified time period.

MyQ App

The MyQ App is available for both Android and iPhone devices. With the app, you can log in and view your connected devices through the Places tab, change your Account settings, check your Alerts, History, and set Schedules.

One feature I really like about the app is that it allows you to log in using your fingerprint if your phone has a fingerprint scanner on it. You can set up the app to log in using a passcode or fingerprint, and can require fingerprint entry when launching the application, accessing the account view, or opening doors or gates.

Using the app to check on or open or close your garage door opener is overly simplified. Once your device is connected, hit the Places menu item and select the Garage Door Opener icon. If closed, tapping it will open it, if open, tapping the icon will close it. While opening or closing, the app will tell you how long it has been opening (or closing) for, and when you first open the app, it will tell you how long the garage door has been open or closed.

MyQ-App-Screenshot
MyQ App screenshots. Open or close garage door by tapping on garage image (left), the available menu sections of the app (right).

Alerts are easy to set up and allow you to receive alerts by email and/or push notifications when the door is open, closed, as soon as it happens, and even set what times of the day you want to receive the alerts. You can select which alerts to receive by toggling them on or off within the app. You can also set schedules which will tell your garage door opener to close at a specific time on specific days, and, again, send you an email and/or push notification when this happens.

Overall, the MyQ App is pretty basic and simple, but it’s easy to use and makes it easy to open and close your garage door, set up alerts, and check when your garage door has been opened or closed in the past.

Performance

If you’ve read this far and wondered what HPS is, it’s Horse Power Similar which Chamberlain explains on their website:

HPS (Horse Power Similar) is a designation indicating the high-quality DC motor in this garage door opener features pulling force similar to a 1-1/4 horsepower AC motor. This designation is provided for comparison purposes since DC motors are not typically measured in horsepower.

The old system we had installed was a 3/4 HP AC garage door opener. Opening the 16′ x 7′ sectional garage door took about 9 seconds to fully open when closed. With a higher HPS rating, you’d think that the Chamberlain WD1000WF 1-1/4 HPS Wi-Fi Garage Door Opener would open faster but that’s not the case. In fact, it’s about 5 seconds slower and now takes about 14 seconds for the door to fully open. There has been plenty of discussion on various forums as to actual HPS calculations and how “equivalent” they are to AC motors as there is no HP rating for a DC motor, and as a result, I’ve seen some comments about the 1-1/4 HPS rating Chamberlain has given this door opener as false.

Regardless of the given HPS rating, the Chamberlain Wi-Fi Garage Door Opener opens my garage door with ease, albeit a bit slower, but definitely much, much quieter. With the old opener, you could hear it opening when you were sitting pretty much anywhere in the house. With the Chamberlain opener, you can only barely hear it if you are standing in the entryway adjacent to the garage entrance into the house.

Aside from speed, the door opener responds as expected when using the door panel, remote controls, or phone app to open and close it. The battery backup is a nice feature as well and should provide one or two days of normal operation before needing to be recharged. Once electricity is restored, it can take up to 24 hours for the battery to fully recharge.

Price/Value

The price of garage door openers has quite the range based on size, horsepower, and other features. With an MSRP of $268USD, the Chamberlain WD1000WF 1-1/4 HPS Wi-Fi Garage Door Opener isn’t the cheapest, but it’s also not the most expensive. Given the WhisperQuiet operation, included accessories, and smartphone control, the Chamberlain Garage Door Opener is reasonably priced.

Wrap-up

If you’re looking to extend your smart home to your garage door opener, the Chamberlain WD1000WF 1-1/4 HPS Wi-Fi Garage Door Opener is an option to consider with its easy setup and reliable performance.

*We were sent a sample of the Chamberlain WD1000WF 1-1/4 HPS Wi-Fi Garage Door Opener for the purposes of this review.
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