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Ecolink Garage Door Tilt Sensor Shortcomings
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So far my ring cameras and ring alarm system have not disappointed. Even some early questions were handled quite handily by Ring Support. Overall my experience is close to a 10 out of 10.I purchased the Garage Door Tilt Sensor from Ring.com and although I clearly understood it did not interface with the alarm system as other sensors (contact sensors, motion sensors, etc) I assumed it would report "open or closed" through the App so I could see at a glance if the door was open or closed. I've hoped for this type of sensor many times after leaving the house and wondering if I'd closed the garage door.To my disappointment I discovered the following:1. The open/closed condition of the sensor IS NOT reported on the Dashboard either as a sensor opening below the Alarm functions or in the History.2. IF the system is Armed Home or Away there is a chime (user configurable tone) that audibly reports on the Base Station. But, this is of no use if you are away from your home and trying to find out if your garage door is open.SUGGESTION: Have the open/closed report on the Dashboard as other sensors do in any alarm mode and have it listed on the History. And, have a push notification of Open/Closed sent as well.3. To find out any information about the sensor one must drill down into the Menu - Devices - Alarm Base Station - and find the Econlink Garage Tilt Sensor listed under sensors. But even here the open/closed condition is illogically reported as "Clear" or "Faulted" for Open/Closed. This should be modified to logically report "Open" or "Closed".This seems like a good idea that has been poorly executed so far. It would be my hope that if Ring is going to sell a product on their website, presumably making some profit on the device, there should be enough integration testing to ensure the device provide sufficient information on the Dashboard to be perceived as part of the ecosystem.TO BE CLEAR: Even tho this sensor is reported within the Alarm Base Station I am not suggesting it should be a "police dispatch" item or "armed" as contact and motion sensors. Simply fix how the information is reported to the user.

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10-06-2019 18:46:46

Responses (8)

  • S

    I completely agree. I thought the idea of a garage door sensor was a great one. I had hoped it would help me avoid going to bed without realizing the garage door had been left open. However, with the status buried way down in the device section of the app, the sensor is nearly worthless to me. I would love to be able to glance at my dashboard and see that the garage door is open. Even better would be to have the ability to schedule a push notification if the garage door is left open after a user pre-defined time. For my own use, I might pick 10pm which is a time after which my kids/dog are basically done coming/going, but still before I usually head up to bed. I hate going outside in the morning to find that a garage door was left open, and better integration of the Ecolink Garage Door sensor would dramatically reduce the chances of that happening, thereby making my Ring alarm / camera system even more valuable to me.

    6

    16-07-2019 20:33:29

    • R

      Wish I would have found this before I purchased two tilt sensors. What a waste of money. Come on, fix this and add it to the dashboard as the initial user suggested. Thx

      6

      14-08-2019 21:47:10

      • B

        If you want a functioning garage door sensor for Ring Alarm, easy and cheap, just buy a standard contact sensor and a standard door hinge. Mount the sensor to the inside of the garage door. Mount the magnet on a hinge. Mount the hinge so when the door is closed, the hinge sits flat by the sensor (door closed). When you open the door, gravity will drop the hinge mounted magnet (door open). Label the sensor as a "garage door". Done and fully alram feature functional. And I think much more reliable long-term than those tilt sensors.

        5

        24-09-2019 23:17:58

          R

          That is an excellent idea. I can visualize exactly what you are suggesting. Thanks!

          0

          24-09-2019 23:38:51

          W

          OMG this is genius. Thank you. I mounted the contact sensor on my garage door before, but it was always a bit awkward to find a good way to mount it. This solution is perfect, and cheap!

          1

          08-05-2020 18:10:08

          G

          I just used a door sensor at the side of the garage door. I piece attached to wood frame and the other to the edge of door itself. I read that the metal door could cause interference but it works fine.

          0

          12-09-2020 00:14:55

      • S

        I wanted to add a few comments to this thread about the Ecolink Garage Door Sensor. I've added it to one of my two garage doors - working perfectly fine. However - as others have noted - on my Android device...no notifications of sensor open/close. Oddly - my wife's iOS device (Apple iPhone 8) DOES send notifications via the app of sensor open/close. I've checked the Ring app for both of us and both are set exactly the same. Is it possible that Ring has modified the iOS app to show the notification but not, yet, for the Android version - ???

        0

        15-10-2019 21:26:54

        • D

          Arghs found this after purchasing and installing it. What a disappointment. Come on really? Whole poi t is to see from away or from bed that you indeed closed the garage door or that at least a chirp is triggered when someone opens the garage door

          1

          21-12-2019 04:49:30

            C

            I almost bought one of these but thank goodness I read this post before hitting the buy button. I may try that hinge with contact sensor idea.

            0

            21-12-2019 05:05:47

            S

            I have three of these Ecolink garage door sensors, and they seem to flake out fairly often (either losing connectivity or triggering falsely). Given this, integrating it more prominently in the app might cause even more angst among users if/when it flakes out because they will have come to rely on i

            0

            21-12-2019 13:22:48

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