If you’ve ever suffered from a home power failure, you know that they are incredibly inconvenient. This is especially true if you’ve ever lost power in your home and not been able to open your garage door. In these cases, a backup battery for your garage door might be the perfect solution.

What is a Backup Battery?

A garage door backup battery is a small, 12-volt battery that will operate your garage door in the event of a power outage. The top garage door brands that now offer this option include Genie, LiftMaster, Mastercraft, Linear, and Chamberlain.

Most of these garage door systems have the backup battery inside the motor housing, and a few have the battery sitting on top. When there is a power failure, your system should continue working for as long as 24 hours as long as your battery is fully-charged.

Why a Backup Battery For Your Garage Door Makes Sense

Even if you don’t have a backup battery with your current garage door system, you can either add one or purchase a new system with an integrated battery.  A backup battery in your garage door is a good idea for several reasons.

• Bad weather: You are no longer at the mercy of the weather and potential blackouts or brownouts.
• Emergencies: If you have any sort of emergency when there is a power outage, you can still get out of your garage.
• Fire: If a fire in your home knocks out electricity, your battery backup will allow you to open your garage door.

Keeping Your Backup Battery in Top Shape

Once you have your backup battery installed, you’ll want to make sure that it remains fully charged and functional so that it will work when you need it. Your garage door opener may have a warning signal that tells you when battery life is low. If not, unplug your garage door and test your backup system every few months just to be safe.  Fully recharging a backup battery should take about four hours.

Contact Bailey Garage Doors today for all of your garage door needs!