No one's asked for a Nest-like overhaul of a garage-door opener, but Ryobi did it anyway. The Ryobi Ultra-Quiet Garage Door Opener opens a door to the future and to new frontiers of human existence.
But first, it will open your garage. The 45-pound belt-drive unit is designed for 7-foot aluminum garage doors. It’s billed as “ultra-quiet” and sports a big ol’ bank of LEDs. You get two car remotes, an outdoor keypad, and an indoor keypad---everything you’d expect from a garage door opener, especially a lime-green one.
But this thing came to party. The Ryobi Ultra-Quiet Garage Door Opener is the basis of a---wait for it---garage entertainment system. A built-in Wi-Fi antenna allows it to communicate with an iOS and Android app, because this is 2016 and a garage door opener needs a mobile app. Firing up your phone allows you to see if the door’s open or closed, open or close it, and mess around with its modular components.
Those modular components are the coolest thing about it. You can hook up a Bluetooth speaker ($54), adjustable fan ($54), or a dual-laser parking-assist module ($44) that replicates the function of a tennis ball dangling from a string but with lasers. A 30-foot retractable cord with three outlets ($64) provides plenty of juice, and a carbon-monoxide sensor module is coming soon
A handy charging bay for Ryobi’s 18V One+ battery, which is used in all of Ryobi's cordless tools. If the power goes out, that same battery will also keep your garage door opening and closing for the duration of the blackout.
The main unit costs a reasonable $248 at Home Depot, but going full-on Katamari Damacy with the modules will cost you. Go nuts with all the add-ons and you'll pay $504. Still, that's a fair price to pay for the coolest garage on the cul-de-sac.
