The interview is about a smart garage door opener called Tailwind, created by Mr. Scott Reeserbosch. He explains that when choosing a smart garage door opener, it's important to have a reliable door sensor to know the current state of the door. Tailwind offers a commercial-grade door sensor. The opener is compatible with various devices and automated assistants. Installation is DIY-friendly, and there are helpful videos available. Security is a priority with features like a patented auto-open that requires the car and phone to travel together. The IQ3 opener can operate up to three doors, but can handle more with additional door sensing kits. There is also a vehicle sensor option. The app provides visual and verbal notifications about the door's status. Tailwind offers many features and integrations, including night mode. The opener is available for $89.99 on their website.
The following interview took place on October 16, 2023, and is a copyrighted production of the Call Radio Communications Group. My garage door is smarter than yours. Your moment in tech is next. I recently did a search for smart Internet of Things opener to add to my garage door, and there certainly are lots to choose from, but how to choose the best one? I found Mr. Scott Reeserbosch, who is the founder and creator of Tailwind, and that's gotailwind.com, G-O-T-A-I-L-W-I-N-D.com, producer of the IQ3 smart garage door opener.
Scott, with such a crowded market space, what should I be looking for? You're certainly right. It is crowded. Basically, people may ask why Tailwind, and the simple answer is that we check all the boxes. The things that people really need to be looking for in a smart garage door controller, they have to understand that a garage door opener itself can only toggle its state, so you can press the button to open it and press the button again to close it, so it's absolutely critical to know the current state of the garage door.
This is the largest entrance to your home, and if you're using a cheap door sensor or something that runs on batteries, camera system to try to figure out if the door is open or closed, if you happen to get that wrong, your door automation system could actually accidentally open your door instead of close it, and that's why we've chosen to go with a commercial-grade door sensor that pros use, and the thing's just built like a tank.
So I would say that's probably the number one thing that people really need to understand and focus on, that it needs to get that right first and foremost. Okay, it's also coordinated with your app. You have an app, correct? Yes, we've got an iPhone app, Android app, as well as Apple Watch and Wear OS, which is Android as well. I guess you work with over 10 automated assistants? Oh, my goodness, yeah. That's actually, we were rated number one by Wirecutter for the last four years in a row, and that's one of the reasons that they selected us as number one.
We recently introduced Android Auto integration, so as far as in-car display, it works through Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, and then for home integrations, it's Google Home. So full Google Home, not just Google Assistant, Apple HomeKit, Alexa, SmartThings, Home Assistant, Hubitat, IFTTT, and then even some of the higher-end home automations, Crestron and Control 4 as well, yeah. So the DIYer, how DIY-friendly installation is this? Well, I mean, we can get really super DIY. We even have a local control API if people wanted to bake their own software solution.
But in terms of DIY installation, you know, it's fairly straightforward. There's a, you know, a metal door sensor. You stick the magnet to the door, you clamp the sensor on the rail, and then the only wiring is you've got to plug, connect two wires to the garage door opener itself. So it's really two connections and plug it in. I looked at some of your YouTube efforts. Those are pretty inclusive. We do our best to put out a lot of videos to help people take advantage of every feature that the system has and get up and running effectively and easily.
I think one of the main points for me would be security, that somebody can't be driving along and just pressing magical buttons or whatever and open up my garage door. Yeah, 100%. Actually, we've got a patented auto-open feature. It's kind of like this, people call it like a Batman experience, where we require the car and the phone to travel together. So it's inherently more secure than your typical remote control. You may have clipped to the visor.
So it requires, identifies who's in the car and which car, and then it can simply automatically open the door. People call it automagically. You know, you just arrive and the correct door opens for the correct vehicle that you're driving. So, you know, if you have a home with multiple garage doors and multiple vehicles and multiple drivers, it handles all of that seamlessly, and it knows which car goes in which door, and it takes care of it for you.
And the IQ3, because it says three, you can operate three different doors? Yeah, so each controller has three ports on it, so you can simply get more door sensing kits, and each controller can go up to three doors, but it's not limited to three. You know, we tested it with up to 100 controllers and 300 garage doors on a single account, so it's pretty expansive. You were talking about vehicle sensors. You also have a tailwind vehicle sensor that you don't have to use the phone on, and it's a little puck-like device.
So there's a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding out there about how the vehicle sensors operate. Basically, if you have an Android phone and it's paired to the vehicle Bluetooth, the Android OS allows our app to detect which car it's connected to, and then it knows which door to open, or even if you're in one of your cars or not. So if a friend drops you off or someone steals your phone and takes it to your house, it's not going to pop the door open.
But if you have an iPhone or if you have a vehicle that doesn't have Bluetooth, an iPhone does not allow us to detect the vehicle Bluetooth connection. So that little puck in the car is kind of a surrogate for that so that the app on the phone can detect, oh, okay, I must be in this car because this vehicle sensor is nearby. And then it knows that way which car you're driving, and our patented technology can take it from there and auto-open the door as you arrive.
And similarly, it can auto-close when you leave. If you start driving away and you're distracted on the phone, the system can detect that and say, hey, it looks like Jay is maybe a little bit busy and forgot to close the door, so I'm going to close it for him. Now, I found on the app it gives you a visual of if the door is open or closed, and then also it will verbally tell you if the door is opening or has been closed.
Yes, that's correct. We do have verbal notifications as well as just normal notification sounds. People do seem to like that verbal, spoken notification that the door's been opened or closed, yeah. And so it's a lot safer than others. Yeah, 100%. That's what we hear every day, all day, is that, hey, I've been looking for a smart garage door system, and you guys check all the boxes, and that's basically what people say to us constantly. The features are just way too many to discuss here.
We can disable the door if you look around the garage or around the yard. We support partially opening the door, cross-family sharing, and just tons of integration. There's just way too much to talk about. I mean, night mode is in the league of its own, too, for safety and security at night. It's so much better than those one-and-done solutions of close the door at 10 p.m. kind of thing. So there's certainly a lot to look at, and I'll repeat again that you do have a lot on YouTube for installation and operation.
How about pricing and availability? Tailwind is sold exclusively on our website. It's gotailwind.com, G-O-T-A-I-L-W-I-N-D.com, and it sells for $89.99, and it's in stock there. Well, is your garage door open or is it closed? For your moment of tech, this is Jay Melnick.
