What are the best ways to avoid being locked out of the garage?

The only way you can be locked out of your garage is if you have no second entry into your garage only the garage door itself. There are several ways to prevent this from happening the easiest and least expensive solution would be to install a vault release or also known as a safety release. This device is a small keyed lock that is attached to a metal cable and the cable attaches to the emergency release to your garage door opener. The emergency release on your opener unit disengages the opener from the door so it can be opened manually. This keyed lock is inexpensive and should be installed on any garage door power outages or opener malfunctions.

The other precaution you can take is to install an opener that has a battery backup option that allows you to open your garage door with no power needed. If your door does not have a opener and only uses a keyed lock from the outside of the door then these basic locks do not fail very often but if they do then if there is a window in the garage that can be broken into and replaced easily to gain access to the garage. Otherwise you will have to damage door to bypass this type of keyed lock.