LED lights...garage door remote won't work

[ponjohn]

Yup, I confirmed it. As long as lights on the opener are not on the remote in the car works.

When LED lights are used there is interference with the remote. I switched to LED because the incandescent lights kept blowing out from the vibration.

Anyone else experience this?

 

[purplezr2]

Have no issue with my 95 LED light bar and the garage door opener.

 

[ponjohn]

On the vehicle?

These are installed in the garage door opener.

I suspect there is electronics in the bulbs to regulate the voltage or convert it to DC and this is generating electrical noise.

 

[darcyh]

I have found some LED bulbs generate tremendous RF interference; Ecosmart from HD being one of them. LG, Philips, Luminous brands seem okay. Try a different brand.
Regards

Dave

 

[Adam McLaughlin]

What fq do these devices operate on?

I have the 2M / 440 rig in the garage on 24/7 and I don't ever hear anything, even when the 7 element Yagi is pointed right over the garage building

Adam

 

[racingtadpole]

On the vehicle?

These are installed in the garage door opener.

I suspect there is electronics in the bulbs to regulate the voltage or convert it to DC and this is generating electrical noise.

You would be correct. The driver circuit is almost certainly generating spurious RF.

 

[Sweet Old Bill]

Try a Compact Florescent Lamp. I use them in my garage opener & other situations; vibrations do not affect them, they have become fairly cheap & last a long time.

 

[c4cruiser]

I've never had a problem with incandescent lights blowing from vibration on either the chain-drive or belt drive units. I have always used the "rough-duty" or "severe-duty" bulbs. The filaments in these bulbs are supported differently to keep them from shaking.

 

[ponjohn]

The LED bulbs in question are Ecosmart from HD. They had them on sale for 9.00 each.

Compact fl. are an option but I like the light from the LED's better. I'll try another brand.

 

[got2boostit2]

Contact or check the door opener manufacturers website as they may have a solution.

 

[Falcon67]

If the opener has a motion sensor, likely the CFLs won't work well with it. Our really nice belt drive unit hates them. I use incandescents in the opener.

 

[AndyL]

Stick with incandescent bulbs in your opener... I can pull up at least 8 technical bulletins if really needed, but most manufacturers say no to CFL and LEDs.

Long and short of it, some won't light them, and some use them as a load for braking (thus need resistance) , and a few models tend to get right royally fubared (read logic board failures) by using them...

 

[Cryptic1911]

I have found some LED bulbs generate tremendous RF interference; Ecosmart from HD being one of them. LG, Philips, Luminous brands seem okay. Try a different brand.
Regards

Dave

Interesting.. good to know. We just picked up one of the ecosmart lights from HD last week to check it out too!

 

[Rag Roc]

Andy L is correct. Ran into the same problem. Local opener distributor said no to LED & CFL because of the interfernece issue. Sometimes you get lucky wit them but most of the time not. He recommended severe duty incandescents

 

[Joe B.]

I have been using CFLs in mine for years and I have had not problems.

Has anyone tried putting in a converter that changes the light socket to an outlet and then running a short extension cord to a ceiling mounted low voltage light fixture? It seems like that could solve a lot of problems and add more light if you were to use CFLs or LEDs.

 

[darcyh]

I have 2 LG 60 watt equivalent LED bulbs in the Genie Powermax 1500 opener. No problems using these. I am slowly converting (as lights go on sale and funds allow) the critical lights in the house / garage to LED.

I don't like how long CFL's take to come to full brightness.

 

[AndyL]

Its not every opener... it varies by manufacturer and model unfortunately... and there's little seeming rhyme or reason.

5 years ago LED bulbs were thousands of dollars, not dollar store items, cfls were 10-15$ engineers likely weren't planning for them in circuit design...

That said, I'm still waiting to see the release, as the sales rep told me the genie jackshaft (think liftmaster 3800) would likely get an led light from the factory... but its been 2-3 years I've been hearing its coming soon...

 

[24X26]

I have been using CFLs in mine for years and I have had not problems.

Has anyone tried putting in a converter that changes the light socket to an outlet and then running a short extension cord to a ceiling mounted low voltage light fixture? It seems like that could solve a lot of problems and add more light if you were to use CFLs or LEDs.

This is what I was wondering also.

 

[NUTTSGT]

I don't like how long CFL's take to come to full brightness.

That's why I wouldn't use a CFL in a garage door opener, especially in a cold unheated garage during the winter.

 

[nehog]

An alternative that may work would be to add a line filter between the lamp socket and the opener. One (a filter) could be scavenged from some discarded (typically commercial) computer equipment, these have two wires in, two wires out, and a ground (typically the case.) Inside are some capacitors and inductors that limit the RF traveling down the wires. I've a bunch of these things here and they are quite common. You can also buy new ones from most online suppliers such as Digi-key. This does require you cut and splice wires, and this filter should be installed as close to the socket as possible, not more than an inch or two.

 

[036.6turbo]

Most of these responses are focused on the lights in the opener, I retrofitted the recessed 6" cans, in our kitchen with the LEDs, my 315mHz Craftsman opener lost its ability to communicate with any of the remotes. The wall control panel would still work, just not the remotes.

I misdiagnosed the problem, and replaced the circuit board on the opener, it worked fine, then stopped. I searched here, found this thread. turned off the LEDs and the opener worked fine.

The garage is full of CFLs, they seem to be fine, it's the LEDs in the kitchen that are causing my problems.

Thanks for the help!

 

[aspera]

Related problem: I've had a whisper quiet belt drive Chamberlain opener for a few years. It is marked as OK for use with CFLs and I liked that I could use some honking bright CFLs and still be a fraction of the watts of incandescents. A few days ago one CFL bulb quit. I got the ladder out and decided to upgrade to some Cree LED bulbs. (The CFLs are a little dim for a while in the cold weather.) The opener did not like that AT ALL! Garage door opener no worky, just flashy. So back to non-LED bulbs and everything works fine. I was worried I had fried my logic board, but I didn't so all good in da hood.

In the future I expect to see LED bulbs marked "okay for use with garage door openers" or smart openers that ditch the A19 bulbs entirely and use integrated LED strips. Then I hope to see smart openers that communicate with Roombas to clean my garage floor when I leave the house!

 

[Dustball]

I have a Liftmaster Professional Formula I opener with a couple of cheap 11 watt LED bulbs on it and the bulbs haven't affected the remote range at all.

 

[kbs2244]

Re: the remote light mounting.
For years I have used remote mounted halogen work lights plugged into the opener.
I did it for brighter and better light aiming.
The on the motor mounting made more shadows then light.
They are mounted high on the wall, with one aimed between the cars and the other at the stairs into the house.
I never worried about electric use.
Even with the timer turned to max so we have plenty of time to empty out the car, they are only on 5 min.

 

[John Stone]

Hi!

I had the same problem after installing LED lights around the house. Fortunately, I found a solution called GoGogate that's working fine for me and its cheaper than replacing all remotes I have at home: http://www.gogogate.com/

I even can open and close the garage door from anywhere with my iPhone, receive alerts and watch the door from an IP cam from the same app.

 

[Iron-Iceberg]

Just ran into this problem at a house I'm working on. They put new LEDs in the kitchen and the garage remote will not work with the lights on.
Get this, the neighbors garage won't work either. Those lights have quite the range.

 

[Genie]

CFL & LED light bulbs can cause Radio Frequency interference with a garage door openers remote control. If this occurs your remotes range can go from 500 feet to as little as 5 feet. A new solution to this problem is to go with a light bulb made by Genie that was specifically designed to be friendly to garage door openers and avoid this issue. I found more information on the bulb on their website:
http://www.geniecompany.com/garage-door-openers/accessories/led-light-bulb.aspx

 

[kbs2244]

I have had the extension cord to a remote light set up for over 15 years.
I used the super bright, tube type bulb, work lights screwed to the wall.
I wanted better light direction without shadows.
I have 1 aimed between the cars and 1 at the steps into the house.
With the timer set for max we can unload the car and not need the main lights at all.

 

[upndown]

What timer are you refering? Modern openers don't have adjustable light delays!

 

[Catmochanic]

I had the same issue as the O.P. Turns out the LED bulbs operate in a frequency range of 30-400 hertz, the garage door opener operates between250-450 hertz (my numbers might be off a little), but what this means is the bulbs and garage door opener are interfering with each other. I switched to "rough service " 100 watt bulbs which worked fine and gave me a little longer life than the standard service bulbs, then I moved. FWIW I was using Fiet bulbs from HD.

 

[99LeCouch]

Huh, my whole house is LED bulbs, and so are my Chamberlain belt-drive openers. No issues to report. The bulbs in the openers are Feit Electric from Costco. Chamberlain has a list out of bulbs that work with their openers, and the Feit bulbs were on that list.

 

[woodanator]

I have a Chamberlain Whisper Quiet + garage door opener that I installed a few years ago, and it has worked well. It has a place for two 117VAC 60 watt light bulbs, and incandescent bulbs don't seem to last very long. In addition, it has an IR sensor that turns the lights on whenever something warm comes in the garage. My cat loves the garage and goes in and out lots of times each day, which results in the lights in the opener staying on a lot. In fact, I noticed some plastic melting that had taken place near the base of one of the bulbs. I tried CFLs, which were okay, but dim.

So, I decided to splurge on a couple of 9.9W LED bulbs; they fit well, ran cool, and were quite bright. The first problem was that they flashed on/off briefly when they were supposed to be off. Then I started having trouble triggering the door with the remotes in the cars. I first thought the batteries in the remotes needed changing, but that didn't help. Finally, I discovered that whenever the LED bulbs were on, the range of the remotes was greatly reduced; apparently, there is some RF generated by the circuitry in the LED bulbs that desensitizes the receiver in the door opener.

Back to 60 watt incandescent bulbs, and the remotes work all the way to the street. Of course, I am also back to short bulb life and excessive heat. Oh, well.

 

[slowTA]

Does anyone have a list of openers and shop lights that don't work well together? I'm building my garage this year and the electrician recommends some 8' LED lights. With my luck nothing remote would work on the property!

 

[woodanator]

Find just now:
LED bulbs that successfully work with electric Garage Door Openers: garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=219076