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Garage door opener remote

headwrench

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Joined
Feb 14, 2009
Messages
189
Location
smack dab in the center of ohio
Im hoping i can get some educated answers from the minds on this great site. My remote garage door opener wont open my shop door unless im 3' from it. Now sometimes it will open it from my house garage some 50' away & it used too , but most times it wont. It will however close it from the house garage. I have changed the battery (twice) but it doesnt change anything. What the heck is going on here. I have two remotes & they both do the same thing.. The opener is 6-7 years old. Any ideas? Thanks in advance for any & all suggestions
 
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K'ledgeBldr

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Aug 22, 2011
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Location
Johns Creek, GA
"Radio interference"- can be weather related, and/or sightline obstructed. And yes, battery strength could also be a factor.

I know this will work for door openers also-
https://www.liftmaster.com/catalogresourcesv3/en-us/shared/files/tucmanuals/114a4123.pdf

In gated communities this is usually a standard install for the gates because people don't want to have to pull to the gate, hit the remote, then wait for the gate to open! This "range extender" will certainly take care of the inconsistencies.
 

kbs2244

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Joined
Nov 11, 2006
Messages
14,065
He said he has changed the batteries.
(This is rarely the problem. An opener has very little "on" time to use any battery energy.)
 
OP
H

headwrench

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Joined
Feb 14, 2009
Messages
189
Location
smack dab in the center of ohio
Yes batteries changed last week.....no led bulbs......i even had the remoted on my yamaha handlebars & could open the door from the highway 200' away.....not anymore. Just cant figure out why i can close the door from the house garage but not open it from there. Wierd
 

unslow1

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Mar 3, 2012
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Location
Illinois
Yes batteries changed last week.....no led bulbs......i even had the remoted on my yamaha handlebars & could open the door from the highway 200' away.....not anymore. Just cant figure out why i can close the door from the house garage but not open it from there. Wierd

The door must be reducing signal strength enough to block it.
 

ezriderga

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Location
NW GA
Have you thought about calling the manufacturer and see if they have any answers?
 

moreover

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Aug 19, 2017
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Texas Hill Country
I just went trough this with my chamberlain. It was probably 10 years old. The remotes started working intermittently. Tried removing the led bulb. Reseting the controller, new batteries. I pulled the board to look for failed components but found none. Finally I talked with their CS department and they said likely a bad logic board.

You realize just how important the automatic garage door is when it quits working from the exterior.

Board was $55 shipped but I opted for a new belt drive chamberlain unit, pretty much a direct swap mounting wise, I'm even using the existing safety beam emmiters thinks. This unit is super quiet compared to the chain drive and the motion sensing wall control is super helpful to keep the light on in there.
 
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rayra

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Dec 1, 2014
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Escaped from Los Angeles
Does the garage door opener itself have an external wire antenna trailing from it? SHOULD it have an external wire antenna trailing from it?

/I ask because my 26yr++ old 'Blue Max' opener does
 

mmb617

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Dec 5, 2010
Messages
4,424
Location
PA
Using Led's? Some bulbs affect openers some don't.

I was not aware of that problem. I changed the entire garage over from 4 ft florescent to direct wired LED bulbs a year or so ago but fortunately didn't run into any problems with the openers.
 

Jazzman442

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Sep 17, 2013
Messages
553
Location
Tampa Bay area, FL
If it is a older remote if it gets dropped it will be of the channel just enough to not open from far away. If there are Florescent bulbs forget it. They will make the receiver useless in the opener. Have you tried all of your remotes? If it is just the one it was probably dropped.
Garage openers are a pain. Have you added anything in the same band as a garage door opener? Ie weather station etc?
 

CJ7VFR

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Joined
Jan 13, 2015
Messages
2,939
Location
Central New Jersey
Did you do any recent work on the garage/garage door where you had to disconnect the opener and take I down, and then put it back up?

It sounds to me like an antenna issue. If your opener has a wire antenna coming off of it, check to see if it is hanging as straight downward as you can make it. It almost sounds like the antenna is pointing in the direction of what you call the "house garage", and not hanging down.

Jim
 

koondog

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Feb 4, 2014
Messages
127
Location
Pennsylvania
Just went through the exact same thing. Replaced the logic board, a relatively easy job and that fixed the issue.
 

CN Spots

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Apr 21, 2016
Messages
3,072
Location
NW Mississippi
My security cameras screwed mine up. Had to be right under the unit for it to work after I installed them. Turn them off and it works from 50' away. I built a wall around the opener with foil (looks as stylish as you'd imagine) and left the front exposed. This bought me about 25 feet.
 

LB-1911

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Sep 24, 2011
Messages
5,742
Location
Northwestern Il.
Yes batteries changed last week.....no led bulbs......i even had the remoted on my yamaha handlebars & could open the door from the highway 200' away.....not anymore. Just cant figure out why i can close the door from the house garage but not open it from there. Wierd

Logic board was going to be my next stab at it, As previously posted you'll see your not alone - sometimes if you pull the board you'll see a burnt spot sometimes not.



I just went trough this with my chamberlain. It was probably 10 years old. The remotes started working intermittently. Tried removing the led bulb. Reseting the controller, new batteries. I pulled the board to look for failed components but found none. Finally I talked with their CS department and they said likely a bad logic board.

You realize just how important the automatic garage door is when it quits working from the exterior.

Board was $55 shipped but I opted for a new belt drive chamberlain unit, pretty much a direct swap mounting wise, I'm even using the existing safety beam emmiters thinks. This unit is super quiet compared to the chain drive and the motion sensing wall control is super helpful to keep the light on in there.

Just went through the exact same thing. Replaced the logic board, a relatively easy job and that fixed the issue.

A garage door opener surge protector might be worth a look.
 

Genie

Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2016
Messages
8
Im hoping i can get some educated answers from the minds on this great site. My remote garage door opener wont open my shop door unless im 3' from it. Now sometimes it will open it from my house garage some 50' away & it used too , but most times it wont. It will however close it from the house garage. I have changed the battery (twice) but it doesnt change anything. What the heck is going on here. I have two remotes & they both do the same thing.. The opener is 6-7 years old. Any ideas? Thanks in advance for any & all suggestions

There are many things that can cause the range of your remote to weaken. Typically radio frequency interference. A few things that can cause RF interference with your garage door opener is if you are within a 50 mile radius of a military base that is testing on the frequency, if you are using LED or CFL bulbs in the garage door opener, LED'S or Fluorescent's installed in the garage close to the operator. Check to ensure your antenna wire is hanging down and not tucked up in the light cover. A few more things that can cause RF interference would be things such as old appliances going bad.

Typically if you reach out to the manufacturer of the GDO they will walk you through some things to help determine what is causing the weakened range. Here is a link to an article on LED bulbs, if you find that is your cause:

https://store.geniecompany.com/blogs/genie-blog/tagged/led-lighting
 
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sydbarringer

New member
Joined
Jan 27, 2019
Messages
1
Location
Birmingham
Regarding posts about RF interference:
We installed a Ring doorbell about a month ago. The gdo remotes worked fine until last week when both failed (2 openers, 14 and 20 y.o., remotes not likely original). Seems like remote failure should have occurred immediately if “the Ring did it”. I’ve gone through Chamberlain’s protocol without success. I gather that communication is somehow blocked. Wall buttons and remotes are single switch (no lock feature). Interference seems the culprit since both went out at once.
 
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