Garage getting less and less responsive to remote

[ukiltmybrutha]

I have homelink garage door openers...house came with these...they were installed around 2013 and I am not the original owner...sorry to be vague if there is more to it than that. I have a 3 car garage. One of the garage door openers is for the small one car door. The other is for the garage door opener for the 2 car door.

The small one car door opener is just getting worse and worse. It doesn't matter what remote I use or which vehicle I click the button from. I can be right in front of the door most times and I have to try like 5 times or more to get it for the door to close. Most times, I have to get out of the car and hit the enter button on the keypad remotely.

I replaced the incandescent bulbs with LED ones so that I could get more supplemental lighting when needed...I read that could be a problem. I can't remember if the problem started then.

What are some causes to this?

I also read that there are some reasonably priced garage door opening units that will allow me to open/close the garage doors with my smart phone. Is that a workaround?

Thanks!

 

[wssix99]

I replaced the incandescent bulbs with LED ones so that I could get more supplemental lighting when needed...I read that could be a problem.

What are some causes to this?

The electronics in some LED bulbs create radio interference that interferes with the remote. I suspect that your LED bulbs are closest to the unit (and the recieving antenna) giving you fits. If the problem only happens when the lights are on - this points more towards an issue with the LED bulbs.

If you search for Garage Door Opener LED bulb, you will find LED bulbs on the market made specifically not to interfere with the garage door openers.

 

[ukiltmybrutha]

The electronics in some LED bulbs create radio interference that interferes with the remote. I suspect that your LED bulbs are closest to the unit (and the recieving antenna) giving you fits. If the problem only happens when the lights are on - this points more towards an issue with the LED bulbs.

If you search for Garage Door Opener LED bulb, you will find LED bulbs on the market made specifically not to interfere with the garage door openers.

Thanks, I have never broken it down to when this is happening. The lights come on automatically when the garage door opens. Thanks for the info on the non interfering LED bulbs. Now that I think about it....the other garage door opener unit has the same LED bulbs in the housing and is not effected.

Hmm....guess I should just go back to incandescent here just to be sure.

 

[wssix99]

Now that I think about it....the other garage door opener unit has the same LED bulbs in the housing and is not effected.

Your interference involves the specific opener installation around the antenna and the bulbs. Not all LED bulbs leak radiation the same and your narrow door opener will have more building in the way of the signal getting to the antenna. (So, I would expect your smaller door opener would be more sensitive to this type of interference than the big door that gives a wider line of sight between your antenna and remote.)

Hmm....guess I should just go back to incandescent here just to be sure.

This would certainly confirm the issue.

 

[rayra]

When you say Homelink are you referring to the built-in programmable garage opener emitters built into some GM cars? Or are you referring to some mod of the actual opener mechanism / receiver?

Besides RFI from bulbs, what sort of antenna wire is hanging off the opener? How much metal junk, if any, do you have hanging from the ceiling between your vehicle and the opener?

 

[66HertzClone]

I went through the same thing, installed LED bulbs and found that I could open the door when I arrived home, but it really gave me a fit getting it to close when I backed out in the morning. No light on until after the open signal was received in the evening, but since I had opened the door and the lights were on the close signal wasn't being received. I switched to these bulbs and my troubles disappeared.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075B6WD3B/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[johninct]

I have a LED bulb right next to my TV and the remote will not turn the set on. Could the LED bulb be the problem?

 

[FredWanaker]

LED lights, Cameras including doorbell camera etc.. Just went thru this with a homelink opener sending to a Liftmaster unit from about 2012. We solved it by extending the antenna to the header over the garage door and creating a grid. Works as well as ever. Before the door opener only had a small pigtail that hung down. My security guy crimped a wire to that, stapled it above the rail, to over the door, across the header opposite direction of the camera, and made a little grid. It works really well now.

 

[NUTTSGT]

Switch back to incandescents and install new batteries.

 

[ukiltmybrutha]

Thanks... overwhelming unanticipated responses. So nothing hanging between the two. Homelink receivers. Batteries are fresh. I will try the Amazon link to see how it goes.

Thanks again.

 

[kaymccampbell]

I adapted my Chamberlain openers' boards to accept coax, and ran the coax outside over the doors. Right now I have just a 9"-ish length of bare coax core as antenna (waiting for 315mhz antennas from China), and my remotes went from non-working, except right under the opener, to almost 200' away. My keypad went from intermittent or none, to working every time.

 

[Dan V.]

Had similar issue until I changed to the special LED bulbs for the opener. In addition, I have low voltage landscape lights controlled by a daylight sensor. When those LED's come on when the light is low the opener is wonky also.

But I am usually home by the time the lights come on, so it's not much of an issue .

 

[LS6 Tommy]

I went through the same thing, installed LED bulbs and found that I could open the door when I arrived home, but it really gave me a fit getting it to close when I backed out in the morning. No light on until after the open signal was received in the evening, but since I had opened the door and the lights were on the close signal wasn't being received. I switched to these bulbs and my troubles disappeared.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B075B6WD3B/?tag=atomicindus08-20

You beat me to it. I just put two garage door opener rated LED bulbs in my opnener after 20 something years of the dim incandescants. They work just fine.

Tommy