LED and opener

[FredWanaker]

Have a new Liftmaster 81602 door opener. The old model from 2010 stopped working because of interference from all the cameras in the neighborhood - they shared common frequencies. I bought a special approved LED bulb to go in the last one that did not interfere with garage door openers and installed it in the new Liftmaster opener. Several weeks later, a second technician came out to replace the backup battery because the first installer had accidentally dropped the backup battery from about 2/3 up his 6' ladder and I didn't trust it. So when the second technician came out he also replaced the special LED with a standard incandescent bulb. His reason was that the Liftmaster openers are subject to accidental opening from the electronics in LED bulbs receiving and passing the open commands from other openers nearby. I have never heard of this and am wondering if this is a wives' tale or if this is really happening. I would like to go back to the LED if there is no risk of accidental opening. He told me that he had just fixed the problem on a home a mile or two away the week before so he seemed sincere with it. He said the Liftmaster was supposed to have fixed the issue with their new models but it still remains. Any one else heard of this?

 

[Kezorm]

I can't imagine accidental opening due to LED. Failure to open or close due to interference from LED, absolutely. But not accidental, unintentional open. Everything works on unique rolling keys per remote / opener taught through the learn process. I can't imagine a situation where an LED could magically pass open commands from opener to opener. I don't buy it. All that said, I am not a Liftmaster engineer...

 

[FredWanaker]

I can't imagine accidental opening due to LED. Failure to open or close due to interference from LED, absolutely. But not accidental, unintentional open. Everything works on unique rolling keys per remote / opener taught through the learn process. I can't imagine a situation where an LED could magically pass open commands from opener to opener. I don't buy it. All that said, I am not a Liftmaster engineer...

that is what I thought but thinking out of the box I guess RF could be introduced thru a power supply. I would think any bulb in the house could introduce RF if that was the case. I don't know. He said the problem was random and hard to reproduce but it could be reproduced.

 

[Zeke]

I have an opener that is old. Sears. And it's bullet proof except I live under an airport flight path. The thing would open at all times of day, but not too often. I have a 2nd transmitter on the power cord to shut the thing off.

Nothing to do with the new stuff, but RF is RF.

 

[wssix99]

I have never heard of this and am wondering if this is a wives' tale or if this is really happening.

I don't know how you can get this answered here without someone linking a third party document from Liftmaster. This site tends to collect old wives' tales. lol

 

[Jackfre]

Following this one. In our new home the Liftmaster opener is reluctant to do as told. I did add LED lights in the garage. I wonder if the same is happening with the Lutron remote for the lights?

 

[FredWanaker]

Following this one. In our new home the Liftmaster opener is reluctant to do as told. I did add LED lights in the garage. I wonder if the same is happening with the Lutron remote for the lights?

although your problem is different, if it only happens when the LED lights are on, they are not the specially designed type for an opener. Many LED bulbs will interfere with opener commands. Our old opener used to stop working when a neighbor had his leaf blower going. Spark plug noise.

 

[Cortez the Killer]

They sell special LED’s for garage doors

 

[car421]

I have a Liftmaster direct drive unit and it came with an LED light. Also have LED lighting in my garage and no issues. Strange that the unit would have issues with LED when they supply an LED light with 1 of there models. Would think they share common components.

 

[WillyBoy]

There's a fair amount of RF hash from LED drivers. The radio station that I listen to most often, broadcasts on AM.
There's all kinds of noise when the lights are on. Recently the station acquired an FM frequency for the same broadcasts.
Big difference. On another note, my battery powered drills could be heard on an AM radio 10 feet away.

 

[pima67]

A few weeks ago, my 17-year-old Liftmaster stopped responding to the remote in the car. Sometimes pushing the buttons over and over would work. Research identified the LED problem, but I had an old (maybe from the '90s spiral type) CFL in it. But since that has some electronics in it, I removed it. After a couple of tries the opener & remote started talking to each other again. Been working OK now. Since the car leaves its lights on for a few minutes after shutting down, I really don't need the opener light to reach the house door.

 

[dcg9381]

I had a similar problem with garage door opener range with 2.4 Ghz wifi systems when I started installing cameras at the house. What fixed it for me was opening the admin panel on the wifi router and shifting the operating channel to one end of the band... I don't remember which side of the band it was, but you can try shifting your router from the low end to the high end or vice versa and narrowing the frequency range (if you have that option).

We have LEDs in the garage currently and a lot of wifi.. No issues. Genie 3053 systems and a Chaimberland / Liftmaster.

 

[FredWanaker]

cameras can interfere. My old 2010 model Liftmaster was fine until a neighbor nextdoor installed a whole bunch of cheap cameras. The new opener I replaced it with uses three frequencies simultaneously to avoid interference issues.