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Led lights vs overhead door operators

Schu338

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Joined
Sep 14, 2018
Messages
57
Location
Ny
I've heard some Led's interfere with electric overhead door openers. Can anyone elaborate? Is it certain types? Location? Line-of-site only? And now a real dumb question: Is it interference only when they are "on"?
 
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getawheel

Active member
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Mar 19, 2008
Messages
38
Location
FL
Some of the cheaper ones may have non FCC compliant drivers, and COULD interfere with lots of wireless. I think FCC part 15 is the test requirement for LED.
And it would be while powered up, not while off....
 

cybrdyke

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Sep 9, 2014
Messages
3,446
Location
USA
What you're hearing about is when the LED bulb is screwed into a socket that's built into the motor unit. Most openers have one. When it's ON, the little driver in the base can create enough RFI to foul up the communication between your remote and the receiver in the opener. There's not much power in the LED driver, so it's only because it's so close to the receiver that this happens.
Not all LED bulbs will interfere because not all drivers are the same. You'll have to use trial and error to find one that works.
LED lights that are further away from the receiver shouldn't interfere with the operation of the opener.
CD
 

Bryanthegreat

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Mar 6, 2012
Messages
446
Location
Minnesota
I had that issue when the lights were on the remotes wouldn’t work. Genie makes an LED bulb that is compatible with the opener and I have had no issues with them. I have an LED bulb in a fixture about a foot away from the opener without issue.
 
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Buy2Much

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May 3, 2015
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Sammamish WA
Maybe they were thinking compact florescent lights (CFL)? :question: CLFs have a high voltage converter built into them.

LED drivers are really basic as they cut voltage and I've not experienced any bad behavior with any LED lightbulb. I could just be lucky. :)

I bought doors and openers from Costco whatever brand they are. There are two light sockets on each opener. I put LED lights in when the installers were here right after they installed the doors and openers. We tried them out and there was no problem.

Since then I put a socket with outlet on the garage door side and I run a coil extension cord to the door where I've attached a 4ft LED shoplight to the door itself. The coil is on ceiling hooks to expand and contract as the door opens. The door is steel so I used magnets to hook the lights on the door. When the door is open the light illuminates under the door. It's really nice to have a well lighted area with the door open. The door blocking the light always bothered me.

Either way, LED are not problem with the door opener.
 

MJ_

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Joined
Oct 3, 2018
Messages
54
Location
_
I had a problem this week with LEDs installed in my older Genie branded door opener. The overhead opener would not raise the door unless you were within ten feet of the garage, and even this was unreliable. After some tinkering, I removed the LED bulbs from the opener and found that my original range of about fifty feet had returned. The bulbs that caused such a problem were cheapies from my local HD (Ecosmart branded). I installed new bulbs made by Philips today and have absolutely no problems at all. So, this is one instance where "you get what you pay for" definitely applies. I am glad that I didn't pay the premium for the Genie bulbs though.
 

Genie

Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2016
Messages
8
I've heard some Led's interfere with electric overhead door openers. Can anyone elaborate? Is it certain types? Location? Line-of-site only? And now a real dumb question: Is it interference only when they are "on"?

Here is a great article that explains this pretty in-depth.

The light on a garage door opener typically will stay on 4-6 minutes after operating your garage door opener, so when you are leaving, you could experience this, if your garage door opener is equipped with motion detection lighting, and the light is on when arriving at your house, then you could experience lower range.

Here is the article:
https://store.geniecompany.com/blog...ie-led-light-bulbs-in-our-garage-door-openers
 
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