CFL and LED light bulbs and Garage Door opener Range
 

One day the garage door opener didn't work when pulling into the driveway. It was only until I was a few feet in front of the door did it open. I contacted the manufacturer of the opener who determined that the logic board was bad and promptly sent me out a new one free of charge. My door opener was 6 years old. Had I bought the logic board, it would have been over $125.

A few days later, I put the new one in and the range was still the same. After another call to the manufacturer, they then determined it was the motor, to which they promptly sent a new one free of charge.

I even went as far as turning off all the breakers to determine if there was a interference issue with something in the house. It wasn't that.

Standing on the ladder and looking at the opener, it dawned on me that I installed the new CFL and then the LED light bulbs in the opener. I took them out and the range came back to like it was when new! I found a 60 watt old style bulb and it works just fine with that.

So, if you are having issues with range on your door opener, this might be your problem.

What happens if you remove the bulb all together?

Very impressive customer service - what garage door opener company?

Bizarre that removing the CFL and LED shortened the reception range of the receiver. How 'bout putting back just the CFL (or the LED) bulb to figure out which is the culprit?

Steve

There is RFI generated in LED and CFL bulbs - though sometimes different brands will be fine.

Not certain it is RFI because if the lighting circuit is turned off, its probably something to do with an inductor coil or some other silly thing in the lamp(s) being used. I know my garage door opener says to only use an incandescent. Since it is a vibration prone environment with short cycles, a CFL didn't make sense and it is only on 5 minutes at a time for two or three times a day so I just left mine incandescent but when one bulb burned out I didn't bother changing it because one is enough to get me inside the house. An LED is too expensive IMHO for the application that would use only 1/3 kwh per month with the way it is now, not really worth the price, especially if the vibration or heat and humidity in the garage cause an early failure on an LED.

LED bulbs are far better in vibration prone environments than even CFL's - and both are much better than incandescent bulbs.

I took them both out and put in the incandescent ones. The LED bulbs were like $5.99 each after the instant rebate and they seem brighter than the 60 watt bulbs.

The door opener company is Liftmaster. The are a subdivision of Chamberlin. We bought the door opener at Homedepot.

I did try both and they both shorten the range by 30 feet or more. They are both Feit Electric bulbs, bought at Costco.

As a side note, the CFL bulbs from Feit Electric kept burning out. I think we had them maybe 4 years. They did however replace any that had burnt out free of charge. But when the LED bulbs came out, I was all over that and replaced all of the CFL in the house and garage.

I like the Sylvania LED, and they seem to have less "interactive" circuitry than other brands. These are meant specifically for fans and other vibration prone fixtures:

Shop SYLVANIA 8-Watt (40W) A15 Soft White (2700K) LED Bulb at Lowes.com

But you didn't try it without a bulb in at all to see if it needed a bulb in there to work right.

Incandescent bulbs don't tend to handle vibration very well, so they make incandescent bulbs that have heavier filaments for high vibration use.

If your garage door opener works without the bulb you might get a motion sensor switch that can work with LED's, that's what I have in my garage, it turns on as soon as the garage door is opened or as soon as someone walks in the garage.

Sorry, yes I did leave out the bulbs to see if it opens or has range issues and it works fine. Ryland, the door opener also does have that cool feature you described.

Even the tough bulbs that I put in there haven't lasted as long as the CFL and LED bulbs. I even went bought a whole house surge suppressor thinking that was the problem.

We are going to try the Sylvania bulbs that NeilBlanchard mentioned and see if those don't interfere with the RF signals.

Other thing to try would be to move the bulb further from the receiver, light socket extension cords are not common any more, but you can make one with a cheap clamp on lamp and a screw in lamp socket to outlet dohicky, I have some extension cords that are a male and female lamp socket on either end.

@OP:

try different brands of LED bulbs and find one that works for you.

With CFL: there's a lot of RFI created within (thus the call for FCC standard imposed on them to keep their RFI emissions low);

RFI is what radio broadcasts, CB, etc. would do over the air: only difference is that RFI is broad-spectrum meaning that it spreads out over a very wide frequency, and it may have an impact on your garage door receiver side (which locates very close to your bulb).

While I haven't have a chance to take apart an AC120V based LED bulb yet, my investigation so far (online) has led me to believe that most of them don't have a lot of RFI-generating components within....but then again: different manufacturers may resort to using different designs...perhaps SMPS based chopper to lower the output voltage then with current regulation before feeding into the LEDs?

SMPS "choppers" are noisy, you know.

Q.

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. I even can open and close the garage door from anywhere with my iPhone and receive alerts.

I have a Chamberlain Liftmaster, have had cfl bulbs in it since I installed it 5 years ago without any problems.

mine is also a chamberlain (security+) and none of the CFL nor LED would affect my remote control distance or consistency in terms of performance.

(* I'm now using a Ikea LED bulb in my garage door opener*)


Q

I just put an LED bulb in my garage opener a while back. It's GREAT!

I had a CFL in there for a while for energy savings (light stays on while I'm working in my garage) but it warmed up so slow (especially in Wisconsin winters) that it was nearly useless for having any light to briefly open the door and go in and out of the garage.

So, I replaced it with an LED. Great light, bright, and instant on. As was already mentioned in this thread, fantastic vibration resistance compared to incandescent.

No problems at all with the garage door remote either.

To update this post, all was good with the garage door opening after finding out about the problems that some CFL and LED bulbs causing problems. As soon as my girlfriends son plugged in a light fixture into the garage electrical circuit, the issue popped up all over again.
So I assumed that the RFI was transmitted in the air so to speak, and didn't think that it could travel down the electrical circuit and cause the problem. Once we unplug the lights fixture in question, the range from the door opener returns.
What best practices have others used to determine a problem CFL or LED unit that causes RFI and is there a device that can clean the electrical circuit (plug in filter, surge suppressor, etc.?)

Does your opener have an antenna? Many have an exposed bare wire antenna that hangs down. Perhaps if its misrouted or stuck inside the lamp housing it could be extra sensative to rf. Likewise poor placement could hurt range. Try building a wire mesh faraday cage around your bulbs.

There is no cfl or led bulbs screwed into the openers, just a lighting fixture with fluorescent bulbs in the garage circuit. I was hoping to isolate the openers as it seems the interference is coming through the wires.

Can the antenna be extended to out the garage?

Before you jump into it, you must investigate to see if it's the "line-borne" noise or is it the "air-borne" noise that affects your garage door opener.

Also: how old is your garage door? If your garage door is over 15yrs old, chance are, you are using those crummy old lower frequency remote (similar to my FIL's 30+yrs stanley door opener, which, anything can affect it's remote from working properly).

I've done some research using my 10 yrs old Chamberlain 1/2hp chain drive with security+ remote, I tried ordinary light bulbs, Ikea LEDs, GeeEee LEDs, no issue with the range whatsoever.
Good luck on your investigation.

Garage door opener is about 7 years old. I'm convinced its from the cfl bulbs in the light fixture plugged into the garage circuit. We are buying a new lighting fixture with different bulbs.

Any update on this? Was it the CFLs?