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Old 09-14-13, 01:11 PM   #1
Geo NR Gee
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Default 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.

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Old 09-15-13, 12:44 PM   #2
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What happens if you remove the bulb all together?
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Old 09-15-13, 05:27 PM   #3
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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?

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Old 09-15-13, 08:07 PM   #4
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There is RFI generated in LED and CFL bulbs - though sometimes different brands will be fine.
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Old 09-15-13, 09:53 PM   #5
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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.
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Old 09-16-13, 07:06 AM   #6
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LED bulbs are far better in vibration prone environments than even CFL's - and both are much better than incandescent bulbs.
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Old 09-16-13, 06:05 PM   #7
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryland View Post
What happens if you remove the bulb all together?
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.
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Old 09-16-13, 06:11 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by stevehull View Post
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
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.
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Old 09-16-13, 08:17 PM   #9
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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
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Old 09-17-13, 08:07 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Geo NR Gee View Post
I took them both out and put in the incandescent ones.
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.

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