Universal Garage Door Issue
Thread Starter
Joined: Dec 2019
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Universal Garage Door Issue
Felt like I should share this discovery in case someone else has the same issue.
My universal garage door opener in my visor of 2016 f150 would only open my garage door on the return back to the garage. Never the departure. It was racking my brain for sometime trying to determine why would the opener only work after the truck was being drove around. It's not like the electricity to the remote was any different than at start of the day vs later.
But then it dawned on me. Maybe it was not the truck but the opener. The opener would have it's lights on during the initial use of the built in UGDO visor. But not when I was to return to the garage after a trip. The light would be off because nothing had activated it yet. What appears to be the culprit is I have an LED bulb in my opener. That bulb is interrupting the signal when on and not when it's off. Turned off the light completely and door and remote work great. Put normal bulbs in opener and opener and remote work great. Put LED bulb back in and opener and remote won't work.
Weirdest thing but glad I figured it out because that was a perplexing issue. Hope this helps someone.
My universal garage door opener in my visor of 2016 f150 would only open my garage door on the return back to the garage. Never the departure. It was racking my brain for sometime trying to determine why would the opener only work after the truck was being drove around. It's not like the electricity to the remote was any different than at start of the day vs later.
But then it dawned on me. Maybe it was not the truck but the opener. The opener would have it's lights on during the initial use of the built in UGDO visor. But not when I was to return to the garage after a trip. The light would be off because nothing had activated it yet. What appears to be the culprit is I have an LED bulb in my opener. That bulb is interrupting the signal when on and not when it's off. Turned off the light completely and door and remote work great. Put normal bulbs in opener and opener and remote work great. Put LED bulb back in and opener and remote won't work.
Weirdest thing but glad I figured it out because that was a perplexing issue. Hope this helps someone.
Fleet Owner
Joined: Apr 2008
Posts: 24,324
Likes: 5,136
From: 0,0,1
Often regular bulbs don't last in an opener because the vibration can break the filament. If that's happening, go get a rough service bulb as they have a heavier filament that will handle the vibration.
Fleet Mechanic
Joined: Nov 2016
Posts: 1,634
Likes: 72
OP, you might try a different brand of LED bulbs.
I’ve been using LED bulbs in my garage door openers since LED bulbs came out...I’ve never had an issue with interference.
I have heard of the issue, so I know it exists, but not all bulbs cause that problem.
I’ve been using LED bulbs in my garage door openers since LED bulbs came out...I’ve never had an issue with interference.
I have heard of the issue, so I know it exists, but not all bulbs cause that problem.
FTE Community Team
Joined: Jan 2019
Posts: 10,781
Likes: 1,512
I second Kingofwylietx . I have two LEDs on my garage door opener and know of several friends who have LEDs on theirs as well. I wonder if something is wrong with RyanTheSimp's LED bulbs or if they are a super low cost unit that doesn't meet FCC regs.
Logistics Pro
Joined: Nov 2004
Posts: 4,795
Likes: 47
Same thing happened to me maybe three years ago - put led bulbs in my garage fixtures and started having problems with the garage door opener. Switched the bulbs back to the old style and problem went away
put different newer style led bulbs in later though in the garage fixtures and haven’t had any issues with those
put different newer style led bulbs in later though in the garage fixtures and haven’t had any issues with those
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Elder User
Joined: Sep 2011
Posts: 522
Likes: 21
From: Minnesota
I also had that happen quite a few years ago with LED bulbs. I put the incandescent bulbs back in and it worked fine. I haven’t tried LED’s recently though to see if new bulbs are different.
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Mountain Pass
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 179
Likes: 2
From: Hazleton, PA
Felt like I should share this discovery in case someone else has the same issue.
My universal garage door opener in my visor of 2016 f150 would only open my garage door on the return back to the garage. Never the departure. It was racking my brain for sometime trying to determine why would the opener only work after the truck was being drove around. It's not like the electricity to the remote was any different than at start of the day vs later.
But then it dawned on me. Maybe it was not the truck but the opener. The opener would have it's lights on during the initial use of the built in UGDO visor. But not when I was to return to the garage after a trip. The light would be off because nothing had activated it yet. What appears to be the culprit is I have an LED bulb in my opener. That bulb is interrupting the signal when on and not when it's off. Turned off the light completely and door and remote work great. Put normal bulbs in opener and opener and remote work great. Put LED bulb back in and opener and remote won't work.
Weirdest thing but glad I figured it out because that was a perplexing issue. Hope this helps someone.
My universal garage door opener in my visor of 2016 f150 would only open my garage door on the return back to the garage. Never the departure. It was racking my brain for sometime trying to determine why would the opener only work after the truck was being drove around. It's not like the electricity to the remote was any different than at start of the day vs later.
But then it dawned on me. Maybe it was not the truck but the opener. The opener would have it's lights on during the initial use of the built in UGDO visor. But not when I was to return to the garage after a trip. The light would be off because nothing had activated it yet. What appears to be the culprit is I have an LED bulb in my opener. That bulb is interrupting the signal when on and not when it's off. Turned off the light completely and door and remote work great. Put normal bulbs in opener and opener and remote work great. Put LED bulb back in and opener and remote won't work.
Weirdest thing but glad I figured it out because that was a perplexing issue. Hope this helps someone.
Lead Driver
Joined: May 2015
Posts: 5,890
Likes: 360
From: Mts. S. of San Francisco
Almost all LED bulbs these days have a voltage regulator to (1) control the voltage to the LEDs and/or (2) control the current to the LEDs. The circuits to do this are somewhat varied, and often involve a high frequency switching power supply. Depending on the frequency, they can interfere with the radio frequency of the remote control. It would be somewhat involved to figure out what frequency each LED uses, but I would generally guess that cheaper ones are the noisier ones.
Tuned
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 496
Likes: 6
From: Arizona
This probably isn't a solution to your issue, but this story is too weird not to tell. Every light in our house is LED, even nightlights. A couple months after the original circuit board was replaced (at around five months), our late-model Liftmaster jackshaft opener stopped receiving the RF signal from any distance further out than right up against the garage door. Liftmaster customer service (oxymoron here) agent reading from the standard reply script, insisted it was probably caused by the LED bulbs in the overhead light unit. Changing to incandescent bulbs made no difference. Called back and Liftmaster's second tip was for me to hire an electrician to check every circuit in the house for phantom draws which they said could generate RF interference. I politely declined and called the company that installed it. It was another defective circuit board. The second in one year.
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