This is just a heads up about a problem I encountered.

I have a Chamberlain Whisper Quiet + garage door opener that I installed a few years ago, and it has worked well. It has a place for two 117VAC 60 watt light bulbs, and incandescent bulbs don't seem to last very long. In addition, it has an IR sensor that turns the lights on whenever something warm comes in the garage. My cat loves the garage and goes in and out lots of times each day, which results in the lights in the opener staying on a lot. In fact, I noticed some plastic melting that had taken place near the base of one of the bulbs. I tried CFLs, which were okay, but dim.

So, I decided to splurge on a couple of 9.9W LED bulbs; they fit well, ran cool, and were quite bright. The first problem was that they flashed on/off briefly when they were supposed to be off. Then I started having trouble triggering the door with the remotes in the cars. I first thought the batteries in the remotes needed changing, but that didn't help. Finally, I discovered that whenever the LED bulbs were on, the range of the remotes was greatly reduced; apparently, there is some RF generated by the circuitry in the LED bulbs that desensitizes the receiver in the door opener.

Back to 60 watt incandescent bulbs, and the remotes work all the way to the street. Of course, I am also back to short bulb life and excessive heat. Oh, well.

 

Just an idea ... Take a strip of aluminum foil and wrap it around the base of the bulb socket. Both of the sockets, that is. Try to get the electronic section of the LED bulbs wrapped completely with the foil. This assumes that you will have no conflict with shorting anything out or something like that.

 

I also have a Chamberlin Garage door opener that went through light bulbs really fast. I put in 60 Watt Sylvania led bulbs. It's working with no problems.

 

I also have a Chamberlin Garage door opener that went through light bulbs really fast. I put in 60 Watt Sylvania led bulbs. It's working with no problems.

Interesting...the ones I tried were GE LED A19 daylight bulbs.

 

I have the same problem with an old Genie screw drive and LED bulbs for driveway lights. The RFI problem sucks.

http://www.ledbenchmark.com/faq/LED-interference-issues.html

 

My cat loves the garage and goes in and out lots of times each day, which results in the lights in the opener staying on a lot.

We leave our garage door open enough for our outdoor cats when we want them to be able to go in and out. A cat door in the regular door isn't an option in our case; too many other cats and wild life...

Garage ceiling lights are LED, as are the bulbs in the motion detector fixture for the driveway. No problems with interference on the openers, but openers have incandescent bulbs as recommended by manufacturer.

 

Find a set of bulbs that have minimal RFI. Use a transistor radio set to AM to check each bulb. Some LEDs are built well, some are not. You want the bulbs that are built with that extra $0.25 of parts that tame the RFI.

 

I have some 130 volt, "Industrial" incandescent light bulbs. It's the obvious lower lumens for longer life situation. Harbor Freight IIRC.

 

Agree 100%.
They are called rough service bulbs also. Claim to last longer in rough service like drop lights.

 

I have one 60W generic LED from Walmart in my old Genie screw drive opener and have noticed no problems.
But the receiver is a separate box located on the ceiling a foot or more from the motor unit and bulb, which would reduce interference.
Does the Chamberlain have the receiver inside the unit?

I wonder if there's a significant difference in interference generated by the LED types that are dimmable and those that aren't(?).

 

Its very common..
In the "aquarium" forum on on we get people who buy LED lights for their fish tank and when they turn them on the garage door goes up

There is a big difference in LED bulbs.. Some are noisy as can be.. some not so bad..,etc..

TONS of articles on this exact thing..
http://www.phoenixazgaragedoorrepai...ith-your-garage-door-opener/garage-door-blog/

 

This is just a heads up about a problem I encountered.

I have a Chamberlain Whisper Quiet + garage door opener that I installed a few years ago, and it has worked well. It has a place for two 117VAC 60 watt light bulbs, and incandescent bulbs don't seem to last very long. In addition, it has an IR sensor that turns the lights on whenever something warm comes in the garage. My cat loves the garage and goes in and out lots of times each day, which results in the lights in the opener staying on a lot. In fact, I noticed some plastic melting that had taken place near the base of one of the bulbs. I tried CFLs, which were okay, but dim.

So, I decided to splurge on a couple of 9.9W LED bulbs; they fit well, ran cool, and were quite bright. The first problem was that they flashed on/off briefly when they were supposed to be off. Then I started having trouble triggering the door with the remotes in the cars. I first thought the batteries in the remotes needed changing, but that didn't help. Finally, I discovered that whenever the LED bulbs were on, the range of the remotes was greatly reduced; apparently, there is some RF generated by the circuitry in the LED bulbs that desensitizes the receiver in the door opener.

Back to 60 watt incandescent bulbs, and the remotes work all the way to the street. Of course, I am also back to short bulb life and excessive heat. Oh, well.

Most of the LED bulbs I've ripped apart so far, used a wattles dropper - that would tend to absorb mains borne noise rather than create it.

Locally (220V mains) a very few LED bulbs are SMPSU type, maybe they're more common for 117V areas.

Its unlikely that shop staff would have the faintest idea - you may be able to tell with a continuity tester. The SMPSU type probably has at least 4.7uF reservoir capacitor - this should give a visible blink on the continuity tester LED, but you only get one blink and you can't discharge it back into the tester because of the bridge rectifier. With the other type; the capacitor is on the way to the bridge rectifier. If you can see the blink at all - you should get a discharge blink when you release the button.

 

... it has an IR sensor that turns the lights on whenever something warm comes in the garage. My cat loves the garage ...

My dad worked at a large greenhouse complex that had a light beam that crossed over the parking lot from one building to another. One end of the beam went through a hole in the wall of the boiler room used for heat during the winter. The owners cat would go into the boiler building through the hole in cold weather. The telltale was the fur caught in the opening. Large dogs going through the parking lot would also trip the alarm. My dad would have to drive a few miles just to reset the alarm when the owner was not available.

 

It's possible that placing a bunch of ferrite beads on various wires in the opener housing will stop the problem. Most likely the interference is coming from radiation from the wiring rather than directly from the bulb. The ferrite beads are available on ebay for a few cents each. Put them especially on the wires from the lamp sockets to the supply. Just a guess, but doesn't cost a lot to try.

 

I had a Craftsman opener that blazed through every lightbulb I put in there. Those rated for rough service, those rated at 130 VAC, CFL's and LED's. In the winter time the CFL's took forever to produce their light. LED's were immediate but the door kept opening or closing on its own, no matter WHAT code I set it to. Eventually the Craftsman wore out its main chain bearing, so I swapped to Genie. I've never tried the rough service bulbs in them; rather, I use LED's.

Recently I ran into a problem with my Genie - I switched off the power to rewire the sensors and switch. When I restored power my head uint was OUT. Genie sent me a new board and wall switch (series ii). Using LED bulbs I've experienced no problems. Door opens and closes with remotes and with wall switches. I have to be not more than 75 feet from the door for the door to actuate, but so what. I don't need to open the door while I'm half way down the street.

So far, from what I've read I like what ronsoy2 said about ferrite beads. That might be all you need to do. But I can't say for sure. I find it interesting that LED's can potentially interfere with GDO operations. I have two Genie's, on on my big door with the motion sensor and a smaller unit on the single door. (yes, I have a three car garage)

 

I replaced all my house lights with LED bulbs and did find one that will totally mess up the over air TV reception at lower frequencies

 

Hello,

What kind of lamps are you using.
Olino has tested a lot of lamps:
http://www.olino.org/advice/us/overview/results?target=consumer
In the reports also the harmonic distortion is mentioned.

Bertus

 

I had the same thing happen to my garage door opener with LED lights installed, remote would work perfectly the first time (lights were off) but after the LEDs turned on signal was jammed.

Also, I am a Ham Radio operator and I have a SDR (software defined radio) that picks up and displays the RF spectrum, I spent WEEKS trying to isolate a strong interference signal that was pretty much uniformly raising the noise floor across a huge chunk of frequency.

Ended up being some 'FEIT' brand LED bulbs in a room nearby, some brands do a better job than others, but I think the RF interference source lies mainly in the AC-to-DC (switched mode) power supplies (which each individual bulb has) that not only emits from the bulb, but travels through your homes electrical wiring in the walls, amplifying the signal.

A solution worth considering, but has not been tested by me, is to add some "Ferrite beads" to the wires leading up to the bulb. (I just glanced up and noticed it was mentioned before, but that would be my recommendation as well)

You could also pick up a little RTL-SDR dongle for relatively cheap, this would give you a pretty powerful tool at analyzing the RF spectrum to isolate the interference source and frequency of it.

 

It's possible that placing a bunch of ferrite beads on various wires in the opener housing will stop the problem. Most likely the interference is coming from radiation from the wiring rather than directly from the bulb. The ferrite beads are available on ebay for a few cents each. Put them especially on the wires from the lamp sockets to the supply. Just a guess, but doesn't cost a lot to try.

Sometimes you can salvage ferrite rings from the mains wiring inside old ATX PSUs - they're more versatile, and you can put more than 1 turn on them.

Various old equipment has clamp on ferrite collars that can be fitted without lifting any connections.

 

The Genie Company has actually recently addressed this issue. They developed LED light bulbs that were designed to reduce or eliminate interference that common LED or CFL bulbs can cause with the garage door openers remote. The bulbs are also vibration and shatter resistant and can withstand the additional vibration that a garage door opener would incur when the door is in movement. These bulbs may correct the issues you are seeing with typical LED bulbs in garage door openers.

-Danielle