Thanks for alerting us to the issue of interfering frequencies. I had a similar problem and I'm also using an LED bulb, but it has been working fine for years, until just 2 days ago. The handheld remote wasn't opening the door. The direct connected switch worked ok. At the same time I found that if I used the remote that is built in to my car's rearview mirror, it would only work while the car was moving, or if the car was parked right underneath the opener. Tonight I found that if I took the handheld remote and brought it way closer to the opener, i.e. right in front of the garage door, it still wouldn't open, but if while pressing the button I waved the remote high and near the garage door's windows, it would work and the door would open, and the same was required to close it. Then I sat down for dinner and I thought something is causing the signal to be weakened at a distance, but what? Just then my wife mentioned to me that the battery in the remote control for the fireplace was dead even though I had replaced it recently, and she couldn't control the fireplace. I looked at the LCD screen on the fireplace remote and indeed the battery level indicator was low and flashing. but not quite dead yet 🙂. And then I noticed the "lower flame" button on the remote was stuck in the pressed down position. Somehow my wife had pushed it in in such a way that the edge of the button got stuck under the edge of the hole in which button sits, leaving the button in the pressed down position. It must have been sending wireless signals ever since the button got stuck, I figure 2 days ago, thereby using up the battery and interfering with the garage door opener. After unsticking the button on the fireplace remote, I tested the garage door remote from its usual location about 40 feet from the garage, without waving it around, and it worked!!
As an electrical engineer, I should have figured this out without going to TH-cam! What I ended up doing was to install a "socket to outlet" converter where the opener bulb would go, then plugged a 4' LED shop light into that. Just being a couple feet from the receiver does the trick as RF field strength falls off with the square of distance. Now I have normal range, and twice the light when the opener is activated.
Oh, I like your idea. Bonus: one of the lightbulbs in my opener is burnt out. I won’t be hunting down an specialized LED or an incandescent bulb. I’m going for MORE light!
Thank you so much for this video! I am upgrading to LED bulbs in my house and had not bought any for the garage, yet. GREAT INFO you saved me two trips to the box store!
TightWadRepairs : I have been upgrading all of my lighting to LED. I did the outside, first. Then I did a big racetrack light in my master bath. The new LED clear bulbs look as good as the old ones! Maybe better! I did 8 can lights in my kitchen. I still have nearly 20 lights to replace. The hallway, ceilings, closet. I am guessing the cost to upgrade all of my light bulbs will end being nearly $200. Worth it in the long run as the LED lights last a lot longer and hoping the cost savings will mean I break even in a year.
I had the same problem. My opener would work after I switched to LED bulbs, but only right in front of the garage door. After switching back to incandescent bulbs, the door remote works way down the road again like before. And now I see they actually sell LED bulbs just made specifically for door openers that don't interfere with the signal. Good!
Many thanks for this, I’ll need to check my bulbs. BTW, I also have a Chamberlin garage door opener and the same external keypad. Quick tip, to close the door, you do not need to punch in your code, just hit the enter button. However, when opening via he keypad, you do need to enter the code.
Mike K Thank you for sharing that tip. I noticed that a few days after install. I like the feature because my neighbors can close the garage if I forget to!
Yes. I changed my regular Led bulb and solved the issue of the garage door opener. The specialized Led garage door opener bulbs are expensive but worth it.
I had issue with my garage door opener not opening unless I was foot, yes, foot from the door. Went on for months. It turns out to be all the led tube light I had installed on the garage's ceiling, had about 10 led tubes total. So, not only does led bulb on the motor interfere with signal, but any led ceiling tube type would also cause the opener to not work. Once I cut the power to the ceiling at the breaker, the garage door opener work fine. Works from 2 houses down the street even. Will have to look into these genie led bulb now. Thanks
Your videos have really helped with general issues I've had with my garage door. However, this time I might be stumped. I replaced my existing LED bulb with a new Genie-branded one, but the door still won't open when the bulb is lit. The only time my garage door opener works via remote is when the bulb is off.
Thanks for the video. Thought this would help me but I replaced the LED lights with incandescent bulbs and the remote opens and closes the the door but only when the light is off. I removed all of the LED lights in the garage and porch but still having the same issue. Please let me know if you (or anyone else) has any other suggestions. Thanks again!
Right, I have replaced all the lights with incandescent bulbs, and also reset the garage door opener, completely and tried to reprogram the remote, but it only works intermittently. Sometimes, it even works when the light is on, but most of the times it doesn’t. Definitely something interfering with it because it will open and close, but just not consistently.
@@TightWadDIY Yea, or I think the receiver board may just be going bad since it has worked just fine (even with the LED lights for many years) so may just need to replace the garage door opener completely.
Thanks for sharing!!! Just today, I went to ACE (less than 5 min. drive) to specifically get light bulbs made for a garage door opener. It worked on my Liftmaster (20 years old at least), but the "regular" bulb that had been working fine, would not respond to the touchpad opener. BUT when I swapped out bulbs, the side that had the newly purchased garage door opener bulb, it wouldn't work. Either bulb could work on either "side" of the opener, but not both at the same time. Any ideas? Thanks.
Thank you very much for your video! I'm having the same problem and now going to change out all my LED bulbs in the garage. But I do have a LED light fixture with motion sensor outside my garage door. The LED's are built in to the fixture(bulbless). Do you think this will have a frequency that will interfere as well?
Joe Cupples I’m glad you found the video! Be sure to share it so others having the same problem can solve theirs as well. You will likely just have to test it and see. It may be far enough away that it doesn’t interfere.
@@TightWadDIY Yes. It has been opening on its own for a week or so. My husband took your advice and changed the bulb to incandescent and in the porch lights as well. Today, the garage door opened on its own and a minute or so later it closed.
Donna Bendt Your issue sounds more like a short on the circuit board. The light bulbs typically only cause issues with using the remote. I haven’t heard of any cases where they cause the door to open on its own.
Maybe I should have prefaced how the whole thing started. The garage door came down on a trash can and then wouldn't close down all the way. Then my husband had to adjust that. Then it would close fine, but kept opening, and now closing, on its own.
I thought the same and removed the led bulbs, but still same issue until the light button was pressed on the wired remote and voila the remote worked and seem that maybe a voltage issue may be the issue because as soon as as I turn on the light without bulbs it stopped working.
But, my garage door opens intermittently when I'm using the garage door opening button mounted on my door frame between the kitchen and the garage. I even dismantled the switch and used the two low voltage wires that go to the switch from the garage door opener. When I touch the two wires together.....sometimes the garage door works and sometimes it doesn't....so its not the switch and its not a frequency as what I'm working with is hardwired. Also, when I touch the two wires together, if it decides not to work...it won't matter how many times I touch the wires together, the garage door opener will not come to life. Any ideas??
you should need to enter your door code if one button close is active all to close is press enter but only need the code to open it we had a keypad for the garage one of our garage doors
I don't remember what they draw, but they call it a "60watt equivalent" and it's "soft white", IIRC. Just enough to see where you are walking. I started using them a while back.
What if after replacing the bulbs its still intermittent, even the inside wall control thats wired directly to the garage door is intermittent. I even removed bulbs completely and did a test same result :( always closes only after it opens, but open's like 1 out of 5 or 10 times.
Got a eco smart 100w led bulb in my garage door opener. I think this is my issue. I took it out to see if that’s my issue. I hope so. Gonna get the if I can find the old style.
My problem is when my neighbour turns their LED lights on in there 4000sqft house. If their lights are all off my opener works. When their lights are on no garage opener operation. Their house is brand new!
Hello Tightwad. This is Cathy. The perfect temperature for Frosty the snowman outside is at least 32 degrees Fahrenheit and the same way with most penguins and polar bears and snow women and so on and so forth and the right amount of both rain and snow outside for each snowmen and snow women and most penguins and polar bears outside is also 1 hour too and the perfect percent chance of just rain outside for each person outside is at least 40 percent and the same way with the percent chance of both rain and snow outside especially for each snowmen and snow women and most penguins and polar bears and so on and so forth.
Use these Amazon Affiliate links to order your own Genie Garage Door Opener Bulbs. Genie Garage Door Opener Bulb (4 pack) - amzn.to/2QGKwlO Genie Garage Door Opener Bulb (single) - amzn.to/2Uu7ihM
Thanks for alerting us to the issue of interfering frequencies. I had a similar problem and I'm also using an LED bulb, but it has been working fine for years, until just 2 days ago. The handheld remote wasn't opening the door. The direct connected switch worked ok. At the same time I found that if I used the remote that is built in to my car's rearview mirror, it would only work while the car was moving, or if the car was parked right underneath the opener. Tonight I found that if I took the handheld remote and brought it way closer to the opener, i.e. right in front of the garage door, it still wouldn't open, but if while pressing the button I waved the remote high and near the garage door's windows, it would work and the door would open, and the same was required to close it. Then I sat down for dinner and I thought something is causing the signal to be weakened at a distance, but what? Just then my wife mentioned to me that the battery in the remote control for the fireplace was dead even though I had replaced it recently, and she couldn't control the fireplace. I looked at the LCD screen on the fireplace remote and indeed the battery level indicator was low and flashing. but not quite dead yet 🙂. And then I noticed the "lower flame" button on the remote was stuck in the pressed down position. Somehow my wife had pushed it in in such a way that the edge of the button got stuck under the edge of the hole in which button sits, leaving the button in the pressed down position. It must have been sending wireless signals ever since the button got stuck, I figure 2 days ago, thereby using up the battery and interfering with the garage door opener. After unsticking the button on the fireplace remote, I tested the garage door remote from its usual location about 40 feet from the garage, without waving it around, and it worked!!
As an electrical engineer, I should have figured this out without going to TH-cam! What I ended up doing was to install a "socket to outlet" converter where the opener bulb would go, then plugged a 4' LED shop light into that. Just being a couple feet from the receiver does the trick as RF field strength falls off with the square of distance. Now I have normal range, and twice the light when the opener is activated.
Rick Rasmussen Interesting. I wouldn’t have thought of that. Thanks for sharing your expertise.
Oh, I like your idea. Bonus: one of the lightbulbs in my opener is burnt out. I won’t be hunting down an specialized LED or an incandescent bulb. I’m going for MORE light!
Thanks for the video, it helped inform me that these bulbs were more likely to work. The GE Garage Door bulbs interfered with my opener.
Glad it helped
Thank you so much! You saved me so much money!! I thought I needed a new opener. Once I changed the bulb to a non-led bulb, it worked just fine.
Thank you so much for this video! I am upgrading to LED bulbs in my house and had not bought any for the garage, yet. GREAT INFO you saved me two trips to the box store!
Claire Claire I’m happy to help. My frustration and problem solving is your fortune!
TightWadRepairs : I have been upgrading all of my lighting to LED. I did the outside, first. Then I did a big racetrack light in my master bath. The new LED clear bulbs look as good as the old ones! Maybe better! I did 8 can lights in my kitchen. I still have nearly 20 lights to replace. The hallway, ceilings, closet. I am guessing the cost to upgrade all of my light bulbs will end being nearly $200. Worth it in the long run as the LED lights last a lot longer and hoping the cost savings will mean I break even in a year.
Thanks for this! Fixed my problem. I never would have guessed it could be the LED bulb.
George McFadden I’m glad you found the video! It’s an annoying issue without an obvious fix.
Same here, I was ready to just buy a new unit! Thanks @TightWadDIY
tapetescapue Just send me half of what you planned to spend on a new unit then. We both win! Or you can just subscribe!
I had the same problem. My opener would work after I switched to LED bulbs, but only right in front of the garage door. After switching back to incandescent bulbs, the door remote works way down the road again like before. And now I see they actually sell LED bulbs just made specifically for door openers that don't interfere with the signal. Good!
Yes! I’m glad you figured it out!
Many thanks for this, I’ll need to check my bulbs. BTW, I also have a Chamberlin garage door opener and the same external keypad. Quick tip, to close the door, you do not need to punch in your code, just hit the enter button. However, when opening via he keypad, you do need to enter the code.
Mike K Thank you for sharing that tip. I noticed that a few days after install. I like the feature because my neighbors can close the garage if I forget to!
Ooooooooooomg! I can’t believe this! I’m going to purchase these bulbs first thing in the morning! Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!
Hope Faith You are welcome. It was driving me crazy until I figured it out.
Thanks! A simple fix for such a frustrating problem🙏🏻
Yes. I changed my regular Led bulb and solved the issue of the garage door opener. The specialized Led garage door opener bulbs are expensive but worth it.
I’m happy to hear it worked for you. The specialized bulbs are expensive but should last longer due to their outdoor eating and vibration resistance.
Wow!! I have been having issue with my door. I will try this solution. Thanks again.
Anthony D'Ambrisi Good Luck! It’s a really common problem.
Anthony D'Ambrisi Check our this video to see the details. th-cam.com/video/5UYDqS21MU0/w-d-xo.html
I just got a liftmaster WLED installed . Amazing bright lighting. The future of Garge door opener will be WLED 😍
Jeff 70 I agree. People will still have the old style for another 15-20 years though.
Hey Tightwad. How tall are you. I am 5 foot 6 inches.
I had issue with my garage door opener not opening unless I was foot, yes, foot from the door. Went on for months. It turns out to be all the led tube light I had installed on the garage's ceiling, had about 10 led tubes total. So, not only does led bulb on the motor interfere with signal, but any led ceiling tube type would also cause the opener to not work. Once I cut the power to the ceiling at the breaker, the garage door opener work fine. Works from 2 houses down the street even.
Will have to look into these genie led bulb now.
Thanks
Brandon Thabks for adding to the conversation.
Thank so much. This worked
My pleasure! I’m glad you got it working.
How do you open the plastic shield? Thx!
Mine pulls out on the sides.
Honest repairman? Good luck trying to find one of those.
Thank you very much I had the exact problem and thanks to you I solve it God bless you
Quality video man worth the subscribe.
Thanks! I’m glad it worked for you too. Thanks foe the sub.
Great video!
What a mystery, but glad I found your TH-cam!
Paul Haight It took me a while to figure it out too! I’m glad yours is working again.
I removed my light bulb but had the light in the on status and it would not work unless the light was on the off status. Any tips?
Interesting. Others have said the same thing. I’m not really sure why that causes an issue.
Your videos have really helped with general issues I've had with my garage door. However, this time I might be stumped. I replaced my existing LED bulb with a new Genie-branded one, but the door still won't open when the bulb is lit. The only time my garage door opener works via remote is when the bulb is off.
That is odd. Maybe your opener doesn’t like the Genie bulbs either. Try removing the bulb and see what happens.
Thanks for the video. Thought this would help me but I replaced the LED lights with incandescent bulbs and the remote opens and closes the the door but only when the light is off. I removed all of the LED lights in the garage and porch but still having the same issue. Please let me know if you (or anyone else) has any other suggestions. Thanks again!
There has to be something causing interference still.
Right, I have replaced all the lights with incandescent bulbs, and also reset the garage door opener, completely and tried to reprogram the remote, but it only works intermittently. Sometimes, it even works when the light is on, but most of the times it doesn’t. Definitely something interfering with it because it will open and close, but just not consistently.
@@davidvinh3886Remove the bulb from the opener completely and try it.
@@TightWadDIY Yea, or I think the receiver board may just be going bad since it has worked just fine (even with the LED lights for many years) so may just need to replace the garage door opener completely.
Thank you!!!
Thanks for sharing!!! Just today, I went to ACE (less than 5 min. drive) to specifically get light bulbs made for a garage door opener. It worked on my Liftmaster (20 years old at least), but the "regular" bulb that had been working fine, would not respond to the touchpad opener. BUT when I swapped out bulbs, the side that had the newly purchased garage door opener bulb, it wouldn't work. Either bulb could work on either "side" of the opener, but not both at the same time. Any ideas? Thanks.
That’s really odd! I’m honestly not sure what would prevent that.
Amazon now had a bunch of LED bulbs for sale that are designed for garage door openers. They say they minimize RF interference.
Yes. At the time to recording there was only one I could find. I haven’t tried the ones from Amazon brands because my Genie brand are still working!
Hey, just letting you know, you don’t have to enter your entire keypad code to close the garage door. Just press enter to close.
Thank you very much for your video! I'm having the same problem and now going to change out all my LED bulbs in the garage. But I do have a LED light fixture with motion sensor outside my garage door. The LED's are built in to the fixture(bulbless). Do you think this will have a frequency that will interfere as well?
Joe Cupples I’m glad you found the video! Be sure to share it so others having the same problem can solve theirs as well. You will likely just have to test it and see. It may be far enough away that it doesn’t interfere.
Remote garage door opener has become too sensitive, just with sleight nudge it opens the door how can I fix it?
They aren’t too expensive so you may need a new one.
Hey Tightwad LED light bulbs are not hot or cold at all.
Nope
Also incandescent light bulbs actually are hot or cold instead.
If the lights are not on do they also interfere?
They shouldn’t. That’s why it works when you come home but not when you are leaving.
Changed light bulbs in opener and porch lights yesterday, and today it not only opened on its own but closed as well. Help, please!
Donna Bendt So it opened without you pushing the button?
@@TightWadDIY Yes. It has been opening on its own for a week or so. My husband took your advice and changed the bulb to incandescent and in the porch lights as well. Today, the garage door opened on its own and a minute or so later it closed.
Garage door just opened again on its own.
Donna Bendt Your issue sounds more like a short on the circuit board. The light bulbs typically only cause issues with using the remote. I haven’t heard of any cases where they cause the door to open on its own.
Maybe I should have prefaced how the whole thing started. The garage door came down on a trash can and then wouldn't close down all the way. Then my husband had to adjust that. Then it would close fine, but kept opening, and now closing, on its own.
My garage door will open with my remote but won't close with remote?
Find a bulb rated for garage door openers. Some LEDs emit a frequency that interferes. When the light is on, your remote won’t work.
I thought the same and removed the led bulbs, but still same issue until the light button was pressed on the wired remote and voila the remote worked and seem that maybe a voltage issue may be the issue because as soon as as I turn on the light without bulbs it stopped working.
Adrian Vargas Interesting. My solution was definitely the bulbs.
I don't think you need to enter your code in the pad to close the door. Simply pressing enter should work
You are correct! It is not needed on most pads, this one included. A few models do require it though.
But, my garage door opens intermittently when I'm using the garage door opening button mounted on my door frame between the kitchen and the garage. I even dismantled the switch and used the two low voltage wires that go to the switch from the garage door opener. When I touch the two wires together.....sometimes the garage door works and sometimes it doesn't....so its not the switch and its not a frequency as what I'm working with is hardwired. Also, when I touch the two wires together, if it decides not to work...it won't matter how many times I touch the wires together, the garage door opener will not come to life. Any ideas??
David Cherrick That sounds more like a controller board issue. Maybe there is a bad switch on the board.
you should need to enter your door code if one button close is active all to close is press enter but only need the code to open it we had a keypad for the garage one of our garage doors
What wattage is this bulb?
I don't remember what they draw, but they call it a "60watt equivalent" and it's "soft white", IIRC. Just enough to see where you are walking. I started using them a while back.
@@l337pwnage :
Great👍
What if after replacing the bulbs its still intermittent, even the inside wall control thats wired directly to the garage door is intermittent. I even removed bulbs completely and did a test same result :( always closes only after it opens, but open's like 1 out of 5 or 10 times.
Femi Bello I’m not sure what else it could be.
You ever figure your issue out? I have a very similar situation to you.
@@justinkorb324 got tired of messing with it and replaced the entire unit. Sorry.
Does anyone know which remote has a light option as well? I would like to control the light besides just the garage door please help.
Desi A I’m not sure that is possible. The button in the garage is hard wired so that’s why it can control the light.
@@TightWadDIY thanks for the quick response.
You are good
Julius Jones I’m always happy to help! Be sure to subscribe!
can you just take out the bulb not using it at all?
daniel feng That would work too!
Got a eco smart 100w led bulb in my garage door opener. I think this is my issue. I took it out to see if that’s my issue. I hope so. Gonna get the if I can find the old style.
Just take it out and test without a bulb.
I changed the bulb to a regular one still doesn't work..
Make sure your remote batteries are new.
@@TightWadDIY yes they are. I called a guy he is coming tomorrow but thank you!!
My problem is when my neighbour turns their LED lights on in there 4000sqft house. If their lights are all off my opener works. When their lights are on no garage opener operation. Their house is brand new!
Hello Tightwad. This is Cathy. The perfect temperature for Frosty the snowman outside is at least 32 degrees Fahrenheit and the same way with most penguins and polar bears and snow women and so on and so forth and the right amount of both rain and snow outside for each snowmen and snow women and most penguins and polar bears outside is also 1 hour too and the perfect percent chance of just rain outside for each person outside is at least 40 percent and the same way with the percent chance of both rain and snow outside especially for each snowmen and snow women and most penguins and polar bears and so on and so forth.
Use these Amazon Affiliate links to order your own Genie Garage Door Opener Bulbs.
Genie Garage Door Opener Bulb (4 pack) - amzn.to/2QGKwlO
Genie Garage Door Opener Bulb (single) - amzn.to/2Uu7ihM