Extend Your Garage Door Opener Range - Easy Fix
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.ย. 2024
- I extended my garage door opener by adding a new line to extend the antenna and bringing it out of the garage door. When I moved into this house, I noticed the problem with the garage door opener immediately. I have to get really close to the garage door before I can open it using the remote, sometimes I have to get out of the car and stand next to the door for it to work. I replaced the battery multiple times but a new battery will only work good for a few months but it will still only open when the car is parked in my driveway.
I found some TH-cam videos showing how they increase their garage door opener range by simply adding a wire to extend the antenna. I have 2 garage door, I simply add a few feet in one door and the other I extended the wire all the way outside because I do not have enough wire to extend both outside of the garage door. They both work however, the one that is just extended a few feet seem to work intermittently.
I removed the extension that I added and showed in this video how weak the signal is without any extension and then I installed the new wire and extended it all the way out to show the difference.
I hope that this video helped you in fixing your garage opener range issue. Please help my channel by clicking on the like button and subscribing to my channel.
Amazon Affiliate for the Wire I used:
amzn.to/3qEnKjp
Thank you for watching.
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I recently had a similar range issue with my opener. I changed the remote opener batteries, bought new remotes, changed out the incandescent bulbs, and even changed out the circuit/control board. Non of fixed my problem. Finally, I extended the antenna wire with 14 gauge wire and attached the end to the door track which solved my problem. Thank you!
Thanks for sharing
Your video helped me with my garage. I can stand on my sidewalk and the remote still works. I didn't even have to extend the antenna far. I just added another 6 inches of bell wire and it worked. Thank you for your help
Thank you for sharing your experience and modification. I am happy to help.
Thanks for this video! I bought a spool of this wire, connected it to my garage antenna and it worked! I can open the garage door from two houses down the street now! Thanks again!
I'm happy to hear that. Thanks for sharing your experience and thanks for watching.
I had the exact same issue even with regular filament bulb, new battery, erased/re-programmed remote/opener codes. Thanks for your superb yet simple trick. I had some old garage door wire lying around that I crimped to the existing (short) antenna wire. I extended it to the opening of the garage door and now my remote works on the driveway, inside the car, as it should. Thanks again for sharing this, much appreciated.
I'm happy to help and thanks for sharing your experience.
I was having the exact same issue with the door on my pole barn. Brand new remote and battery and still poor to almost zero use of the remote. I replaced the 2 opener bulbs with Genie garage door bulbs and still had poor open/close signal. I tried your antenna extension technique yesterday and holy crap, it really works! To anyone having the same issue do exactly as this gentlemen and I did, just use the same gauge wire, a wire crimper and zip ties to keep the wire away from all moving parts of the door opener. Night and day difference! Thanks for the great video and help! A footnote: Do not use LED bulbs in your garage door opener! They do cause frequency distortion of the opener, thus, reducing the ability of the opener to recieve a strong signal.
Thank you for sharing your experience and I am glad that it worked for you as well.
Why would it matter if LED bulbs are used? The bulbs are not on until the opener receives a signal and thus no interference when they are off.
@@RoadiJeff Possibly the LED circuitry is always powered on, even when the LED is not powered on. The real test is to unscrew the LED's and see how things change.
So many times the range is reduced when you use an LED bulb or have wireless cameras like Wyze or Blink around - or other 2.4ghz frequency devices near by. The 2.4ghz frequency interferes with it. Adding this antenna helps because those wifi signals are weak outside of the home.
Thanks for the input.
As a quick test, I used a wire nut to connect my opener short wire to a loose wire about 10 ft long and just moved the end towards the door. It appeared to work well by extending the range to the end of the drive. I then moved the loos wire and had it run along the ceiling towards the door again and this seemed to improve my range of the remote from before.
Thank you so much for sharing this. I'm sure many people will find it useful to test their setup first before securing all the cables to improve the range of their remotes.
You do not need to lay new wires. Just solder or tie existing antenna wire to any none moving lengthy metal component nearby such as sliding rail of the garage door. That will act like huge receiver antenna. Very neat and cheap way to do it.
Thank you for sharing your idea. The rail is long and goes straight to the front wall of the garage plus it's bigger than the wire so it will probably work better.
I'm going to try this on my 16 foot door. It's been intermittent for years but my 8 foot door on the works just fine every time. Thanks.
Great. Let us know how it works out for you.
Great fix and I’d never been able to discover it without this video! I did exactly what you said and it works like it did when new! Thank you!!!
You're welcome!
Totally helped- TY buddy! Used speaker wire to run to the front of garage
@@user-oz4th8iz1g I'm happy to help. Thanks for watching.
Just tried this with 18 guage (doorbell) wire and it worked great! Didnt run it to the outside of the door as you did, and the results were still 👍👍
Thanks for making this vid 👊
Thank you for sharing.
Very helpful. However I don't think you need to bring the wire outside the garage. I seriously doubt that the garage doors actually block the wireless signals. I'm basing this on my own and other experiences shown in other videos which show that simply extending the antenna wire 8-10 feet toward the door (without having it protrude to the outside fixes the sensitivity problem. However, while your video uses plain solid wire, others suggest coaxial wire (TV cable wire), some even suggesting grounding the coaxial shield, I used coaxial wire and did not ground the shield, and that did the job. Some people suggest that the coax may help with reducing noise coming from LED lamps. Now I can open my door from quite far away with every button press. Thanks !
Thank you for sharing. It may have something to do with the wire. I tried extending it first and it seem to work but I got better signal when I run it outside with the wire I am using. I may not have to do that if I started with a coax.
How did you wire to the coax? One lead to the center, and one to the shield braid?
Great vid. I actually upgraded my garage opener, but no longer using the remotes.
Did you upgrade to a smart garage door opener?
@@diymanual absolutely. The remotes I keep in the house.
I have MyQ in one of my doors that I use for Amazon delivery. I also installed a Wyze cam in the garage so I can see the delivery person's activity when they deliver the product. So, far the assigned delivery person are good and honest. They would simply put the product to where I specified on the app as the door opens and they close it right away. Most of the time I just see their hand because they start closing before the garage opens high enough for the camera to see them. The only time they go in is when the package are bigger.
Thanks so much. Confirmed my suspicion and fixed the problem
Glad I could help
Does the length you add matter? Like changing the antenna from a 1/4 wave to 1/2 or larger. Does it matter?
I guess that will depend on your situation. They say that the problem is usually because of LED bulbs interfering with the signal so if you can eliminate that it may actually solve your problem without extending your antenna. I'm using LED light tubes in my garage and also have other electronics in the garage (refrigerator, WiFi security Camera, Smart Plugs) that may cause interference. Other says that simply adding a foot of cable increases their range. But for me I can't get the remote to work until I actually extend the antenna to the outside of the garage door.
Well made and helpful. Thank you!
Glad it was helpful and thanks for watching.
Simple and effective fix. Works like a charm! Thanks.
I'm glad to help.
Very smart idea. Well done video. I will try it. Thank you very much.
You are welcome. Thanks for the nice comment.
Thanks. Saved me alot of hassle
Great to hear!
Thank you so much for the info I'm having the same problem
Glad I could help
Thanks. This worked for me.
You are welcome and thanks for sharing your experience.
Here is the REAL TEST for LED light interference. Simply unscrew the LED Bulbs (all of the circuitry is in the bulbs, at least the most common LED bulbs) and then test your remote, plug them in once more and see if you can get repeatable results using the remote control from the SAME distance outside the garage. A long coax cable solved my problem (w LEDs left in place) and since I just thought of this I haven't tried this test. If you, please let us know!
Hi! I think the LED interference theory is true. I was having similar issue in my previous home a few years back and I have LED's in the garage motor as well as the exterior light in the front. After removing the LED's it fixed my issue.
So removing LED's is the first thing I did after we moved into this house because I just can't get the garage remote to work without standing next to the garage door but I have no success. I even unplugged the Fridge in the garage but it did not improve the range that is why I tried the extending the antenna method that I also found in TH-cam and it worked. Of course, this garage have no decorative window and is surrounded by cynder blocks about 7 ft. high.
After extending the wire outside. I put back the LED's in the garage motor as well as the external light in the front. The range distance may have change but I did not notice because I only activate the remote when I am already stopped in my driveway. My wife does activate the remote as she turn to the driveway and never complain either. However about 2 months ago, I converted eight 4ft. fluorescent ceiling lights in my garage into LED's (you can see that in my other videos) and after that I noticed that I have to press the remote 2 or 3 times to open the garage. I decided to keep my LED's because I can still open the garage door and I don't really activate the opener until I am at the driveway so a few clicks does not bother me.
Success! Thanks much for the helpful instructions 👷🏻♂️👍🏼
Glad it helped!
My door opens with the remote outside the garage, but it won’t close when I’m outside the garage when the door is open. It only closes if my remote is directly under the opener.
That is a weird issue. Have you tried resetting and reprogramming the remote?
Also, try removing the bulb in the garage door and test it. Some LED and spiral bulbs are known to cause interference with the remote signal. It could be causing the issue because when you open the garage door the light turns on as well.
Let me know if these were able to solve the issue. Thanks.
I used bell wire and it didn't work for me. Does the wire material matter? Thank you for sharing!
Not sure. Other mentioned that LED lights or other electronic device in your garage might be the culprit. Also is your remote battery good?
@@diymanual what kind of wire did you use??
@@user-tj7vr7pg9u amzn.to/3qEnKjp
I just used doorbell wire (18 guage) a few minutes ago, and it works great! Perhaps your original wiring isn't tied in with the new wire well?
I tried this fix but it didn't work. Come to find out it was the cheap LED bulbs that I installed on the motor. Being plugged in but off (not lighted) still interfered with the signal when pressing the remote button. Once I unscrewed the bulbs, I could reach from a couple houses away.
Thanks for sharing.
Sadly this did not work for my opener tonight, but I'd say worth a shot for those who want to try it.
Thanks for the comment. Let us know what other method you try and kindly share if you found a method that works in your setup.
So what’s the deal?!
Does the wire need to be solid or will speaker wire work?
I have only used solid wire. But you can try and let us know if it works for you. The goal is to extend the signal so that whatever is interfering with the signal will be isolated.
Can’t this effect the frequency?
I did not have to re-program the remote if that is what you are concerned about. My remote continues to work but at a longer range.
I’ve read to only increase the length by 2x or 4x. Do you agree with this? I tried this trick. I think I crimped things right and no success. Even worse signal
It did improve it for me by a lot. I assume you have tried replacing the remote battery before trying this?
Also you may want to check if you have any LED lights in and outside of the garage as there are known to cause signal interference.
Do you need to strip the wire that comes out the door?
I am not sure if it is necessary but I did strip the end of the wire that comes out of the garage.
Check your battery people!
Agree. That is the first thing I did and I mentioned it in the video as well as the description. Others also mentioned that appliances or LED fixtures in the garage can also cause signal interference. So whatever is causing the interference on my setup was eliminated by extending the wire to the outside of the garage door.
You think people having this problem didn't already try that?
It didn't work for me. Next, I'm going to try removing all the LEDs I've put in my garage. I bought a special garage door LED for my opener and that didn't help either.
Does it work after removing the LED? Did you try replacing the battery? If it still does not work for you, the next you can do is get a MyQ smart garage door opener so you can open it with your smart phone.
th-cam.com/video/9uii880DbhY/w-d-xo.html
I used the MyQ for Amazon garage delivery and to open the Garage for my In-Laws remotely when I am away but I still like the remote better as it is faster to access.
@DIY Manual Thanks for the info. No luck with the LEDs or new battery. I got the wifi opener connected it to my SmartThings so I can open with my phone. May try a real coax extender antenna that was built for garage doors. Thanks!
You could have just attached the antenna wire coming out of the garage motor to the frame/track which would do even better.
Thanks for the suggestion.
Gonna try it out tomorrow.
Did it work for you?
Buddy, this problem is NOT related to antenna. It is the frequency of LED lighting that interferes with the garage door opener. Change the LED lamp to a regular lamp and your opener will open your garage from even 100 feet or even longer distance. Hope this helps those who have the same issue and watch your video.
Thanks for the comment. You are correct, LED and even other appliance in the garage can interfere with the signal. And to those that read this comment from @fatisalimian2682 you should try that first before doing more work. I have the same issue with my previous home and I was able to fix it by replacing the LED with regular bulb but for some reason it won't work on this garage. I actually removed the bulb and replaced battery on the remote to no success. So interference can be caused by something else or it is just that my garage door is thick and have no window compared to my other home. I saw some video suggesting this so I gave it a try on one of the door using the thin wire I have laying around the house and it worked. So, I did this video using a #14 solid wire and to my surprise it worked better than the thin wire I used in the other garage door. So, whatever is causing it to not work when the antenna is just inside the garage was fixed when I extended the antenna outside.
Buddy, how do you know that he has LED's? Telepathy? I'll bet that you can repair all electronics without even looking at it.
@@joesimone223 I had the same problem. My garage is fitted out with about 8 4-bulb fluorescent fixtures. I switched them to LEDs, and now you have to practically drive right up to the garage door before the door opener will respond if the lights are on. LED bulbs definitely interfere with garage door openers.
@@diymanual thanks for your video I agree we don’t have a bulb at all on our garage door motor and it’s still having problems with distance control so we’re going to extend the antenna and see if that works
We have extensive led track lighting installed and since then have tried everything to mitigate the reduced signal distance. I installed 30+ ferrite loops and cores all over all of the wires, NOTHING is working except turning off the LED track lighting, until I extended the wire. So don’t poo all over this until you’ve exhausted the other options, but if it weren’t for the fact that I’ve spent months adding the ferrite cores, I’d take em all down and see if the extension alone fixes it
you are actually having frequency interference! Most likely LED light bulbs or even those security cameras outside the door are causing it. You shouldnt need to extend the antenna to get proper range
Thanks for the comment. I have also seen videos that talk about interference from LED bulbs but it does not seem to make a difference even when I replaced the bulbs in the front as well as the door opener. Anyway, whatever is causing the interference was solved by extending the antenna.
@@diymanual could be multiple things. refrigerator, freezers, LED bulbs etc. from what i was told it could interfere for up to 40 ft. maybe next-door ?
@@MarijuanaMotivatedTV Maybe because I have a refrigerator/freezer combo in my garage. So putting the antenna outside helps. I never had issue after doing this sometimes it won't open on first click but it will always open on second or 3rd unlike before where I have to stand right next to the door to open.
LED lightbulb TOTALLY blocked mine! I took out the bulb and it worked like a charm!
Mike, my wife and I thank you. Exactly was our issue.
this really isnt the proper way to do this.. your makin the antenna longer than what it actually is suppose to be. First off, find out what frequency your door uses, then measure the wire for a half wave and use that.. will workk alot better! this is just my 40+ year experiance in antenna theory and design 2 cents
Thank you for sharing.
Use the K.I.S.S. rule.
really good video... this is what I was looking for!!!
Your feedback means a lot to me! I appreciate your support and I'm happy to hear that you found the video helpful.