# PSA: LED bulbs can interfere with garage door openers



## lance.bailey (Apr 1, 2019)

i broke the home link garage door activation, and I broke it on both the Volvo and the Tesla. 

How might you ask? LED light bulbs in the ceiling unit. Yep, apparently LED light bulbs can and will interfere with garage door remotes. Coming home is never fail because the lights are out. But when I leave and the lights in the unit are on, I get a lot of failed "close" operations. 

I made it a bit better by shortening the distance for activation on the Tesla, but i still get some failures. The Volvo homelink is even worse and I typically have to get out and close the door or phone my wife to do it for me. She loves that.

Heaven forbid that I have the ceiling lights on (about 18000 lumens of LED lights) - they kibosh the garage remote for sure.


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## francoisp (Sep 28, 2018)

lance.bailey said:


> i broke the home link garage door activation, and I broke it on both the Volvo and the Tesla.
> 
> How might you ask? LED light bulbs in the ceiling unit. Yep, apparently LED light bulbs can and will interfere with garage door remotes. Coming home is never fail because the lights are out. But when I leave and the lights in the unit are on, I get a lot of failed "close" operations.
> 
> ...


 Is it possible the ceiling lights interfere with the safety light sensor at the bottom of the garage door? My garage door has this issue when the sun is in the right angle a certain hour of the day.


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

lance.bailey said:


> LED light bulbs in the ceiling unit. Yep, apparently LED light bulbs can and will interfere with garage door remotes. Coming home is never fail because the lights are out. But when I leave and the lights in the unit are on, I get a lot of failed "close" operations.


Yep, that's a thing.
My in-laws were complaining that their garage door opener stopped working. I replaced the LED bulbs that they had put in the opener itself with some incandescent bulbs, and they haven't had a problem since. 


francoisp said:


> Is it possible the ceiling lights interfere with the safety light sensor at the bottom of the garage door? My garage door has this issue when the sun is in the right angle a certain hour of the day.


I've had that happen too. But that's not what's happening here. LED bulbs have control circuitry that actually flashes the bulb at about the same frequency that garage door openers operate in. This results in the bulb itself producing some radio waves that can then interfere with the opener.

Supposedly, you can buy LED bulbs that have been FCC certified to not spew radiation like this - they have some extra shielding to prevent it, and are generally more expensive.

https://www.allstyledoor.com/blog/led-lights-cause-interference-garage-door-opener/


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## slacker775 (May 30, 2018)

garsh said:


> Yep, that's a thing.
> My in-laws were complaining that their garage door opener stopped working. I replaced the LED bulbs that they had put in the opener itself with some incandescent bulbs, and they haven't had a problem since.
> 
> I've had that happen too. But that's not what's happening here. LED bulbs have control circuitry that actually flashes the bulb at about the same frequency that garage door openers operate in. This results in the bulb itself producing some radio waves that can then interfere with the opener.
> ...


I had this problem at my last house with a CFL. Then I learned about the whole CFL/LED interference thing. My garage is all LED lights, no more of those dang fluorescents but I have the specific Chamberlain-approved LED build in my opener and I never have issues with the garage opening/closing. Probably the only issue I'll occasionally have is if I dawdle in the garage for awhile before departing, the car will sometimes automatically skip closing for some unknown reason. That seems to be more of a car-logic thing than anything to do with bulbs. On return to home, it opens every time without fail.


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## Klaus-rf (Mar 6, 2019)

lance.bailey said:


> i broke the home link garage door activation, and I broke it on both the Volvo and the Tesla.
> 
> How might you ask? LED light bulbs in the ceiling unit. Yep, apparently LED light bulbs can and will interfere with garage door remotes. Coming home is never fail because the lights are out. But when I leave and the lights in the unit are on, I get a lot of failed "close" operations.
> 
> ...


Both Genie and TorchStar make garage-door-opener LED lights that do not interfere with the radio signals - recommended and approved for door openers..


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## lance.bailey (Apr 1, 2019)

thanks guys, unfortunately the approved bulbs are all in the "60W equiv" or lower ratings. I have not found a 100W equiv LED alternative. I am using Philips brand right now, they seem better than the last ones. I'll look at what Genie and TorchStar have to offer in the upper levels of brightness.

and @garsh - it seems that you are a pretty good son-in-law


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

Again, quoting the relevant portion of JWardell's post for this new thread.


JWardell said:


> As for the LED bulb/garage door discussion...most garage door openers operate on 315MHz or 390MHz ISM bands. It's very common for AC to DC power supplies to operate their switching circuits in a similar range of 200-400MHz. Usually not a problem with something with a nice metal shield and filters to absorb all the electromagnetic noise, as would be with your computer's power supply...but LED bulbs have now been a "race to the bottom" to make them for pennies, so they cut a lot of that and emit a ton of RF noise in these frequencies. Combine that with the fact that they are often mounted to the ceiling close to your garage door opener, and it's going to cause issues.
> 
> It's not the LED blinking...cheap supplies will flicker the LEDs with the AC at 120Hz, well below RF frequencies. But they no doubt don't have any filtering and further act as an antenna for that 200MHz power supply switcher.
> 
> Your best bet is try try a couple different models and brands of LED bulbs...and if you have some older ones (back when they used to cost $10+ each) try those as well. You should hopefully find one that doesn't use that frequency range. OR try some of the super basic filament LED bulbs that have no AC to DC supply at all.


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## MarkB (Mar 19, 2017)

lance.bailey said:


> i broke the home link garage door activation, and I broke it on both the Volvo and the Tesla.
> 
> How might you ask? LED light bulbs in the ceiling unit. Yep, apparently LED light bulbs can and will interfere with garage door remotes. Coming home is never fail because the lights are out. But when I leave and the lights in the unit are on, I get a lot of failed "close" operations.
> 
> ...


We've been using old school (ie. very expensive, way back then!) Philips LED bulbs for years.









Never been an issue with ANY of our recent vehicles (4) that used homelink. And I recently replaced the garage door opener as well (model has built-in LED lights), and still no issues at all.


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## lance.bailey (Apr 1, 2019)

ummm, they are yellow? i'm leaning toward daylight color 100W equiv.


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## TomT (Apr 1, 2019)

I've had no problems with Costco FEIT 100 watt equivalent 1600 lumen bulbs in any of my three openers...


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## Klaus-rf (Mar 6, 2019)

lance.bailey said:


> thanks guys, unfortunately the approved bulbs are all in the "60W equiv" or lower ratings. I have not found a 100W equiv LED alternative. I am using Philips brand right now, they seem better than the last ones. I'll look at what Genie and TorchStar have to offer in the upper levels of brightness.
> 
> and @garsh - it seems that you are a pretty good son-in-law


TORCHSTAR 100W Equivalent LED Garage Door Opener Light Bulb, 1500 Lumens A19 Ultra-Bright 3000K Warm White, Shock Resistant Minimize Interference, 15-Watt, UL-Listed, E26 Base, Pack of 2


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## MarkB (Mar 19, 2017)

lance.bailey said:


> ummm, they are yellow? i'm leaning toward daylight color 100W equiv.


They look like regular incandescent bulbs when on. Warmer (I'd guess 4500K-ish) than daylight (6000K).

The yellow had to do with balancing out the blue light that original LED's produced. When on, the yellow goes away totally -- including in our garage, where we only have plastic protective cages around the bulbs.


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## lance.bailey (Apr 1, 2019)

interesting. I like the warm white in the house, and for Christmas lights, but in the garage i like the whiter than white bulbs.


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## JWardell (May 9, 2016)

MarkB said:


> We've been using old school (ie. very expensive, way back then!) Philips LED bulbs for years.
> 
> View attachment 37376
> 
> ...


Perfect example, those first-gen Phillips bulbs cost $20 each! And made to superhigh standards. I have several that will probably run forever. Their second gen covered the confusing remote phospher and dropped to $10...I've had two running outside in all elements on a light sensor, running every night for eight years now! It's a good bet they emit a LOT less interference than today's bulbs that are manufactured for less than a dollar.

As a side note, those original Phillips bulbs are great at illustrating there is no such thing as a white LED, they are actually royal blue LEDs coated with a phosphor that looks yellow but glows white (just like your old TV, and fluorescent tube lights). That phosphor is directly on the LEDs now, but it hurt efficiency back ten years ago and also made spreading light more difficult, so Phillips put the phosphor on the plastic instead. If you feel like seriously damaging your retinas, here's a photo I took inside one:


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## Needsdecaf (Dec 27, 2018)

I just wanted to chime in on this thread to say it's not limited to just the lights in your garage! 

We have LED landscape lighting around our house. In particular we have a few lights in the front yard, two right by the garage, and two across the driveway (about 60' away). 100% when they are on they will reduce the garage door remote range to effectively zero. For the longest time I couldn't figure it out. Google search showed me the LED issue but I didn't have LED bulbs in the GD openers. And then I thought about the landscape lights. When they come on at night, you practically can't open the garage door. I had to run an extension to the antenna out the garage, and down the side close to the garage door in order to get the signal to work at all. 

What a PITA!


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## badolkhan (23 d ago)

Thanks a lot to @ MarkB for suggesting these Phillips LEDs. I’ve also been having issues with the LEDs and HomeLink and decided to change the lights just in case. The neighborhood we live in is not the calmest one, and I want to be sure my garage door is well-locked all day long. 
I will install these Philips lights, and they will make a nice addition to the wifi light bulbs we have in the house, I guess. Such lights are great for house illumination with different colors and shades. 
Hope these Phillips lights will definitely solve the issue with the Homelink.


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