So…definitely not a technical post here….
As a homeowner, with a 2 bay garage, I get to have garage door openers. Nothing magical nowadays, hit a button on the wall (or the button on the remote in your car), and the garage door opens (or closes) for you.
It’s even better when you can park your car in the garage!
So this problem bit me, and I’m not even sure WHY i was looking at this topic in the first place, but i came across quite a few posts with people who were having the same issue as me…
Garage door openers works flawlessly when opening from in the garage, but as I pull the car out of the garage, and try to use the remote again….I had to point at the opener, hold the button longer, or in some cases, even open the car door and point at the garage for the remote to close the garage door. This, in case you can’t read my thoughts, is what the problem is.
I always blew this off (or forgot to look it up once I got somewhere).
It never bothered me on my way home though….the button works flawlessly from 50ft away each and every time I arrive at home, and use the remote to open the door. This meant that the problem was never there when I arrived home, and never had it in the front of my mind to look into it.
I thought about why the remote wasn’t working, were the batteries running out? Changed the batteries and no change. Then, what in my car could be causing this, but that didn’t sound right, as it worked as I arrived home…..
Stupid technology….worked fine when I bought it….
Until I came across multiple posts in multiple sites that focused on this one thing…..
Did you replace the light bulbs in your garage door openers?
Were they by chance, LED lightbulbs?
Yup…..I did do exactly that….
Were they the cheap LED bulbs?
Um….probably…I am pretty frugal….
Replace the with GOOD LED bulbs……
What?
Turns out, that LED and CFL lightbulbs create RI (radio interference).
Cheap LED bulbs do not have RI shielding.
You know that FCC description on products we never read, cause it means nothing to most of us?
Well…..it does matter here.
Replace my Garage Door Opener with LED (shielded) bulbs.
Problem is gone!
Go figure!!!!
Hope this helps someone else solve this problem!