Explained: Do LED Lights Interfere With Garage Door Openers?

An automated garage door opener is an undervalued convenience. The comfort of operating the door of your garage door opener from the inside of your vehicle is unmatched. While they may not sound like a necessity on a bright summer day, as the weather gets rainy, windy, and cold, we realize the importance of this modern technology. 

My sister would not have given up on her manual garage door opener, if James, my dear friend, would not have convinced her. He even helped her program the garage door opener to the car. But after a week of using an automated garage door opener, she found out that her LED lights were interfering with the door opener, so she called me to ask, ‘how do I stop my led lights from interfering with my garage door opener?’ 

Well, it is a problem that all garage door users may not face, but a few may. The issue can be stressful if you are a new garage door opener user and haven’t heard of such a case. However, facing this issue does not mean you cannot install LED lights in your garage. LED lights’ energy efficiency and cost-efficiency make them ideal for garages, providing the interference issue is fixed.

It is possible that your LED lights are not getting along with your garage door opener. This happens when the LED lights interfere with the radio signals of the garage door opener. However, You can avoid the problem by installing LED lights that block radio frequencies. You may also shield your LED light wires or add ferrite beads to reduce the noise.

This article will discuss why certain LED lights interfere with garage door openers and how you can avoid the issue. 

Can You Use LED Bulbs In Garage Door Openers?

It has been some time that LED lights have been around. Most urban homes around have replaced incandescent bulbs with LED lights. With various sizes and shapes of LED lights available in the market, these lights are the lights of modern times. But the primary advantages of LED bulbs lie in their cost-efficient and environmentally friendly nature.

Here are some reasons why LED lights are an excellent option for your garage.

• LED lights save a considerable amount of energy, around 85%, as compared to incandescent lights
• The life of LED lights is about 35,000 hours; hence, LED lights can stay on for prolonged periods.
• LED lights produce light instantly with no warm-up time, unlike incandescent lights.

• LED lights produce significantly less heat and do not burn out easily. If your LED lights burn out often, one of my articles may be helpful to you.

With the above advantages, you must have been convinced that LED lights are great garage lights. But having doubts about whether LED lights allow your garage door opener to function properly without interference is obvious. I will address this concern in the following section.

Do LED Lights Interfere With Garage Door Openers?

Well yes, LED lights interfere with garage door openers at times. If you notice your garage door is malfunctioning by getting stuck or moving slowly, your LED light may be interfering with your garage door opener. Some LED lights can even block your garage door opener’s electronic frequency causing it to stop operating altogether.

Do LED Landscape Lights Interfere With Garage Door Opener?

Unfortunately, your garage door opener can face interference by the LED lights inside the garage and the landscape lights installed outside your garage or on the driveway. The LED landscape lights not close to the garage door are not likely to cause the issue as the radio wave of those lights will not be as strong near the garage door opener device.

The reason why LED landscape lights interfere with garage door openers is the same as why LED garage lights interfere with the door opener. Let us learn the same in the next section of the article.

How Do LED bulbs Interfere With Garage Door Openers?

A garage door opener operates on a circuit that includes the mechanism to open and close the garage door. The circuit also has a receiver that allows the user to operate the garage door opener using the remote or the linked vehicle through radio waves.

On the other hand, LED lights flash about 10-15 times per second, creating a small amount of radio noise. The LED light frequency creates a compatibility issue between the light and the garage door opener as radio waves are susceptible to interference. The interference may be created by either your indoor LED garage lights or landscape LED lights.

While most LED light bulbs have shielding to prevent the noise from spreading, some don’t. The circuit’s wiring often amplifies the issue as it boosts the radio signal. The LED light radio waves interfere with the door opener signal and mask it, preventing the garage door from opening and closing on your instruction. As a result, your garage door will either get stuck or move slowly. If your LED lights block your garage door opener’s electronic frequency, the door may not operate at all.

Solution For LED Interference With Garage Door Opener

Facing difficulties communicating with your garage door due to LED lights can be frustrating, but You can resolve the issue. There are three ways to prevent your LED lights from interfering with the garage door opener so you can operate your garage door without any hiccups or hassle. In this section of the article, we will walk through all three ways.

Installing An LED Light That Blocks Radio Wave Interference

The cheaper LED manufacturers do not use the shielding that cuts back on the interference of the LED light with other appliances like garage door openers or wifi routers. Hence, the lights interfere with the functioning of the appliances leaving the user distressed. But you can resolve the issue in minutes if you shed some extra money investing in the LED lights that block radio wave interference. 

Both the LED lights and the garage door openers operate on around 28-360 MegaHertz causing them to interfere with one another. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) compliant LED light bulbs that block radio wave frequency are well shielded and ensure that there is no frequency interference with other appliances.

Shielding The LED Light Wiring

This method is a time-consuming solution for LED interference with garage door openers but is an effective one. Shielding the LED light wires would ensure suppressing the extra noise that the cables generate so that no radio wave interference takes place with the garage door. You can either replace the existing wires with the shielded wires or add tubes to the existing wires to shield them from interference. 

Since tubing the wiring means sliding the shielding tube over the wires, I strongly advise disconnecting the power supply before initiating the process. Once the shielding process is done, your LED lights will no longer interfere with the garage door opener, and you should be able to operate the door without any trouble.

Adding Ferrite Beads On The LED Light Wiring

The more straightforward and accessible way to prevent led lights from interference with garage door openers is using ferrite beads. A ferrite bead is a passive electronic component that suppresses the high-frequency signals on a power supply line. You must have noticed these cylindrical beads on various appliances like your laptop chargers.

Since most radio frequency boost happens on the LED light wiring rather than on the LED lights themselves, you can simply plug a ferrite bead on the negative cable of the wiring as close as possible to the fixture. The bead will suppress the extra noise that the cables are generating, allowing you to prevent your LED lights from interfering with the garage door opener. 

The best part about using ferrite beads is that they are easy to install, not expensive, and easily available.

FAQs

Q1. Do LED lights affect wifi signals?

Answer – Though LED lights operate at a higher frequency than the wifi signals, it is possible for the wifi router to intercept some noise from LED lights. Hence, LED lights can affect wifi signals.

Q2. Are cheaper LED lights more susceptible to causing an interface with the garage door opener?

Answer – Yes, cheaper LED are more susceptible to causing inference with the garage door opener as they flicker a lot that a human eye cannot notice. Cheaper LED lights are also more prone to burning out frequently; hence, I do not recommend them. 

Q3. How many lumens LED light is needed in a garage?

Answer – Installing 50 lumens per square foot of the garage area should provide you with a well-lit residential garage.

Conclusion

LED lights have a significant advantage over other kinds of lighting solutions and are an incredible invention. Even garage door openers are a much-needed invention that has made our lives more comfortable than ever. But all the advantages of LED lights and garage door openers are in vain if your lights start interfering with your door opener. While it is frustrating to have your indoor LED garage lights or landscape LED lights interfere with your garage door opener radio frequency, you can resolve the issue easily. 

I hope the article about solving the issue of LED light interference with garage door openers would have helped you find a solution that works for you. If you have more questions, do write to me in the comment section.