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clarence_locke

Chamberlain Garage Door Opener receiver problem

clarence_locke
14 years ago

For the past 5 years, my Chamberlain Whisper Drive (model WD822KL) opener has operated flawlessly -- the remotes could activate the door from 200+ ft away (line of site down the street). I also have an outside keypad (~12 feet from the antenna) and a transmitter built in to a Jeep that perform without issue. Last October, my opener stopped responding to all of the remotes and keypad unless they were inside the garage and within 2-3 feet of the opener's antenna. The Jeep's transmitter wouldn't work when the garage door was done, nor when the Jeep was inside the garage and literally under the opener.

The first thing I did was put new batteries in all of the transmitters, but there was no change in the situation. Although there were no diagnostic error light flashes, I purchased a replacement receiver board (mfg date of 08/2008). When the board arrived, the weather had turned cooler and stayed that way day to day (I live in FL) and the receivers all started functioning again. I assumed that there could be a strange short in the logic board attributed to expansion/contraction based on temperature and decided to wait to replace the receiver board (which I did not want to return because of a restocking fee).

Yesterday (May 9), my transmitters again all stopped working unless they were within 2-3 feet of the antenna. The weather has again been consistently warm (85F and above), so assumed it was my heat problem returning. I replaced the receiver board with the brand new one -- but still none of the transmitters work unless they are 2-3 feet from the antenna!

After verifying that my camcorder could see infrared emissions (from my TV remote control), I validated that the safety sensor is at least emitting IR light. And neither logic board indicated any type of sensor alignment failure. In fact, neither board is generating any diagnostic failure code flashes at all.

What other elements of the system could cause transmitter/receiver interference? Or are there other parts of the system that could be failing which cause this behavior?

Any and all suggestions are welcomed, as I am completely stumped.

Comments (23)

  • don_1_2006
    14 years ago

    The door sensors will not cause the problem you are having. It sounds like you may have interference from something in your house or garage. Some electrical devices radiate and can cause problems. I would start off by suspecting anything that operates when it is warm or anything you have added at the time your problem started.

  • justmycrap_fastmail_fm
    13 years ago

    I found this thread from a Google search. I just now got the exact same problem as the OP. I didn't know that you could change the receiver board. I thought I had to buy a new garage door opener. Otherwise I loved my Chamberlain, so I bought a new one of the same model and same problem. I just spent $200+ on a new garage door opener that it seems I didn't actually need and still can't get my remotes to work well.

    I will try adding a longer wire for an antenna or something...?

  • creek_side
    13 years ago

    Some possible interference sources:

    Fluorescent lights, including CFLs.

    Bad circuit breakers (could still be functioning).

    Motion detectors.

    Anything with a microprocessor (pretty much anything electronic these days), especially entertainment devices.

    Fencers (electric fence chargers).

    Invisible fences (dog control).

    Military installations in the general vicinity (use a high power communications system operating in the same frequency band as GDOs deployed as a result of 9/11).

    Wireless or cordless devices of any kind.

    Power lines (generally nearby).

    Electric motors.

    The interfering signal can come over the air or over the AC power lines. Power line interference can be filtered out by someone with the requisite experience. Over the air interference has to be stopped at the source or lived with.

    GDO transmitters and receivers are FCC part 15 devices, which means they have no legal protection from interference, while themselves being banned from producing interference. They do not have exclusive use of the frequencies they operate on, the high powered military security related communications systems being a prime example of the problem from a homeowner perspective.

    Since the problem seems related to warm temperatures, I suggest you look at it from that angle first. It may be that something that is being used only during the summer months is the interference source.

    Do any of your neighbors have an invisible fence setup? How about a swimming pool heater, or filter circulating pump? Bug zapper. etc, etc?

    Check to see if the problem is time-of-day related. If the problem doesn't occur in the middle of the night, that's a clue. If it does, it's still a clue. The more information you can gather about the when of problem, the easier it will be to track it down.

    Good luck.

  • john_moser07_comcast_net
    12 years ago

    my new (16 July 11) chamberlain opener (model 248735s) problem appears to be lack of voltages at the connector pin sockets. The wall mounted switch led doesn't light up and won't activate the opener. The first time the remote open switch was pressed, the motor traveled to the up position, but then nothing else. The 60w light bulb flashed several times after pressing the remote a second time, but then nothing at all.
    The manual says lamps underneath the wiring harness connector socket should light up indicating the safety sensor tx is working and connected properly, but no lamps light up. The only lamp that is lit is the orange remote programmer lamp.
    Any help would be appreciated.

  • don_1_2006
    12 years ago

    Is your door stuck in the open position?

  • RussellMT
    12 years ago

    Same problem. Slowly it seems we need to be closer to the base for remotes to work. Both standard remotes and car remotes.

    I also noticed today the LED on the wall button was not lit. It took 2 - 3 presses to get it to open.

    Seems like something is sucking power. Maybe time to check connectors.

  • teamfrisky
    12 years ago

    I've had an intermittent problem with my remote working. I suspected an interference problem so I shut off all of my energy saving CFLs and LED lights in the house. The problem went away. I narrowed it down to some LED version of the MR16 bulbs; when they were on, I could not open the door from outside of my garage.

    I have not figured a way around this yet but I might extend my antenna of the opener in the attic to the front of the house so that I get a stronger signal from the front of the house. I have a steel door which no doubt attenuates the signal at the receiver. The extended antenna will bypass the steel and receive the signal through the wood portion of the home. Just a thought.

  • monks1
    9 years ago

    Had the same problem with my remotes not working. The only thing new I had done was installed new LED bulbs. Replaced the bulbs back to the old CFLs and it works fine.
    Thanks for the info.

  • bossdirtdog
    9 years ago

    I have wayne dalton clasic drives, a pair,, 3 of the 4 clickers just quit, so got a chamberline universal,, it works great so far,, then the 4th quit, changed the batteries,, they were at 2.7 volts,, but the clicker would not work,, i got another chanberline and it wouldnt work,,,after repeating the set up a million times, i just unpluged the drive, let it sit, cussed a lot, and plugged it back in,, whahoo,, it took the programing and worked,,, so these circut boards loose their minds, try letting it sit unplugged, have a beer, and try again

  • hankizzy
    9 years ago

    my door openers (4) wouldn't work outside or control pad outside..had wife sit in driveway while i turned breakers off one at a time have her try opener until door went up. tracked problem to a bad power strip provided by electric company 3 years age to be eco friendly and save $$$$ cost me $80 dollars for garage door company to change batteries and light sockets that didn't need replaced.

  • eam44
    8 years ago

    My remote stops working in the spring. It's not the battery, but I am worried that it might be my neighbor's invisible fence. They tried to train their dog last summer, apparently to no avail, and are trying again this spring. If that is the culprit, there's really nothing I can do, is there? It worked today when I left my house, doesn't work tonight. Fails often in spring/summer but never in fall or winter.

    Grrrrrumble.

  • richrogers66
    8 years ago

    Had the same problem as everyone else (dont want to be wordy) I had just recently installed a new floor fan on the same circuit as the GDO. After reading some of the posts, i went down and unplugged it and the GDO works fine now.

  • Kevin Retzke
    8 years ago
    last modified: 8 years ago

    I have the problem with remotes not working also. The problem started 2 months ago. I changed all batteries out and reprogrammed the remotes. Same problem. Just found out that my wife changed the garage door opener lights out with LED lights 2 months ago. I have gone back to The original lights and no problems so far.

  • bill1844
    7 years ago

    Thanks. Exact same symptoms. Remotes only work out a couple feet. Removed led bulbs from my garage opener and now working fine. Chamberlain does not seem to list this in their troubleshooting. Otherwise I would have been done hours ago. Thanks to everyone on this post.

  • woodard tq
    7 years ago

    I have a problem with the remotes not working either, but mine is even harder to troubleshoot.

    My remotes won't work at night. They work all day long flawlessly in the day time. But if we go to dinner and come home after dark, it rarely works.

    However, the key pad on the wall outside works every-time at night.

    I have installed LED bulbs all over the house recently, but if I am remembering correctly, the garage opener started acting funny before i went into energy save mode around Christmas.

    Any thoughts on this random issue?

  • David Ludwig
    5 years ago

    Thank Kevin Retzke! The LED light I added was the problem. Changed back to a regular bulb and that solved the problem.

  • HU-6070626665
    5 years ago

    oh ... the light bulb went off (so to speak). Same range problem started happening here ... I converted all 4 of the cheap overhead dual tube shoplite fixtures to LED by retrofitting the ballasts and changing to LED tubes. Oddly, these LED lights flicker on dimly even when the motion sensor in the garage is not triggered. Perhaps the load from 8 LED tubes isn't enough to make the MD switch happy. Now I have good ideas and motivation to troubleshoot both of these problems - thanks all!

  • HU-245577547
    4 years ago

    THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! Signed up for an account just to say that. Had exactly the same signal issue, resolved by getting rid of LED lights on the same circuit in the garage.

  • HU-901165141
    4 years ago

    I have had the same issue the past six months — remotes work occasionally, then not at all — and nothing has solved the problem. I’ve spent considerable time on the phone with Chamberlain techs and we have tried everything from making sure there are no LED light bulbs to turning off the power to the entire house except the garage. Chamberlain sent me new remotes, and then a new circuit board and, and I have extended the antenna, and nothing has fixed the problem.


    interestingly, I have another Chamberlain opener on the other door in the garage and it operates perfectly.


    I’m out of ideas at this point, so I welcome any other suggestions.

  • Daniel Jathof
    4 years ago

    I don't have a car, but my friend had a problem that you describe. He bought the equipment and reprogrammed it and made a separate button on his car panel. Maybe we should throw out the remote and do something like that. It's more efficient and convenient.

  • HU-234763897
    3 years ago

    I had a similar problem. Did all the trouble shooting steps on line. Bought a new opener from HD. Went to unplug and replace to install new one. When i reached up to unplug the light flickered. Hooked up an extention cord from a different plug it worked fine. Felt like a dummy!!

  • HU-829203427
    3 years ago

    Had the exact same thing happen out of the blue a couple of days ago. Remote would only work about 3-feet away from the opener. After reading the responses here I thought about what I had recently done that may have caused some kind of interference. The ONLY thing I did was plug in a USB charger to charge a very small battery for a mini bicycle air pump. I unplugged this and tried the opener - and it worked perfectly! I’m not even sure if this is on the same circuit the garage door opener is on, but it was plugged in in my kitchen which is next to the garage... So, keep in mind it could be something weird like this...