Noisy CF Bulb Jams Garage Door Opener

You should use rugged service incandesant bulbs to prevent vibration killing your bulbs. I think most owners manuals state this. Don't feel bad I kill several ordinary bulbs before a read the manual too.

I'm surprised that so may people didn't get that the Faraday cage suggestion was a JOKE. Maybe engineers generally don't have a good sense of humor.

Subject: Warning
DO NOT USE CFL light bulbs in your garage door opener (at least not Genie openers). I put some in mine months ago to save energy and get brighter light with lower power. They worked for a while, then one day I noticed the opener "humming". I touched it and it was red hot! The motor windings had heated up and were dripping melted insulation out of the opener. I pulled the plug and let it cool down and tried it. It worked twice, then quit. I figured it was just old, and needed replacement. WRONG, it was the CFLs! (I had some suspicion they might not work as they don't work with most dimmers or circuits that don't use an actual switch or relay to turn them on).
I bought and installed a new Genie opener and called Genie's 800 number, just to check if CFLs would be OK in it. They said, "ABSOLUTELY NOT! If you do, the opener will try to run and burn itself out!" (exactly what mine did). Turns out, the opener uses electronic switching and not relays to turn on the light bulbs. This circuit is like a dimmer and IS NOT compatible with most CFL bulbs. I even used bulbs that were supposed to be dimmable, but it still ended up frying the electronics. When that goes, so do other parts of the circuit that drives the motor and tries to run it at a lower power. It can't actually turn and just ends up heating up until it fails. I'm glad I caught mine before it caught fire. It was VERY HOT! I was surprised the thermal overloads hadn't stopped it.
Tell everyone you know, DO NOT PUT CFL bulbs in your garage door opener, this is a safety hazard! Pass it on, PLEASE.

What a surprise! All fluorescent discharge tubes generate noise; we who work in low-noise microwave receiver field use this phenomenon as a calibration noise source. The CF bulbs also become conductive 120 times per second, so they reflect microwaves (like WiFi and similar at 2.45 GHz) in that rhythm.
Engineering has introduced crazy noise sources everywhere around us: switching powe supplies, now running at MHz rates, CFLs, and more. Radio communication becomes harder every day, now bad guys send data over power lines and radiate their burps everywhere.
The only good location by now, almost free of radio interference is the far side of the Moon.

I tried using a CF bulb with a motion detector in the garage (auto-on-off) to save electricity. It jammed my DSL modem.

I tried ceiling fan bulbs in my old Stanley door opener, because regular bulbs would quickly die due to the vibration, but the fan bulbs, too, would die a premature death. I then tried CFLs, and they also would get destroyed. I finally ended up removing the bulbs entirely, putting a screw-in outlet adapter in one of the sockets, and hanging the bulbs from the rafters remotely on resilient mounts. That solved the bulb life problem

Ted R commented:
"But the bulbs are not ON until the unit is activated so how can they interfere with the activation signal prior to being turned ON?"
After the garage door was opened, it triggered the lights to come on and stay on for about 3-5 minutes. Until the opener turned the lights off, the compact fluorescents were emitting RF hash, interfering with the remote signal. That's why he was only able to operate the door again after an interval of several minutes.

A reader commented they used CFL's in thier bathroom. I have a 2 bulb fixture that I tried installing 2 CFL's in. No good. I had to keep 1 incadescent bulb so that I would have immediate light. Incadescents will acheive full brightness in milliseconds, the CFL starts very dark, takes minutes to light up and sometimes I can't wait that long to go.

The CFL have a high frequency oscillator delivering current to the blub. That high frequency current radiate more that the powerline harmonics of the old fluorescent lamps. I found that putting the old fluoresent and CFLs on the same light circuit quickly kills the CFLs --- maybe because of the inductive high voltage kick off of the old type fluorescent ballast.

But the bulbs are not ON until the unit is activated so how can they interfere with the activation signal prior to being turned ON? If the problem is with a subsequent control input while the opener system still keeps the lights lit, shorten the persistence setting so light goes off immediately at the completion of each open or close command.

Standard light bulbs lasted about 3 months in my garage door opener due to the vibration. I replaced them with Spiral CFL about 3 years ago and I haven't had to replace them again.

Just for a real oldie, my uncle had a house in the 60's that still had a carbon filament lamp bulb on the porch. It would jam the TV whenever it was on. Seems like the loop of the element would resonate and emit RF. He sold the house years ago so I don't knowwhatever happenedto that bulb. The ones I had when I bought my house did not raidate to the best of my knowledge.

But Karen ...
When you sneak the bottles into the bottom of the trash barrel and the trash man dumps the barrel, there they are, right on top.
*L*

CFLs contain balasts that create high voltage and EMI. The X bulb (www.xediadirect/support) is more expensive but uses less power, lasts longer, contains no mercury and has a built in EMI filter. It never gets to hot to hold on to.

This is another bad app with a good technology. The problem is not the CFL, the problem was that he change a technology on the garage door opener without asking the manufacturer if i was ok. I am playing devils adbocate here. But in the case of CFL vs incandescent, CFL tech has more benefits than incandescents. They last longer, they us Hg, but you generate more Hg, by using an incandescent bulb. And you can dump em for free at any wallmart or target,etc. Also the correcto substitute for a 60W incandescent bulb is a 13w CFL. I admit they have a high inrush, but it is very, very short time. Your circuit breaker should not see it. Face it, goverment made a great descition of eliminating incandescents by 2010. I have used CFL's for years and have no complaint.

Oh, if you are ever bored, take a few different CFL's, a storage scope and current probe (or tap) and look at the inrush current.
I have a lamp that has a built in electronic circuit breaker. It trips when I switched the 60W incandescent to a 25W CFL. So I did a crude start-current test - the 25W CFL has an inrush current of >200W! Imagine a fixture with three or more of them hitting the power line with a nice capacitive/inductive spike...

I read an article many years ago (1965 or so) saying that the bulb of choice for high reliability was the carbon-filament (Edison type) lightbulb. If you didn't want to climb the 1000 ft transmission tower, put a carbon filament bulb in it. Some carbon filament bulbs had been in use for over a century.

What about the Y2010 problem? Isn't sale of incandescent bulbs going to be halted in the U.S. next year?
2010 should be fun.

This is one reason why the United States is at least ten years behind our foreign colleagues in lighting. All the rumpus about CFLs and LEDs while functional glass fibre optics architectural lighting has been successfully employed abroad for decades, but ignored here.
This most energy efficient technology now known can provide both high level directional beams for task, display and architectural features, and lower level rays for ambient (general) illumination. It is eminently sustainable because only a few lamps located in a ready accessibly place have to be replaced every 18 months in normal use.
When the promised 50,000 hour life of LEDs if reached (after losing light level after only 25,000 hours), the entire lighting system may to be replaced at great cost. Vulnerable to moisture, voltage changes, temperature and vibration, LEDs are often difficult to replace individual components that match the originals. Change is so rapid that the lighting may be obsolete even before installation is completed.

Incandescents are also *really* cheap.

Another solution would be to not buy CFLs and simply use old, reliable, incandescent bulbs.

I have a CFL in my bathroom and at night, in the dark, I can see it flash on every few seconds. I believe it is due to the live AC wiring running right next to the wire comming frm the CFL to the switch. If I run my hand over the wall where the wires run I can make it flash on.

just wait 'til the CFL drops on the garage floor and you have to call the hazmat team in -- by no means use the vacuum cleaner to pick the stuff up. Hg content is somewhat lower. Our town dump now takes NO Fluorescent bulb or fixture.

Switching to LED bulbs might not be the easy solution it seems to be. Since LEDs are DC devices, some sort of electronics are necessary to convert the input power to low voltage DC, and if they aren't done correctly, you can still have EMI.

I have had the opposite problem. I have a CFL bulb over the door to my basement. Occasionally (especially in cold weather), turning on the basement light will cause the garage door to open. The opener is an older model that came with the house. I haven't replaced it since it works fine, but now I have to check each time I turn on the lights.

To Galad007,
A CE logo does NOT guarantee that the unit has been tested and passed EMI specs. The present CE certification process allows a manufacturer to self certify. The unit can go directly to market based on a signature declaration of conformity, even if it doesn't actually conform. Yes, the product may be pulled from the shelves later, or even pulled at customs entry points if it is a clear violation, but the products do get through.

one potential solution would be to place the CF bulb several feet away and run a shieded cord from the socket in the door opener to the socket of the CF bulb. If the cord radiates, some additional filtering would be required at the bulb end. An incandescent bulb would benefit from the remote socket due to no vibrations

Once again it is a quality issue. Some cfls are junk, some may contain an internal noise filter of some kind. Possibly adding some bypass components to the door opener circuit would have helped. BUT since a cfl has a limited number of starts, the door opener is not a good application. The cfl would be a good choice for the security lights that stay on all night, not for the passage light, on for 5 minutes a few times a day.

Try to use porduct with CE logo on it. They are tested regarding EMI emission and immunity.

When I was a kid, I remember my dad having to deal with 6 meter interference he caused to neighbor's telephones, TVs, hifi equipment, etc. When he caused interference the neighbors knew where to go. Now the shoe is on the other foot and ham equipment frequently has to deal with interference from computers, networks, cable TV, cell phones and many other unintended and supposedly FCC compliant sources, CFLs included. If the FCC doesn't tighten up this ubiquitous maze of unintended RF interference soon it will be difficult to have an intelligible conversation using analog RF.

CF's also wreak havoc on trying to pick up my favorite radio stations. Definately go with LED to go green. Less noise, less heat, less energy, longer life, less heavy metals. A bit more money, but totally worth it.

My CFs take hours to start at 20 degrees F. I am now going to LEDs at my cabin.
All CFs do is flicker for hours . I have some old 4 foot straight fluorescent bulbs and they work fine at 20 degrees.
CFs are a lie from congress, just go to LEDs! Technology has almost made CFs bulbs obsolite, so congress should stay out of technology.

Yeah, I have experienced a similar issue with the noise put out by fluorescent lights. This occurred in my recording studio [aka basement], and I was unable to make any recordings until I realized that the ambient noise was coming from my new bulbs. Naturally, I record with the lights off. It's a strange problem, why do florescent bulbs put out a noise that incandescent bulbs don't?

They're on so little that the "green" issue isn't an issue.
And therein lies the issue. Even ignoring potential problems with EMI, not fitting physically, infant mortality, slow warmup, this is an application where the switch wouldn't pay for itself in 100 years! Ditto for refrigerator lights, closet lights, attic lights, shower lights and many other similar apps. The ban law, if it actually happens, will have to be carefully written.

Been using CFLs for years with no issues other than what to do with the incadescent bulbs I removed

Both the bulbs in one of my garage door openers burned out. I attempted to replace them with a CFL, but the base of the CFL just above the threads was too thick, and wouldn't screw all the way into the socket. Guess I got lucky and didn't know it!

This is an interesting case but I would suspect an isolated one or at least specific to that model/type of garage door opener. I work PT in a hardware store and recommend using CFLs for garage door lights because they are more robust than a filiment being jiggled by the door mechanism. This issue is something I have not taken into consideration. One thing also, CFLs really need a good power source and sometimes the circuitry in a garage door box isn't there and they as a results might not work.
A faraday cage (as the poster above pointed out) or even a sheild seperating the bulb (actally the ballast part at the botoom of this bulb) might also have fixed this problem.

Also, apparently the incandescent bulb is used in the delay circuit to turn off the bulb. So if a fluorescent bulb is used in ours (a Genie), the light won't go off.

Sure, but the light wouldn't come out. As an Amateur radio operator, I've dealt with flourescent bulb noise for years. But the y are getting quieter. There are but few excuses left not to use them, lots of reasons TO use them! 73.

Sure, but the light wouldn't come out. As an Amateur radio operator, I've dealt with flourescent bulb noise for years. But the y are getting quieter. There are but few excuses left not to use them, lots of reasons TO use them! 73.

I have used CF bulbs in my garage door opener for years without a problem- other then a occasional early failure of a bulb.

I agree with Ryan. A Faraday cage would only block direct radiation from the bulb, but would not affect radiation from noise currents coupled on the power wiring. Some 0.01 uF caps might help with that. Also, any Faraday cage would need to pass light -- such as window screening.
Nevertheless, a screened Faraday cage might be worth a try. Sometimes these problems are due to radiation, sometimes to conduction, and sometimes both modes are involved. EMI problems often exhibit this "dual nature."

CF bulbs are among the biggest "green" scams perpetrated on the public. Noisy, poor light quality, flicker, slow warm up, some don't do well mounted any direction except vertical, and perhaps worst of all, they contain electronics AND mercury. Can't be disposed of in the trash, difficult to recycle, expensive, and poor reliability. I bought a package of 6 from Home Depot, and 2 were bad out of the box. I had 2 others burn up in the light fixtures. Now they are being mandated and incandescents being outlawed as inefficient. I'm going to stock up on good old fashioned light bulbs and get rich re-selling them when I retire. :-)

Don't try listening to an AM radio anywhere near one. It's not only the radiated emissions from the discharge but the conducted and radiated emissions from their power supplies. Some of them are awful. A tungsten filament is the cure.

A transparent conductor like ITO is quite expensive, planer, and not 100% transmissive.

A Faraday cage would only block out the radiated emissions (and bulb-light), you still have the conducted emissions which travel down the wiring.

Years ago my dad put a fluorescent bulb in the table lamp next to his easy-chair. That evening he went to turn on the cable box with the cable remote. Nothing happened. He put new batteries in the remote and nothing happened. He got up and manually turned it on. Then he couldn't change channels with the remote. The next day he took it back to the cable customer service center and they gave him a new box and remote. It worked fine. Then that evening he went to turn on the box and the same thing happened. Eventually, he discovered that the bulb was interfering with the signal. As long as the lamp was off it worked. When it was on he had to press the control button on the box because the remote would not work.

My opener has 2 CFLs in it mainly because I was curious how they would stand up to the vibration. They're on so little that the "green" issue isn't an issue. One of the two I installed lasted only a week or so, but the other CFL and the replacement have now lasted better than a year. So I guess they're fairly resistant to vibration. As for interference, I haven't seen any, so it must depend on the quality of the CFL (and I bought the cheapest I could find) and the particular door opener.

Couldn’t you just build a Faraday cage around the bulb?