Are Garage Door Openers Universal?

Most manufacturers change their operational frequencies over the years, rendering old remotes useless for new models. For example, if you have an old Chamberlain remote laying around from the early 2000s or 1990s, it will not work with a new edition of their garage door openers manufactured after 2009. If you suspect that the remotes should be compatible, yet the opener does not respond to any programming, there is a chance you have a faulty unit. In that case, you might want to check our guide on how to repair a garage door opener or find a local garage door repair company that can do it for you.

Changing opener frequencies by the manufacturers is the way to keep up with the technological progress and its challenges for the garage door industry.

There are several reasons why garage door opener manufacturers had to constantly evolve and upgrade their operational frequency.

• Frequency overlap. This is a well-known issue that is still present and generates a fair amount of service calls for local garage door repair companies. Does your garage door opens up or closes on its own? If so, you might have a frequency overlap with one of your neighbors. When he drives by and opens up his garage door, your door goes up as well. Then he parks his vehicle inside the garage and closes the door with a wall station, which is wired directly to his opener. His door closes while yours stays open, as no radio signal was sent to your unit. This situation is particularly frustrating when it happens during the night, and your garage stays wide open until you see that in the morning. It can be a costly lesson to learn, depending on your neighborhood. To combat this issue, most modern garage door openers have a rolling code technology, which will have a set range of codes in use, and change the code after each up and down cycle.

• Radio interferences. In the modern age, we’re all surrounded by technology, and each electronic device emits a radio interference that may negatively impact the operation of your remote controls. Some homeowners scratch their heads as their opener remotes lose range or stop working entirely with no apparent reason. The number one enemy of any garage door remote is an LED lightbulb that you use in your opener unit. LED light bulbs are known to disrupt the operation of remotes, and there are even special light bulbs on the market that are labeled as “Garage Door Opener LED Bulb.” While not all LED lights will disrupt your remote operation, these dedicated LEDs will definitely not cause any issues. Sometimes other electrical devices or even a cellular tower located nearby can cause an issue, and if that’s the case, you might need to call a professional to get things sorted. An experienced garage door repair technician will have a special device that can scan for interferences and find the source. From there, you can either try to eliminate the source or install a special transceiver that will change the standard set of frequencies provided by your garage door manufacturer.