Home link garage opener range?

[gdfein]

How far away can your built in home link controller open your garage? Mine barely works from a car length away. My other GM car is similar? I have a Genie opener. Just curious.


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[BeavOR]

Mine only works if I'm facing the garage about 5 or 6 feet away.

 

[chicagofan00]

Mine seems to be pretty inconsistent. At times I can open it from 10 feet away and at and angle to the garage and other times I've had to be within 1 foot straight on with the garage door in order for it to work.

 

[Demer]

I can open/close mine from about 100'-200' away. Liftmasters.

 

[iamdub]

My door responds as I'm passing my neighbor's house, and there's an empty lot between us. It's approximately 200' in a straight line from where I see the door begin to open. I have a Liftmaster operator. As a former overhead door technician, I will NEVER use a Genie. Regardless of brand, you should get much better range than a few feet in the driveway. I doubt the problem is the built-in transmitter, but it can't be ruled out. There are many factors, some uncontrollable, that affect receiver range. About all you can do is tweak the antenna, such as extending it to outside the garage. If it were me, I'd get a Liftmaster Model #312HM receiver and add it to the current operator and program my Homelink to that. You'd need a Liftmaster transmitter (remote) to program the Homelink if you have a GMT800. The GMT900 has it's own remote thing that's similar to, but not Homelink and doesn't clone an existing remote. The antenna on the 312HM uses a standard coax connector, so you could get a length of coax and move the antenna to outside of the garage. Liftmaster has an extension kit (Model #41A3504) with a purpose-made mount, but you could fab up your own with a double female coax connector if you wanna save the $20-$25. Personally, I'd buy the kit to save the hassle.


312HM:

41A3504:

 

[gdfein]

Thanks for the responses. I have two doors/openers to deal with so may wait for units to go and just learn to deal.


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[iamdub]

As a quick and easy test, strip the insulation off the end of the antenna wire and twis a piece of wire to it. Route the wire over the top of the door and let a few inches hang out in open air. If this improves the range, then you can find a more permanent routing/mounting. Speaker wire would be good because you can split the two wires apart and have a length for the other operator.

 

[gdfein]

I tried this last night with some 14/2 speaker wire. Used one half of a piece 20' long. It actually reduced range on home link from 6-8' to zero. On both my Escalade and Yukon. Weird thing is that the physical genie remote opener works from out at the road 75-80' away with or without the speaker cable. This is clearly something about the trucks that is blocking or shielding the transmission.....or just plain defective. But on two separate trucks built at different times?


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[iamdub]

Ugh. This changes things. Do you have metallic tint across the top of the windshield? Maybe the Genie runs on a frequency that the Homelink can't transmit so well. If you have a willing neighbor, family member or friend with a different oprator brand, you could program one of their remotes to your Homelink and test again

 

[Coolade]

I have the exact same issue with my Overhead Door openers. I am sure the problem lies with the Homelink and not the openers. I have a 2015 2500HD Denali and now a 2016 Tahoe and they both will not work any father than about 10' and facing the garage door.

 

[iamdub]

Overhead Door brand operators a re-labeled Genies

 

[gdfein]

Dec'16 Update:

Well bad news, our house got hit with a power surge from lightning a few weeks ago and we had various electrical damage, of which the garage door openers were part (along with entire garage GFCI circuit).

Good news, we replaced both garage openers with Chamberlain top o the line with MyQ. The installer even programmed both the homelink transmitters my wife's Escalade and my Yukon (both MY16's). Now we get range from 7-8 houses away ~600+ feet.

Conclusion, the builder grade Genie openers with the house sucked!!


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[Denali132]

I just bought a new 2016 S and the range on my Home link is terrible! My 2008 Escalade worked from the house next-door when I was pulling in Andy my new Sub I have to be right in front of it to open and sometimes I have to hit it a few times! I have a Lift master and have 2 doors. Not sure what model but I'll check. It's definitely the Home link. I havy4% Tint all the way around my vehicle and I did with my Escalade too.

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[Denali132]

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[iamdub]

One thing I've noticed is with some Homelinks and also with the newer GM built-in remote (I still don't know what it's called, but it's not the third-party Homelink) is that you have to hold the button for about a second. I just always told customers to hold the button until they see the door move. The transmitter in the car may just be weaker or maybe has a more focused signal. You can't do much about that but you can increase the range on the receiver's antenna. The extended wire trick is about a 50/50 probability. The proper way to do it is to use two wires, one being a ground and connected (soldered is best) to the circuit inside the operator. This requires you to remove the panel off the back of the operator and do some electronic work to the control board located on the back side of the panel. The alternative to this is to use a separate external receiver and coax cable and outside antenna as mentioned in post #5.

 

[swabbot]

I found out the hard way that LED light bulbs in garage door openers messes with the signal. No clue why...but it solved my problem instantly. Using home link was totally hit or miss depending on the day if it worked at all...swapped out with an incandescent bulb and i now have 200' of range.

 

[Denali132]

Iamdub normally I could just push the purple learn button on the back of my lift master and hold the button on my SUV until the light flashed on my garage door opener and the door would open but on my new Suburban it would not work. I had to use the remote for the garage door opener and press it and a few other things. This was the hardest vehicle to program I've ever had. Why wouldn't the old way work by holding down the learn button and then press the button on the Home link?

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[Denali132]

Swabbot the new CFL lights won't even work in my garage door opener. The only bulbs that work are the old original bulbs. Why the CFL bulbs won't work is weird!

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[iamdub]

I found out the hard way that LED light bulbs in garage door openers messes with the signal. No clue why...but it solved my problem instantly. Using home link was totally hit or miss depending on the day if it worked at all...swapped out with an incandescent bulb and i now have 200' of range.

Good info! It makes sense with the way the drivers ("transformers") for the LEDs in the bulbs work that they could cause interference. Also, the bulbs are in the front of the operator, putting them in between the control board/receiver and your transmitter. Thanks for mentioning that.

Iamdub normally I could just push the purple learn button on the back of my lift master and hold the button on my SUV until the light flashed on my garage door opener and the door would open but on my new Suburban it would not work. I had to use the remote for the garage door opener and press it and a few other things. This was the hardest vehicle to program I've ever had. Why wouldn't the old way work by holding down the learn button and then press the button on the Home link?

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I never could get mine to program when I tried **** it the way I always had before (tapping the LEARN button then holding the button in the car until the light on the operator blinked). When Googling for a solution, I ran across a suggestion to tap the LEARN button and then press the button in the car repeatedly, holding it for about a second with each press. I used a yardstick to tap the button then ran to my Tahoe to start pressing the button. I'd guess it was about the fifth press that the operator light blinked, indicating it had learned the transmitter. Also, you don't want to hold the LEARN button. Holding it for six seconds will erase all stored transmitters and you will have to start over.

 

[iamdub]

Just to throw my two cents in on operator bulbs: That one little bulb on the front of the operator is almost useless, especially if you have dark tint and back into your garage. I use the operator's bulb circuit to trigger a relay that switches on the main garage lights. The relay is wired in parallel to the terminals on the wall switch, so it's on the same circuit and is just like turning on the switch. The wall switch still functions just as it always has and can be turned on even if the operator already has the lights triggered on.

Yes, my OCD made me braid those wires. It became my "calling card" of sorts and I braided the wires on almost every install I did.