Steve, Make sure you aren’t using LED bulbs, this was exactly what was happening to me. Once the light went off, the remote would work. I took the bulbs out and problem solved.

Genie makes a low interference LED bulb (specifically for garage openers) and I installed four about a month ago and have had no issues since.

I think the LED light suggestion was mentioned before but I think many of us who had issues didn't even have LED lights. I ended up buying a new logic board for the machine on eBay and all problems were fixed! It's "plug and play" so it was super easy to remove old one and pop in the new one!

I'm confident your capacitor replacement will do the trick. The LED light suggestion is just any current draw from the light being turned and LED current draw and a traditional bulb are different. The change in electrical current with a faulty capacitor will give the issues I've mentioned above (ricks66gs/Rick Lord). I consider the LED just a quick and easy fix that takes a few minutes and can buy you time like a fix a flat on a leaky tire. In time the capacitor will get worse and then those with the LED resolution will be replacing the capacitor. Since my repair, my garage opener continues to work flawlessly opening via remote the first time every time after replacing the bad capacitor. I think I'm going around 2-3 years now.

Thank you Rick for the additional detail.

Chamberlain Model 2000SDR

Installed 1997 (23 years old)

My remote would open the door when I got home, but wouldn't close the door when I was leaving. I replaced the LED bulbs as discussed here, but no joy. I removed the light bulks completely and the problem persisted. As long as the light circuit was energized (appx 5 minutes after operating the door) the remotes would not activate the door opener. This was true even without bulbs in the sockets. Once the 5 minute delay circuit timed out (when the lights would go off) the remotes would work again.

I ordered 6 of the 35v 330 uF from Amazon Prime for $10 and they were delivered next day. Replaced the capacitor and the opener works perfectly again.

Many thanks to the original poster of the solution!

Chamberlane Liftmaster 1/3 HP (circa 2003 install date)

I installed the capacitor on the circuit board - Very easily with a small soldering tool. Loosened the old capacitor off of the board - cut to length & installed the new capacitor (without any new solder).

Put everything back the way I took it out and PRESTO !!!!! Works like a champ.

Thank you all for the informational posts - as they were so helpful in my DIY repair.

Thank you all for the informational posts - as they were so helpful in my DIY repair.

I just substitute the C31 capacitor on my two twenty years Liftmaster and they are working like brand new! I ordered the capacitor on the Amazon "6 pcs Panasonic FM Series Capacitors 35V 330uf Low Impedance fo- $6.99" ! I was planning to order the circuit board and this post help me to save a lot of money! Thanks

Thank you everyone, I just changed out my capacitor today and now my garage door opens and closes with both the wall button and the remote again. I appreciate the savings you guys helped me.

Mine was the bulb issue! WTH! It was a spiral CFL bulb. I had to replace with LED bulb and the remote now closes. Removing the bulb alone didn't help. I still had to turn off the light switch before the remote closed the door. But now with the LED it all works fine.

Thanks to every one for the helpful posts!

I recently had the same issue with a LiftMaster 3280-067 1/2HP opener made in 2005. Safty lights are good, but remote can open but not close, and wall switch can open and close with one touch. Turn off the light then the remotes works. I removed the rear bulb (15W spiral CFL), and the remote can close in the night but not day time (or works sometimes, I didn't test enough). I installed a 7.5W dimable LED (FEIT) to the rear socket, and now the remote can open and close regardless of light on/off. Same as Suresh M's case. I still have a 15W spiral CFL in the front socket (equal to 100W bright). Really interesting problem! Could be the LED light circuit bring to the receiver board some voltage stability? I was about to take the board out to check the capacitor, but seems no need to do that for now.

Update: The remotes still can not close the door most of the time outside of garage. Changed the 330uF 35V capacitor in the power supply board, and everyting back to normal again. Thanks to everyone contributed to this post!

Update: measured the old 330uF 35V capacitor with a multimeter, and it only has half the capacity left (~165uF).

Models: Craftsman 139.53674SRT1, 139.53662SRT2

My wife's side of the garage (SRT1 opener) developed this problem in the middle of the pandemic winter. With the rarity of her using the car, I somehow thought it was intermittent and could affect either the up or down cycle. It didn't help that when I tested it with the keypad or a different remote, it was an hour or so after she left (leaving the door open). So it worked going down, but not up.

But then a few weeks ago, my side of the garage developed the same symptoms. Which were:

1. Wired button inside the garage works all of the time.
2. Door wouldn't operate via any remote soon after using.
3. Door would open upon returning from any trip.
4. Removing the bulb (it was an LED) didn't change #2.
5. Turning the light off (SRT2) didn't change #2.
6. My memory may be fuzzy, but I thought I once tried #2 soon after the light had timed out, and it still didn't work.

After finding this forum, I concluded that the timing circuit, which turns the light off automatically, interferes with the remote signal. Replaced the capacitor in the two openers with a Panasonic 330 uF 35 v, and both now work.

+++++

On mine, I only needed to remove the plastic panel with the antenna and connections to the inside button. Removing those connections and unplugging one block connector inside the opener allowed this piece to be removed entirely. Inside the house, the circuit board was removed with five screws.

I’ve been searching for an answer and read about the LED bulbs. Took them out and now my cars and outside keypad opens AND closes the door.

When my Liftmaster 1000 sdr opener would not close when using my remotes I replaced the capacitor and it solved the problem. However while reattaching the circuit board to the plastic case the plastic was so brittle that it snapped and would not hold the board in place. Ultimately I had to replace the door opener. I recommend testing the case on the opener for brittleness before proceeding with the capacitor repair.

Good advice. Thanks.

How do you open Liftmaster 1000SDR / 2000SDR casing to change the capacitor? Do I just unscrew two screws on the bottom and prey open the case carefully? I read the plastic is brittle. When I screw in the lightbulb on the garage door opener, I could see cracks on the casing.

For my issue: my garage door opener won't close when the timer/light is still on after the door is open. Issue is not the lightbulb since the problem exists when using no lightbulbs. I've installed Liftmaster 365LM receiver to Liftmaster 2000SDR as an alternative since my other newer garage door opener is 315Mhz and have the 315Mhz remotes. I got the capacitor from Amazon "6 pcs Panasonic FM Series Capacitors 35V 330uf Low Impedance" ($6.99) and would change out the capacitor if there's more issue due to bad capacitor. To increase the remote range/distance with at least 100ft, I added the Windsurfer. Here the info: Windsurfer Instruction | PDF Template | Misc Info/Photo

It appears the comment was the screws that hold down the circuit board were in plastic housing and they cracked loose. I've seen that before on other repairs where the screw is so well locked into the plastic the housing cracks rather than break free the screw. I would imagine a few screws probably would break free ok and the board isnt' going anywhere in the housing. I'd probably try to get some adhesive and just jb weld the board into place and buy you 10+ years before the capacitor fails again. Since I did the repair years ago still no issues with the garage door opener.

began having the no close problem intermittently on our 26 year old Liftmaster motorhead. I could stand under it with one of two remotes and not work. So now I have something to look at as the cause. If I may say, I'm a hell of a mechanic after over 40 years turning wrenches. Not so much on circuit boards etc. So I'll probably pull the board and take it to a trusted spark chaser. Glad I stumbled on this site.

Jim - pls report back what results you get. Thanks.

I am having the same issue coz just last week I replaced a light bulb with an Ikea LED bulb. Now even without any bulb in there, I could only remote-control open the dr but not remote-control close. Using the wall button has no problem doing both. I am planning to replace the capacitor aforementioned. Is there any instruction how to open the unit? Maybe I missed it since this is a long discussion started a decade ago. I have soldering gun as long as I can get to the board itself. Thanks in advance!

> How do you open Liftmaster 1000SDR / 2000SDR casing to change the capacitor?

This baffled me for a bit too. For anyone else trying to open the case, you remove the two screws from the bottom of the housing. Then, there are plastic clips on both the front and rear at the top of the housing. The ones at the rear (away from the garage door) are larger so start at the end facing the garage door. With a flat blade screwdriver gently pry the top of the housing away from the unit. After only about 1/16" of movement, the clips should disengage and that side will drop down. Once it's dropped down a bit, push it to the rear (away from the garage door) and it will disengage the clips in the back. The housing will then drop down. It won't come completely off because some wires for the lights are clipped to it, but you can then access the circuit board or other internals.

The circuit board is mounted to a plastic bracket that has two screws (one in front and one in rear) that hold it to the top of the unit. You can remove those two screws to free the circuit board. Then, after unplugging and unscrewing cables, the circuit board (and the plastic side housing it is attached to can be removed. Before detaching the wires from the screws, make sure they wires are label as to which screw they attach to. A few more screws release the circuit board from the plastic side housing to work on the circuit board (replace the capacitor in my case).

Wow. Thank you to those who took the time to write their solutions. I had no idea that LED bulbs can cause interference with signals.

I'm an engineer and was totally confused as to why the garage would open and close from wall, open via remote, but never closed via remote. If it was the safety sensor, it wouldn't close at the wall. If it was the remote malfunctioning, it wouldn't open.

I changed the blubs and its working like a charm.

You mean LED bulbs installed into the opener ITSELF or led bulbs in the CEILING of the garage?

LED bulbs in the opener will interfere with the signal.

I fixed the issue by changing the capacitor stated in the older threads. To get to the capacitor, look for any YT videos about servicing the motherboard that is similar to your garage door mft/model.

https://www.electronicshub.org/radio-interference-by-led-lights/

good info on the led interference

Since I replaced my capacitor a few years ago it still opens on first try remote, closes all the time quickly if needed. If your opener is 15+ years old I would expect this capacitor is on the way out for you.

Thank all of you for this post! Saved me a bunch of money on a service call. Replaced the 35v 330uF capacitor on a LIftmaster 1/2 HP from 1998 works great.

Posted on May 16, 2022. I have a 10 year old craftsman 1/2 HP garage door opener. Recently, It had a problem: It can open/close with one click of the wall button. And I could open the garage with remote when driving back to the drive way. But, I couldn't close the garage with remote when I leaved home (because the light of the opener is on now triggered by passing the door sensors). Searched and found here, now I know that when the light is on, remote will not work. Posts here are right, It was because the capacitor near the transformer on the circuit board was bad, and I ordered a 330 uF, 35V capacitor (1.2 dollars for the similar one), replaced the bad one on board. Everything works fine now. In my case, it was not because of LED bulb, or spider net on the door sensors ( I had such problem once long time ago). One thing to share here is that the bad capacitor didn't show any thing bad on its casing, no fluid out, no burning. It just become bad inside. When you change the capacitor, be careful that you need identify the positive and negative pole of the capacitor. Many thanks to all of you who share the knowledge here.

Oh my goodness, this thread was amazing. Perfectly described the problem I was having with my Chamberlain Liftmaster Professional 1/3 H.P. garage door opener from circa 2005 (garage door would open with the remote but wouldn’t close with the remote. Wired wall button worked fine). I had an LED bulb on there, and even though the bulb had been there for years I tried swapping out for an incandescent with no change - it was worth a shot. What really sealed the deal to swap the capacitor was when I opened the garage, waited for the light to go out, then tried the remote and it worked like normal. Purchased a 6 pack of capacitors on Amazon for $10, looked up how to remove the board on YouTube, busted out my soldering iron from college lab days, and in less the 30 minutes it was working as good as new! I cannot thank y’all enough for helping solve this one - yay internet!

this thread saved me significant time and money. thank you so much to all who developed this topic and the repair ideas. My 23 year old unit would not respond to remote signal when the courtesy light was on. When I found this thread I decided to try the repair. I changed out the capacitor on my board and the remotes work now...both when courtesy light is off and when it is on. so thrilled to have been able to repair the old unit and thank you so much!!

Same problem with a 2022 Genie. Yesterday I substituted the 60W LED bulbs with 100W LED bulbs and afterwards I discovered that I couldn't close the door with my HomeLink car remote. I just yesterday took all my CFL bulbs to Home Depot for disposal, so I guess I'll be going back to the 60W LED bulbs. In 2022, is it not possible to design an opener which can handle various sizes of LED bulbs without this kind of failure?

same problem (wall button works fine, remote opens but won't close door) with a 15 year old Liftmaster. however, removing light bulbs and replacing capacitor have not fixed the problem...what next?

Thanks to everyone who posted on the issue with the remote not closing the garage door. I spent a lot of time testing out other solutions before I came across this post. Changing the bulb worked for me on a Craftsman opener that is at least 15 years old. I'm not sure if the bulb I replaced was an LED, but likely it was. It was installed sometime in the last couple of years. I only had one non-LED bulb left. I will be looking for more to have on hand for the opener.

replaced the capacitor. $10. Never soldered or done anything like that before. It works! thanks everyone above for the advice.

OMG it was the LED bulbs interfering all this time! we could open with the remote, but not close with the remote. wall buttons worked fine. the second we took out the LEDs, everything started working fine!

i went Home Depot picked up two light bulb that were made for the opener

My small door works great.

My large door has the same bulb and

it open but does’t close.

If you replace the capacitor (which it looks like I am about to do here soon because I am having the same issues like everyone else here) will I need to reprogram my remotes or anything afterward? My plan was to remove the logic board, replace the capacitor, and slap it back in. Wondering if there is anything else I should be aware of during the process.

No reprogramming is needed as you are not messing with the dip switches on the repair. The plastic mounts can be brittle on the board and just old plastic in general, use hand tools to break the screws free, if you use power screwdrivers you may crack the screws off at the housing making the repair and removing items more tricky

I have a Liftmaster, year 1996, and was having the same problem. The wall mount opener is able to open/close the door but the remote was not able to close the door once it was open or vice versa. When the door was closed/open, I would have to turn off the lamps by using the wall mount light button. This allowed the remote to work.

I removed the 2 lamps, which were very hot even though they were on for less than a minute, and the remote opener was able to work for about 4 weeks and then eventually the remote couldn't open or close the door unless I was under the unit.

I removed a 35v 330uf electrolytic capacitor and replaced it with another capacitor that I took out of some old electronics. It was less capacitance but close enough. Put the unit back together and the remote is now able to open the garage door just fine. Looks like that capacitor is after the rectifier bridge and so its filtering the AC to DC and so it must not be holding up the DC bus. Either way, if you're having a similar issue start by replacing the 35v 330uf. Can purchase this one: 35YXF330MEFCT810X16,

CAP ALUM 330UF 20% 35V RADIAL, from Digikey. Unplug the unit before you work on it.

Amazing - never would've thought an LED bulb would be the cause, but removing it and putting my last remaining incandescent bulb back in makes the garage door behave normally once again. Apologies for all the bad thoughts I sent to the generic universal remotes I've been blaming!

Mine is a Chamberland 1/2 HP, manufactured in 1996. I replaced the incandescent bulb with an LED about 3 months before the problem started. To get to the board, I labeled and disconnected the sensor wires, then removed 4 screws on the back panel. The board is attached to the back panel and connected by a plastic bus plug that easily comes loose. The board is attached to the back panel by 5 screws. Replacing the capacitor was easy. To replace the back panel, notice that two screws on top are threaded for metal while the 2 bottom screws are threaded for a plastic retainer, don’t mix them up. Works great now.

Is this problem CAUSED by LED lights, or is it a normal problem of the capacitor going bad? Can I use an LED light in the opener, or will this accellerate the degredation of the capacitor?

I would expect the capacitor failing from decades of being powered up, they are only rated for so long and 20+ years is pretty amazing! As long as your circuit board is powering correctly after replacement that any bulb will work fine and I don't expect that it would make the capacitor fail early. Figure in 10-20 years you might be back in there doing the capacitor again. My light only stays on a few minutes so I just put a big flood incandescent bulb in. Working flawless now for probably 5 years.

There are two completely separate possible problems. Problem #1 is a noisy LED (not, sound noise, but electrical noise that makes radio interference) that makes it more difficult for the radio signal from remote to base to work. Problem #2 is a capacitor on the board that wears out with age that affects the wireless capabilities.

The LED bulb doesn't cause a bad capacitor or vice versa. These are cumulative issues, but unrelated in cause. So, it's slightly possible that a combination of these two issues could exist where the cumulative effects of both are enough to make it not work. But, one doesn't cause the other.

Test #1 is to just temporarily remove any bulbs from the opener and see if that makes a difference in how the wireless remote works. If it does, then you probably just need a better bulb. If it doesn't, then the next most likely cause is the capacitor.

For my opener, the bulbs made no difference. Mine was fixed by replacing the capacitor and is now working fine (at 25 years old).

Hooooly wow I can't believe that worked. Just replaced the cap in my LiftMaster 1000SDR that is 25 years old with one I scrounged out of an old modem from a junk drawer! THANK YOU ALL for this thread... that just saved me a lot of money!

Just replace the capacitor and that will fix the problem.

I used Panasonic ECA-1VM331 .

I don't know if anyone is still listening to this forum, but I have this problem. I took out the light (which was incandescent anyway). I replace the capacitor. I still have the same issue. Are there any other possible causes? Thank you for any help.

Mark Moorman: be sure the capacitor was installed in the correct polarity and that the solder joints are conductive.

no solder on mine as it has wired connectors. Also, I was under the impression that this capacitor was non-polar. See image:

Does not look like the correct capacitor. i don’t have a photo of mine but others in this thread have posted good photos. the one you need to replace is soldered on the circuit board.

look at Shaopeng Wang post 2 years ago with pics, he provides images of the board and capacitor. The specs of your image are not correct for the bad capacitor