A 2018 CBS report detailed an incident in San Diego’s “Rancho” neighborhood, where over 30 local residents experienced simultaneous garage door malfunctions. The community woke up one morning to find that many of their garage doors were mysteriously wide open with no way to close them.
The baffled residents initially thought it was the malfunctioning opener remotes causing the problem. They tried to replace the batteries and remote controls, but despite their efforts, none of the garage doors would work.
Jim Meyer, a local resident, noticed that his HomeLink, a car built-in garage door opener button, wasn’t working. He turned to Facebook to post the issue on the local community’s page and soon enough, he had over 30 responses from people in the Rancho area who were experiencing similar problems with their garage doors, leading many to wonder what was going on.
In the following days, the malfunctioning garage door openers in Rancho mysteriously began working again for no apparent reason. Although the residents were glad to have their garage doors working again, the unknown cause of the disturbance had the locals worried that they might come home one day to find all of their garage doors mysteriously open again, leaving them vulnerable to burglaries and vandalism.
The residents suspected the nearby cell phone tower of interfering with their garage door openers, assuming that the issue must be related to Radio Frequency Interference (RFI). One resident suspected that the military might be to blame, with a nearby naval base having caused frequency interference problems in the past.
Speaking to a CBS reporter, the Chamberlain Group, a US garage door opener manufacturer, stated that they updated their radio frequency technology in 2007 to the Security+ 2.0 system, making radio interference much less likely. As a result, anyone with a pre-2007 garage door opener experiencing interference problems should contact their support team or consult a licensed garage door repair company to see what can be done.
The Rancho interference incident highlights that some frequency interference sources could be beyond your control. Old garage door openers may operate on a frequency that is more susceptible to interference. Changing the frequency of the opener or installing a smart garage door opener can help prevent potential interference from various sources, as well as range problems and intermittent operation.
