Genie Excelerator Intellicode Garage door opener 390 MHz

My Genie garage door opener begin to fail to open usless my remote control units was within 8-10 feet from the receiver. I contacted Genie support and after a 15 minuets on hold , I was told the problem was a interference caused by something in my house. Thier solution was to start turning off the home electric breakers until the unit stated to work and that would locate the cause of the interference. Neeless to say that I tried this and nothing helped. I called back the Genie , again a 15 miniute wait, I was told that they could do nothing about the interference since that was not covered under their warranty or maintenance.

I searched the internet and found a article about thousands of complaints to garage door companies about problem with door openers that operate on the 390 MHz frequency range. The Homeland Security Mobile service have installed a new radio systems around the nation on the 390 MHz frequency band. This article said that some companies are now starting to manufacture their door operators on 310 MHZ to correct this problem. I again contacted Genie Support and again 15 min. wait and was told that they made a 360 Mhz Conversion Unit Kit to change the frequency . This Kit, GIRU360-3B, cost me $58.58 with shipping and handling. This Kit fixed my interefence problem and the door opener now worked like it did , when I purchased this home. The problem now was that since I had three remote control units , plus a wireless keypad I had to replace the remote control units at a cost of 36.00 each and installed a wired keypad at $50.00.

So much for a Genie product the was installed on this home in April of 2004 and has a lifetime warranty. The warranty only applies to the original purchaser and not the new home owner. I purchased the home in July 2004. So my advice to all consumers is if you need to replace your garage door opener don't buy a Genie or and unit that operates on 390 MHz. This frequency band is reserved for the military and government use and should not have been used by the door opening manufactures.

This problelm was just suppose to happen if you live near a military base or an airport, but I live in a small northeastern Ohio town miles for any of these facilities zip 44490. But we do have a police station radio and I think that could been the source of the frequency interefence problem.

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Genie's are still being sold using 390MHz. What is needed is a directional antennae to determine where the interference is coming from. Homeland security has backed off with their plans to use the 390MHz spectrum. The biggest polluter of this frequency is now Verizon FIOS. They however claim to use only light and push you off. However simply turn off their box and then test the range of your remotes and you'll be amazed...

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No new operators being manufactured operate on 390MHz.

Quite a few manufacturers did use 390 for 20 years until the government suddenly and with very little warning decided that they wanted to use the frequency. It was not reserved back in 2004. Warranty does not apply because your remotes are in fact functioning correctly, the government is just causing your signal to be blocked.

Most residential radio transimitting equipment (rc toys, cordles phones, rf remotes, etc) operate unlicensed and as such all these devices are secondary to someone who currently or subsequently licenses the frequency they use. It is better than you having to go out and get a radio operators license just to use your remote control.