LED Bulbs Causing Television Interference?

[onekla]

We are considering the option of changing out some of our bulbs to LEDs. A friend of ours has a 2009 Laredo and has experienced interference in their television when the lights that have LED bulbs are on. Before we spend the money on these "pricey" bulbs I want to see if any of you have had problems with this in your Montana.

[NCFischers]

No problems here.

[pineranch]

No problems either.
Mike

[BB_TX]

I do not have any LEDs, but that is not the first time I have heard of that problem.

[DQDick]

I have heard that before, but we got ours from Michael and Kat and they don't do that. My guess would be cheaply made ones (none of them are cheap) will do that. The problem is how do you tell the difference. That's why I dealt with folks I trust.

[lawrenceb42106]

We bought some from our RV dealer and it caused problems with our radio. Shut the lights off and radio worked fine???

[stiles watson]

I have all LED bulbs in my Big Sky and that is lots of bulbs. there are 21 LEDs in the kitchen and living area and 10 in our bedroom. There is no noticeable interference with either TV or cell phones or anything else.

[dieselguy]

Over a dozen LED's in the living area and bedroom ... no problems

[tim43]

No problem here and have mostly LEDs.

[Artemus Gordon]

I have changed out all the bulbs in my new 3750, replaced with LEDs. Both inside and out including scare lights. All lights in front living room, bookcase area, over couches and near the large flat screen. No problems to report. That said if you have lights on a rheostat , you can experience problems. You have to choose LED,s that can be dimmed, they are available for those applications. Now on my TT, the lights on dimmers made an audible noise. Had to go to special LED,s. hope that helps.

[firetrucker]

The LED's interference problem usually comes from the electronics packaged with it that provides the right voltage and current for the LED to operate. Good design can eliminate that interference. Another source of interference generated by the LED is a strong radio signal nearby.

Go with LEDs that have good recommendations and a good brand name.

Bob

[8.1al]

I have yet to figure out a pattern but we have had instances when the LED's in the bedroom will block the signal to the bedroom tv.

[Art-n-Marge]

Isn't there a filter that can be installed to prevent interference?

I've always thought it's odd when this occurs for some and not for others, for some locations and not for others. I've also wondered if where the power lines are run throughout the coach and around appliances or other things that can have an affect on this.

The only interference I recall is running a cheap hand mixer on the same circuit as a television but I don't remember where or when since it was very temporary. But with electronics that are left on, this would be a big problem for me.

[snfexpress]

Charlie,

I'm wondering if the age of the trailer and thus the circuitry in the Winegard amplifier is such that there is interference?

[8.1al]

I'm not sure Michael. The antenna is about midway over the bed and then I have an led in the sconce over the head of the bed and two ceiling lights over the foot of the bed. The amplifier is across from the foot of the bed in the front wall. The sconce will give me bad reception and the ceiling lights will block everything but this is no big deal to us, we like our led's and we're gonna keep them

[firetrucker]

There's obvious RFI (radio frequency interference), which is a problem with the LED, but it sounds like there possibly is a bad connection in the antenna cabling or it's getting in through the antenna or the power cords.

You can buy a filter that goes on the tv and entertainment center power cords, at Radio Shack.

I think that first I'd make sure all the antenna cable connections are tight, though. Next, see if you can find a real strong local signal and turn off the amplifier. If that fixes the problem, then the amplifier is getting overloaded by the interference, either through the antenna, the cabling, or the 12 V power lead.

If you have an indoor antenna, try connecting that directly to the tv and put it somewhere well away from the RV. If that fixes things, move the antenna into the RV to see what happens.

That should help narrow down the source of the problem (short of replacing the LEDs). I'd still consider putting the interference filters (also called chokes) on all the power cords, including the dc power to the amplifier (just good technique).

When all that fails, it is time to get a portable am radio and start "sniffing" for the source of the interference.

Bob

[jackel1959]

We got our LED's from Michael & Kat. We have replaced every 12v incandescent in the rig with those LED's and have never experienced any interference.

Jack

[CBTraveler]

No interference with any of the leds we bought from micheal&kat, buy i do notice that the one Camping World LED fixture we have will blink like it has a loose connection( it does not have a loose connection).

[rollie41]

replaced all lights in our 3400, no interference.we got ours from Michael and Kat also.

[onekla]

Thank you all for the information!