Garage Door opener lighting?

[SuperDave456]

So I recently repaired the motherboard to our garage door opener. And in the process the cheap plastic covered crumbled in the process. I taped it back together, spray painted it, and got it back up. (Incredibly cheap plastic in a hot garage in Tx) Today I came home and it had fallen off taking the lighting on the garage door opener with it. It's not a huge deal, I have 2 banks of 4 T5 bulbs out there on a switch, but it's an inconvenience. It's good to have some light to come home to. Currently I have a pair of 14ga wires hanging from a zip tie on the opener with 2 bulbs attached to the wires. The parts of the fractured plastic case they attached to was easy to separate from them. However, The bulbs on a wire are a little too trailer trash for me, and possibly dangerous given enough time. It's not much juice, 2 bulbs in a fixture that had "Max 60 watt bulbs" on it. So I could do more than the 2 compact florescent bulbs, possibly a fixture with LED bulbs. At this point I'm looking for ideas. Thank you,

 

[pkunk]

Not LEDs as they're supposed to interfere with the radio signal. Why not just hook wires up to a second hand store ceiling fixture?

 

[tom slick]

I’d install an LED flood light fixture like this

 

[StevieC]

Originally Posted By: pkunk

Not LEDs as they're supposed to interfere with the radio signal. Why not just hook wires up to a second hand store ceiling fixture?

I think you mean Compact Fluorescents and that was first generation spiral type bulbs because the power supplies operate on high voltages.

 

[alarmguy]

Any LED light fixture should work. We have 2 openers, last year I put regular cheap Lowes LED screw in light bulbs, work perfect, no issues. If I am reading your post correctly, the bulb socket is shot. It would seem to be any LED strip light should work. The actual wattage will be on the fixture, your choices with LED is endless. Most all will be less then 60 watt draw. Im talking draw, not "equivalent" A 60 watt equal in LED will be around 8 actual watts. Just check the label and keep it to 60 or lower, actual wattage of the fixture.

 

[raytseng]

any led would be good. cfl would not be good. even the best need time for the ballast to warm up so is not suited for the short term nature.

 

[Rick in PA]

Before you make any permanent arraignments with LED lights, I'd try them first. I have an old garage door opener and when I tried to install an LED light, it didn't work. Something with the LED didn't play well with the garage door circuitry, perhaps it didn't offer enough load. I had to install a standard incandescent lamp for it to work.

 

[Cujet]

Originally Posted By: SuperDave456

Currently I have a pair of 14ga wires hanging from a zip tie on the opener with 2 bulbs attached to the wires. Thank you,

You will be very happy with a cheap 4 foot LED shop light, wired in to the garage door opener. Costco has a nice one that will work perfectly. I think they consume less than 40W each. My garage opener has a separate button to control the light. I'm considering adding 2 "shop lights" to the circuit, one on either side of the opener.

 

[DBMaster]

The relatively quick on/off cycles of garage door opener lights will substantially shorten the lifespan of any type of fluorescent bulb, especially CFLs. Have you attempted to order a replacement cover online? The bulbs that have worked best for me are 130V incandescent bulbs. They have thicker filaments by nature - being made for 130V and last for close to ten years. I have separate garage lighting for working out there. My door opener lighting is just the two 130V 60W bulbs which is more than enough for entry and exit from the garage.

 

[DBMaster]

I forgot to mention that I've tried LED bulbs in my GDO and they flickered and/or failed prematurely. I don't think that the GDO feeds a full 120V to the bulbs. My opener is a commercial grade Liftmaster so it's a pretty good one.

 

[CT8]

Originally Posted By: DBMaster

The relatively quick on/off cycles of garage door opener lights will substantially shorten the lifespan of any type of fluorescent bulb, especially CFLs. Have you attempted to order a replacement cover online? The bulbs that have worked best for me are 130V incandescent bulbs. They have thicker filaments by nature - being made for 130V and last for close to ten years. I have separate garage lighting for working out there. My door opener lighting is just the two 130V 60W bulbs which is more than enough for entry and exit from the garage.

I have been using CFLs in my openers for years and they work fine in fact outlasting heavy duty incandescent bulbs . That being said like anything some last seemingly forever some quit working quicker that expected.

 

[DBMaster]

I read this about CFL bulbs a long time ago - that if their on time is less than fifteen minutes on a regular basis they fail prematurely. I experienced that when using them for bathroom lighting. But, maybe not all are subject to that. They definitely don't reach full brightness for about thirty seconds and for that reason alone I never considered them for GDO lighting. I suppose if you went with a higher lumen bulb than the normal 60W incandescent it might not matter.

 

[cb450sc]

My garage door opener would not work when I put LED lights in it. The door would open from the switch on the wall but would not open from an incoming car. I put the CFL's back in and it is fine.

 

[javacontour]

Originally Posted By: cb450sc

My garage door opener would not work when I put LED lights in it. The door would open from the switch on the wall but would not open from an incoming car. I put the CFL's back in and it is fine.

The circuit boards on some LED bulbs interfere with the radio signal. Not all. Probably depends on both the opener and the bulb. You may have better luck with a different bulb, or not...

 

[exranger06]

LEDS not working in garage door openers is a well-known problem. That's why Genie came out with an LED specifically made for garage door openers: http://www.geniecompany.com/garage-door-openers/accessories/led-light-bulb.aspx I've never actually tried it and don't know how well it works though.