eLightBulbs Lighting Blog > Garage-Door Opener Light Go Out? Try One of These

Garage-door openers are very poor hosts to light bulbs.  Harsh vibrations each time the garage is opened are one thing, but there is also the issue of frequent power cycling.  Light bulbs in garage-door openers are generally turned on, and then off shortly thereafter.  This degrades the life of the fragile filament inside the glass bulb.

 

While standard incandescent light bulbs will be banned from retailers in 2012, there are certain types of incandescent light bulb that will remain for sale.  One of these is the rough service light bulb.  Rough service light bulbs are crafted with the rigors of garage-door openers and other treacherous applications in mind.  Many niche incandescent light bulbs like the rough service light bulb will be staying beyond 2012.

 

The glass bulb of rough service incandescents is covered by a thin layer of silicone.  This silicone layer provides great strength to the glass, making it quite difficult to break.  If a rough service light bulb is somehow cracked, there is no explosion of glass like with standard incandescents.  The silicone holds all the glass in place, preventing a deluge of glass shards.  In addition to this layer of safety silicone, the filament of rough service light bulbs is slightly thicker and more robust than standard incandescents to prevent damage from vibration.

 

Rough service light bulbs run at 130 volts, which increases their life significantly.  Most rough service incandescent light bulbs have lifetimes not far removed from compact fluorescents; 10,000 hours and more are common.  All these things combine to make rough service incandescent light bulbs the only reasonable choice for garage-door openers.

 

For other garage lights I would still go with compact fluorescent light bulbs.  Their range of color temperatures, energy efficiency, and cost saving cannot be ignored in regular lighting applications.