CFL in Garage Door Opener

They are very slow in cold temp. At least in my garage they do work but to get full brightness it takes at least a minute or so. My garage is insulated but not heated. I understand there are fl. made for cold environment.

It is about 60F in the garage. The CFL bulbs in the outdoor fixtures work fine. They are a little slow to fully light, but the garage door opener doesn't light at all.

I have the same set up 2 13 watt in place of the pair of 60W. What you have to do is get a flat head screw driver and pry the contact at the base of the socket up enough to get contact to the bulb. To test turn on the light for the unit and then insert the bulbs.The cfl bulb doen't go in quite as far as an incandescent because of the larger portion at the base. First unplug the unit though, just to be safe. This works great for the opener because I have NEVER had to replace the bulbs for burn out because there is no filament to vibrate and break!

Hi, My guess is the light socket in the opener is contolled by a solid state relay rather than electro mechanical relay. Then it won't light for sure. For one thing SS relay needs certain amount(Watts) of minimum load to activate.

CFLs are usually not the best choice in applications where on-time is low, and especially when on-time per start is low. It is probably more economical to use incandescents rated for vibration duty.

If the garage door opener uses electronic means to switch the lamps, CFLs may not work right unless they are rated for use with dimmers.

- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)

whatever

If he has a mechanical relay, it will make a click sound when the light goes on or off. If electronic you won't hear anything. Press the light button on the wall switch if it has one. Or wait for the light to go off and listen for the click sound. As others have said, it's probably that the shape of the CFL base is too bulky and will not properly seat in the socket. I have had this problem with other CFL's and table lamp sockets especially with the 3-way CFL bulbs. Kevin

Hmmm, Sealed relay hardly makes loud enough click sound to be noticed while door is going up making louder noise......

That's why I said use the light button on the openers wall switch or wait for the light to go off on it's own which should be 3-5 min. after the door stops moving. I can hear the light relay on my opener click from anywhere in my garage - 2 year old Genie ProMax

Kevin

Same with mine

Hi, I have regular ceiling light firxture, door opener light, and I mounted a IR triggered lights as well. When I work inside garage I turn on regular lights but if I need to go out to garage to fetch something from freezer or pick up a tool, IR triggered lights come on as soon as I step in, when I am done it goes out after couple mins. delay. Also there is a fair size window. Also I have a motion sensor switch in the hall way from garage into house. I don't have to fumble around trying to turn light on with handsful of groceries.

If that's the problem, you might see if you can bend the center contacts in the sockets up unough to make contact with the CFL's tip contacts.

UNPLUG the opener before you try that. If you bend about 1/4" of the end of an opened up paperclip at a right angle you'll have made a tool which can be used to pull up the socket's center contact a bit.

HTH,

Jeff

Hi, If the relay is elctro mechanical and one with removable cover.