Garage door & inside light bulb
 

Why is it a special lamp is sold at stores like Home Depot for garages.
Namely, a "garage door lamp - 60 watts"?

Will any 60 watt bulb do? My local Home Depot is out of stock.

As always, thank you in advance.

Michael

"Michael T" wrote...

Why is it a special lamp is sold at stores like Home Depot for garages.
Namely, a "garage door lamp - 60 watts"?

Will any 60 watt bulb do? My local Home Depot is out of stock.

As always, thank you in advance.

Michael

I'd say any 60w bulb will do. The garage door (and ceiling fan) bulbs are
probably a little longer-lived in vibration-prone areas like door openers or
fans.

Craig

"Michael T" wrote:

Why is it a special lamp is sold at stores like Home Depot for garages.
Namely, a "garage door lamp - 60 watts"?

Will any 60 watt bulb do? My local Home Depot is out of stock.

As always, thank you in advance.


Rule 1 of marketing is to label a product for its application, not what it is.
That way you get people to pay more for it.

Garage door lamps are also known as "rough service" lamps. They have a thicker
filiment to withstand the vibration better so as to last a little longer. They
also tend to use a little more current.

Regular bulbs will work fine - they just may burn out a little faster.

Craig wrote:
I'd say any 60w bulb will do. The garage door (and ceiling fan)
bulbs are probably a little longer-lived in vibration-prone areas
like door openers or fans.

If the OP's garage door opener vibrates a lot, a conventional bulb will
be a LOT shorter lived.

On Fri, 11 Mar 2005 15:42:16 GMT, someone wrote:

If the OP's garage door opener vibrates a lot, a conventional bulb will
be a LOT shorter lived.

Going further upstream - consider why a vibrating motorized powerhead
even has a light bulb mounted directly to it, which them needs a
vibration resistant bulb.

Yes its conveniently self-contained. But it might actually work
better if the light that was switched to the opener was a separate
piece on a short cord, so that it could be mounted to something else
like the ceiling on a different joist.

But then nobody would buy it because it is more trouble to put up, oh
well.


Reply to NG only - this e.mail address goes to a kill file.

In (v) wrote:

Yes its conveniently self-contained. But it might actually work
better if the light that was switched to the opener was a separate
piece on a short cord, so that it could be mounted to something else
like the ceiling on a different joist.

But then nobody would buy it because it is more trouble to put up, oh
well.

I built exactly such a contraption, using an SPST 110V relay from Radio
Shack. I screwed an outlet adapter into the lamp socket on the opener, and
power the relay coil from that. I have a second line plugged into an
adjacent outlet and switch that through the relay contacts to several
hardware-store ceramic lamp sockets mounted on joists.

The lamp socket on the opener itself was only rated for 60W; this solves
that problem too.

--
Bert Hyman St. Paul, MN

Michael T wrote:
Why is it a special lamp is sold at stores like Home Depot for garages.
Namely, a "garage door lamp - 60 watts"?

Will any 60 watt bulb do? My local Home Depot is out of stock.


I've always used plain 60 watt bulbs in my openers. I rarely have
had to change them. However, I always use rough service bulbs in my
trouble lights that I use when working on the cars.
Mark