Why Does Genie® Use LED Light Bulbs in our Garage Door Openers?

Published on: April 10, 2018

Conscientious homeowners use their garage door openers to make their homes more convenient while also improving safety and efficiency. At Genie, we help homeowners achieve these goals by making our garage door opener components user-friendly and long lasting. New Genie technologies such as smart hub capabilities, motion-activated sensors, and integrated battery backups help improve the performance, while DC motors and LED light bulbs make today's garage door openers more efficient than ever. Our Genie LEDs provide more than efficiency, as they can decrease interference with remotes, improve overall bulb lifespan, and withstand certain environmental conditions better than any other bulb. Below we discuss some of the benefits and features of our LED light bulbs designed specifically for use in garage door openers. 

 

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are one of the greatest advancements in energy-efficient home technology in this lifetime. LEDs generally last longer, are more durable, and offer comparable light quality to other types of lighting, all while saving the homeowner considerable money on the electricity bill. According to the Department of Energy, LEDs last approximately 25 times longer and use 75% less energy than similar incandescent lighting. The reason: holistically different technology that offers greater material lifespan over time.

Incandescent light bulbs use a glowing tungsten filament that heats up and glows when electric current is passed through it. In order to work, the thin filament is coiled tightly and suspended in the center of the light bulb. As the filament heats up and glows, the white coated glass surrounding the filament helps diffuse white light. Tungsten is malleable but not exceptionally durable because it is so thin in the light bulbs. The slightest bump or electrical surge can cause the filament to break or overheat.

LEDs are the size of a fleck of pepper, and multiple colored diodes are used to create white light. Because the light emitted from the diodes is more direct, no diffusing agent is required, which means the light from LEDs is brighter. LEDs also lose very little energy in the form of heat, unlike incandescent bulbs that lose up to 90% of their energy in this manner.

LEDs in Garage Door Openers

LEDs provide a host of benefits over incandescent bulbs for homeowners with garage door openers. Your garage door opener lights provide illumination of a common entryway into your home; therefore, it can be a pain if those lights constantly burn out. Replacing the lights in your garage door opener is a simple task but can become expensive and troublesome if it is a regular occurrence. LEDs, on the other hand, are durable and can last up to 25,000 hours before needing replaced.

Genie’s LED bulbs are vibration and shatter resistant, built to withstand the vibration of garage door openers during operation. This vibration can drastically shorten the lifespan of incandescent bulbs, while LEDs remain unaffected. Our LED bulbs are also tested to withstand 5G of shaking force, which greatly exceeds what is normal vibration for a garage door opener. We use shatter resistant materials to make our LEDs even more durable.

 

Garage door opener remotes operate on radio frequency waves. These waves can be interrupted by electromagnetic fields that are given off by a variety of home appliances, electrical transformers, and even the light bulbs in the garage door opener itself. LED light bulbs contain what are known as “drivers,” which emit a strong enough electromagnetic signal to disrupt the radio waves from your remote. If the radio waves are disrupted enough, your remote may not work, or at the very least, will be reduced to working within a much shorter range than typical.

But not all LED bulbs cause this problem. Genie has specifically designed our LEDs for use in garage door openers of almost any type, and they contain a special shielding that prevents their drivers from interfering with the action of your garage door opener remote. Unlike some LED light bulbs with bases that are too short for use in garage door openers, our LEDs are designed to fully reach the bottom of the light socket for a solid, complete connection.

Pro Tip: Check out this video, for a great example of LED interference. The homeowner was experiencing intermittent closing and opening issues that were only noticed after replacing the traditional incandescent bulbs with LEDs. When Genie learned of his problem, our service department contacted him to offer a solution. Once the homeowner replaced the bulbs with Genie’s LED bulbs, (video here) the intermittent closing issue was taken care of and the opener functioned as it was designed.

Thwart the Cold and Wet
Unheated and/or damp garages can render light bulbs ineffective or lower their lighting effectiveness because moisture can affect the connection in the garage door opener and inside the bulb. Extremely cold conditions can also affect how quickly the light bulb will turn on, often requiring several seconds or even a minute to completely light up.
But Genie developed our LED light bulbs to provide consistent, dependable service no matter the conditions of your garage. Genie’s LED bulb is damp location rated and tested for temperatures down to -30C (-22F), so conditions related to both will not impact the light's performance.

Save Money
The lights in your garage door opener operate several times a day and night, and while they are not on as much as many other lights in your house, they still use energy. Incandescent light bulbs can use a significant amount of energy compared to LED bulbs, and switching your garage door opener lights will make your home more energy efficient overall. Genie’s LED bulb will operate for an estimated 25,000 hours, only cost about $1.07/year depending on local utilities, and supply a generous 800 lumens of light, equivalent to a 60-watt incandescent bulb.

Conclusions
Traditional incandescent and other types of lighting will most certainly be replaced by LEDs as time goes on. Today’s consumers are much more focused on energy efficiency and reliability than they were in the past. LED technology provides affordable, efficient, and consistent lighting capabilities in nearly every application, including for garage door openers. Unshielded LEDs can cause issues for remotes that operate on radio frequencies; however, Genie has developed our LED bulb so that it does not interfere with your remote and is shatter resistant, cold weather tested, and damp location rated.

Genie’s LED bulbs are more than compatible with your garage door opener, they were specially made for it. Our bulbs were designed to meet a need in the market and will fit almost any opener on the market. No more coming home to a dark garage or fumbling around trying to get the light bulb seated into the socket. Genie LED bulbs fit securely in the light mounts and provide a full connection for strong, uninterrupted lighting.

 

Visit our website today to learn more about Genie’s LED lighting, or buy online now; Single Pack or Double Pack. Contact us today if you have questions.