Garage door lights are a great optional feature to have on the exterior of your garage. Either for aesthetic, functional, or security reasons, I know I’d definitely prefer to have garage door lights lighting up the front of my house at night, and here are a few reasons why.
Why you should invest in Garage Door Lights
These lights are usually inexpensive, long-lasting, and easy to install. So you shouldn’t need much of a reason in the first place to get these today. But if you need more persuading, here are a quick few points as to why they are a great idea.
Security: This one alone is enough, if you keep valuables in your garage or the rest of your home for that matter, I would recommend using garage door lights, a motion sensor is also a plus for this reason. These lights alone are will not guarantee security of your home/garage if they aren’t coupled with a secured garage door. If you’re looking for a selection of great garage door locks, check out my article on it here. Leaving your garage light on will deter criminals by informing them of your presence, they aren’t very expensive to leave on either.
Aesthetics: If you take pride in the front of your house, it makes much more sense to keep it lit rather than having a dark exterior to the front of your house, which in my opinion seems a bit depressing. Even better if you have a nicely painted garage door.
Functional: You may decide to put up a basketball net in your front driveway or do your car repairs in the evening after work when it’s dark, either way, having a good garage door light will mean you can do these things later on, and not have to hold the torch in your mouth while trying to find the missing screw when fixing your car!
Now you’ve seen the value a good garage door can do to your peace of mind and front driveway, let’s take a look at some of the best garage door lights you can get today.
Top Garage Door Lights
1. VerRon Motion Sensor Outdoor Light. This classic, retro style light has all the features you’ll need for a garage door light. With it’s styling matte-black finish, it not only looks amazing, but works amazingly as well. It’s advanced motion sensor ensures energy efficient lighting, with a baseline 30% brightness at night, and 100% brightness when motion is detected. The light itself is compatible with most types of bulbs, (100W max). Finally, despite it being 100% heavy-duty aluminium, it is rust-proof, waterproof, and easy to install, what more could you want?
2. Tipace Black Modern Outdoor Porch Lights. These slick garage door lights are like nothing I’ve seen before, talk about discrete and stylish, these don’t even look like garage door lights, but boy, are they good ones. These die-cast aluminium lights are fully waterproof and have great resistant to heat making them fully weather-proof. They also match to many types of bulbs with a maximum of 60W. Finally, these lights are easy to install and even come with a 100% guarantee just in case the stylish look is too much for your front exterior.
3. Solar Lights Outdoor, 210 LED 2500LM Solar Flood Security Lights. Who doesn’t love the idea of solar panelled lights? While not only being great for the environment, these LED garage door lights will offer you a great bang for your buck due to them being long-lasting and high performing. Speaking of which, these ultra-bright lights will make you sleep better at night (provided you have the curtains closed) as you’ll know your garage is completely safe from intruders. On top of that, its advanced motion sensor will quickly trigger on once detect any movement up to 26ft with a 120° detection angle and light for about 20s each time and extend for another 20s for repetitive detection. Finally, they are completely weather proof making these a great option for complete coverage for the front of your house all year round.
4. Sconce 2-Pack Motion Sensor Outdoor Wall Lanterns. These garage door lights are quite similar to the first on the list, but two is always better than one! What’s also great is the design and features, using advanced PIR motion technology, they will be on as long as motion is detected, and stay at 25% brightness when no motion is detected, making them as energy efficient as possible. If you want to keep the light on full brightness for an extended period of time (up to 8 hours at a time), you can easily switch on the manual mode for some late-night basketball sessions or parties if you install them in your back garden. Finally, while there are two of them, that doesn’t make them hard to install, just use any bulbs that fit with an E26 socket and you’re good to go all year round with its great weatherproofing.
5.Dusk to Dawn Led Outdoor Lighting, Front Porch Decorations Outdoor Exterior Light. The final instalment on this list is a very stylish one. You’ll either love or hate this one, but personally, I think it’s great, so I’ve left it until last. It’s dusk to dawn energy saving feature will adjust accordingly to the brightness level outside saving unnecessary energy and ultimately money on your energy bill. It is not only weather resistant, but easy to install, again use bulbs compatible with an E26 socket and you’re good to go. While the design is the most simple I’ve ever seen, the installation and maintenance of them are definitely up there, this will be a great return on investment especially considering you get two lights.
Tips on how to install and maintain Garage Door Lights
Each garage door light I’ve shown on this list are very easy to install, they should all be easy to maintain as well since they are weather-proof. But in case you need some extra guidance, I’ve got you covered.
How to install the lights
Step 1: Remove Existing Light
After disconnecting the power from your fuse to your pre-existing light, remove the existing light from the wall. The screws may be located underneath a mounting plate, which can be lifted off. Hold the light in place while removing the screws with a screwdriver or power drill. Lift the old light fixture off from the wall. While holding the light fixture, untwist the plastic wire connectors and wire ends to disconnect.
Step 2: Replace the Mounting Bracket
A new light should come with mounting hardware. Replace the old mounting bracket with the new mounting bracket. Use a level to make sure the crossbar is level.
Step 3: Wire the Outdoor Light
Connect your pre-existing wires to your new light as follows: Connect black to black, white to white, and ground to ground by twisting the bare ends of the wires together clockwise. (The ground wire is typically green, but could also be a bare copper wire coming from the junction box). Make sure there are no wires are sticking out of the exterior.
Step 4: Install the New Fixture
Attach the new light fixture to the mounting bracket using the provided hardware. Secure the appropriate screws to ensure it is firmly attached to your wall.
How to maintain your garage door light
Now we’re almost there, there’s not much to consider when it comes to maintenance, if you’ve invested in a good product like the ones shown on this list, you should only be worried about changing the bulb every few months.
Other than that, you may want to take extra efforts to make your garage door light rust-proof. For this galvanisation process, you’ll want to invest in a zinc spray since more often than not these garage door lights are aluminium.
If you haven’t got some already, you can find them here.
Final Thoughts
It’s as simple as that, if you want to light up your garage (well, the outside), then you have some great light to choose from here.
Make sure you take care of these lights, if you went for a higher priced one, maybe keep the ball games for the park. Other than that, there are extremely easy to maintain but there are sure to make a noticeable difference to the appearance of your house.
If you’re looking to light up the inside of your garage, check out my article on The Top 7 Garage LED Lights of 2021. If you found this article useful, please feel free to share, until the next one, enjoy your lights!
