Malibu Lighting Intermatic & Brinkmann Transformers

Everything you need to know!

Read this First

Malibu Landscape Lighting was owned by Intermatic many years ago. They sold this part of the company to Brinkmann Industries. Brinkmann went out of business in 2016. Many items went to auction and ended up on the internet and sold by some companies that do not maintain any warranty.

Table of Contents - Start Here, you will be glad you did :)

1) Malibu Transformers

a. Malibu transformers made by Intermatic

The Intermatic transformers were 12volt AC, a standard in the landscape lighting industry. It was then and still is today. The Intermatic low voltage transformer is a core and coil type transformer with a basic mechanical timer and together lasted for years and years. Even the newest one out there is still about 10 years old or much older. There are, to our knowledge no replacement parts for Intermatic transformers. We have seen claims that people can replace the timer, the part that is the weak link in the unit and the first part to fail. We have a transformer that is equal to that standard of long lasting performance on our website if you want to replace yours. The standard is still 12volts AC and ours have the same long life as the old Malibu units. You can find them at this link - Compare your unit to these to get the one that will handle the load on your system

Malibu transformers made by Brinkmann

Malibu Lighting by Brinkmann used a digital control printed on a circuit board and a core and coil transformer.  They looked nice and worked well.  However, they did not stand up well if there was a lot of static electricity caused by lightning. It would blow the circuit board.  No one ever sold replacement parts for these units. In addition, there is a problem with the control battery in the unit. We have produced a video on this issue at this link.  This digital transformer still is a 12volt AC transformer and works with all the old Malibu Lighting and any system that is 12volt AC which is about 90% of the systems out there.  Watch out when buying on that huge web site that sells books, underwear and light fixtures. They are not a lighting company and many of their sellers are just selling products they know nothing about. We get hundreds of emails from people that purchased there and now their system will not work.

b. Watch out for this on Malibu Digital Transformers

The hidden battery in the digital transformers and what it means to the operation of the unit.

See our video so you can see the inside of the transformer yourself.

c. Malibu Transformer parts

There was never many parts offered except photocells that attach to the transformer.  We see some of these from time to time on Ebay and some rare parts on Amazon. We also have seen some timers sold as replacements for the very old analog intermatic large units.  We do not know where these come from, and not sure how good they work.  It would also take a level of expertise to change them out.  We do not have Malibu parts in any of our warehouses. Sorry about that.

d. What is the standard for Landscape Lighting Systems

It has been 12volts AC for over 50 years. If you have something else it is an oddball. And there is all kinds of junk coming in from China from people that just do not do lighting.

e. How big of a transformer do I need

We are asked this question time and time again. Too many assumptions are made and with the growing adoption of LED in low voltage outdoor landscape lighting there is a huge difference in the size of the transformer you will need to light your space. Let me give you an example.  If you have 6 x 50watt halogen bulbs, you need a 300 watt transformer (6 X 50watts =300watts). Now let's say you have a LED that only uses 7watts of power and puts out the same amount of light as the 50watt halogen light bulb.  Using a 300watt transformer, we can power 42 7watt LED landscape lights (42 x 7watts = 294watts). What a huge difference :O Many times contractors have put in all kinds of transformers that were just overkill when a smaller wattage transformer would have worked just fine. Also, we have found that those big box stores sold you high wattage capable transformers you really didn't need.  All those high wattage capable transformers would consume more energy to supply power to a system that didn't need that much. What a waste of energy :(  Do the math and match the right transformer with your low voltage outdoor landscape lighting system. it is simple. Just add up all the light bulb wattage of all the lights on your system. If they are all the same as illustrated in our example above just multiply the bulb wattage with the total count of the lights. Let us know if you need help.

f. Troubleshooting my Malibu transformer installation and operation

We got you covered, see these videos. It will make you a expert

g. Replacement recommendations for Malibu transformers

Use the cross reference below to find the best match for your old transformer.

	Company	Intermatic / Brinkmann Malibu Lighting Transformer	Malibu Lighting Watts	Replacement Transformer	Replacement Transformer Watts	Replacement Transformer Watt Difference
	Intermatic	ML44T	44	Best: TLS100-UNV Better: ESL40W Good: EPC40W	40	4watts less
	Intermatic	ML60TW	60	Best: TLS100-UNV Better: ESL100W Good: EPC100W	100	40watts more
	Intermatic	ML88T	88	Best: TLS100-UNV Better: ESL100W Good: EPC100W	100	20watts more
	Intermatic	ML100T	100	Best: TLS100-UNV Better: ESL100W Good: EPC100W	100	40watts more
	Intermatic	ML100THB	100	Best: TLS100-UNV Better: ESL100W Good: EPC100W	100	Equal watts
	Intermatic	ML121RT	121	Best: ESL200W Better: EPC200W	200	79watts more
	Intermatic	ML200RT	200	Best: ESL200W Better: EPC200W	200	Equal watts
	Intermatic	ML300RTW	300	Best: ESL300W Best: EPC300W	300	Equal watts
	Intermatic	ML300TPWSP	300	Best: ESL300W Best: EPC300W	300	Equal watts
	Intermatic	ML600TPWSP	600	EMT600SS-E	600	Equal watts
	Intermatic	ML600TW	600	EMT600SS-E	600	Equal watts
	Intermatic	ML900TW	900	EMT600SS-E	600	300watts less
	Intermatic	AL300MTSS	300	Best: ESL300W Best: EPC300W	300	Equal watts
	Intermatic	AL300TPWSP	300	Best: ESL300W Best: EPC300W	300	Equal watts
	Intermatic	AL300RTW	300	Best: ESL300W Best: EPC300W	300	Equal watts
	Intermatic	AL600MTSS	600	EMT600SS-E	600	Equal watts
	Intermatic	AL600TPWSP	600	EMT600SS-E	600	Equal watts
	Intermatic	AL900MTSS	900	EMT600SS-E	600	300watts less
	Intermatic	AL1200MTSS	1200	EMT600SS-E	600	600watts less
	Brinkmann	8100-9045-01	45	Best: TLS100-UNV Better: ESL40W Good: EPC40W	40	5watts less
	Brinkmann	8100-9120-01	120	Best: ESL200W Better: EPC200W	200	80watts more
	Brinkmann	8100-9200-01	200	Best: ESL200W Better: EPC200W	200	Equal watts
	Brinkmann	8100-9300-01	300	Best: ESL300W Best: EPC300W	300	Equal watts
	Brinkmann	8100-9600-01	600	EMT600SS-E	600	Equal watts
	Brinkmann	8100-9900-01	900	EMT600SS-E	600	300watts less
	Brinkmann	8100-0200-01	200	Best: ESL200W Better: EPC200W	200	Equal watts
	Brinkmann	8100-0300-01	300	Best: ESL300W Best: EPC300W	300	Equal watts
	Brinkmann	8100-0600-01	600	EMT600SS-E	600	Equal watts

2) Older Malibu Fixtures

a. Incandescent / Halogen Malibu low voltage outdoor landscape lighting has not been made since 1999.

We do see some on Ebay quite often and the specific unit you need may still be there.

b. LED Malibu has not been made since 2014.

We do not have them, like the halogen versions, there are some lights still around.  We do offer a great line of LED low votlage outdoor landscape lights with many having changeable LED modules in them that are very common and accessible when in need of a replacement.  Here are our most popular fixtures, all with replaceable and easy accessible LED bulbs.

c. Malibu Solar Lights

Malibu Lighting solar lights have not been made for some time now and the batteries and/or LED light source maybe failing. If solar lighting is not absolutely required there are many benefits to using a wired low voltage lighting system that eliminates temperature sensitive batteries while providing beautiful light. Check out our resource page for helpful tips that will help you become an expert

3) Troubleshooting your system

See our full line of videos on how to test and troubleshoot your landscape lighting

1. Where should I put my lights?
2. How to get the bulb in and out of my FG1021 and FG1020 landscape light fixture
   1. Here is the full video of the FG1021
3. How to use a voltage meter to test my transformer and where to get one and what kind
4. How to test the field feed wire without cutting it
5. How to attach the feed wire to my transformer and what to do with the end of the wire
6. What to check if NONE of my landscape fixtures are working
7. How and when to use a 15V type or a Multi tap transformers
8. The full video, make yourself an expert
9. All the landscape videos in one place
10. The blue connector video

4) Upgrading your system

If you have a Malibu transformer our LED low voltage fixtures will work. Malibu Lighting is 12volt AC and all of our fixtures, bulbs and transformers area also 12volt AC!

5) New Low Voltage Outdoor Landscape lighting Systems

See how simple it is to install a new outdoor landscape lighting system in this video - Here are the results shown in summer and in winter

6) Complete Landscape Lighting Kits

Take out the guess work and make it easy on yourself. See our popular complete kits with everything in one box to make your yard a magical place!

7) Easy landscape lighting wire connectors & how to use them

Our most popular outdoor low voltage landscape lighting wire connector is blue and makes connecting outdoor lights power line a snap. Use on #16 or smaller wire. Watch our video to see its benefits :)

You can purchase them here.

8) See our full line of connectors here & standard parts