Planning a new build and the reviews I've seen for LED lights for all the major suppliers look like they aren't reliable. I'm thinking of saving $1500-$2000 and going old school. My thought is I can swap these out for LEDs later when they are better and cheaper. Any flaws in my thinking?
Avoid LED lights? Reviews don't look so hot
- Thread starter Foosman
- Start date
I bought three Pentair 5g Led lights 5 years ago and 1 out of the 3 is now missing the blue bank of lights. Other than that all work great. The reason I bought the Led lights was because when the old school lights went out, I replaced the bulb but could never get them to seal properly. I thought the LED lights would last 5 or more years without issues. I was wrong and will be looking at replacing the one light some time in the near future when I have some extra spending money. I think I spent 1500 dollars total for the three lights with installing them myself. Good luck.
I would go with the LED. I don't know where you are reading the reviews but I will say on TFP there is more positive than negative. Yes they are expensive to replace. Yes they have had reliability problems. But they are clearly getting better. I might even say that on the whole not much different the incaNdescent lights.
Most like the choice of colors. But understand they are not as bright as incandescent.
Most like the choice of colors. But understand they are not as bright as incandescent.
- Jul 16, 2012
- 7,204
- Pool Size
- 27000
- Surface
- Plaster
- Chlorine
- Salt Water Generator
- SWG Type
- Hayward Aqua Rite (T-15)
On TFP you get feedback on all pool builds and infrequently (relative to the quantity of pool builds) hear about issues with LED's so long as they were properly specified and located. Other places where products are reviewed tend to attract negative only comments (or at least negative biased comments). I call it the Internet effect.
4th season with our full-size Hayward's and no issues. We LOVE them.
4th season with our full-size Hayward's and no issues. We LOVE them.
We have a new pool. Plastered and filled June 10. We have the pentair5g leds. We love them when we use them. About 2 weeks after start up we were sitting outside with friends and all of a sudden the lights twinkled out to only reds. Nothing would fix it. Called PB up and he came out a couple of days later and replaced it. I asked him if he had seen that issue before. He told me it was the first time. He says that the lights and pentair pumps rarely ever have issues. That they have been the most reliable products. I googled and found one similar issue about 4 years ago with pentair lights. But could not find anything else. I think it was a fluke. But we will see. I'm pretty sure our equipment is warrantied for 5 years.
With that said...are they worth the extra money? It depends. We will probably use them more in the winter than summer. We like it dark out when in the pool. In the past month I've turned the lights on for about 5 minutes. We'd much prefer to look at the stars than be blinded by lights.
Matt
With that said...are they worth the extra money? It depends. We will probably use them more in the winter than summer. We like it dark out when in the pool. In the past month I've turned the lights on for about 5 minutes. We'd much prefer to look at the stars than be blinded by lights.
Matt
borjis
LifeTime Supporter
Me too.
I had the stock halogen bulb in my first plaster pool and it was fun to turn on once in awhile to look at, but I didn't really use it other wise.
A good LED bulb was going to be over $ 300.
I had the stock halogen bulb in my first plaster pool and it was fun to turn on once in awhile to look at, but I didn't really use it other wise.
A good LED bulb was going to be over $ 300.
Just to be clear to all the Pentair warranty for professionally installed lights when bundled with other Pentair products is 3 years. Without bundle its 1 year and without pro installation its 60 days. It may be warrantied for longer by your pool builder but that is the current Pentair warranty.