Can someone school me on LED retrofits?

[glitter&guns]

This pool is making me feel stupid. Please remember I am a newbie and speak slowly to me. I have finally settled on a pool remodel company (hooray!) and am down to deciding on the last details. One of them is the pool light. Right now it is a 25 year old pool light that I am praying doesn't work due to the bulb needing to be replaced (this is the builders feeling on the problem with it) - but the pool builder has offered to upgrade to the snazzy LED... I think my daughters and their friends would get a kick out of the "pimp my pool" look so I had him bid that out for me. Now I need some help:

The bid for the Intellibrite LED color light w control is $1290. I am not going to lie, I was shocked it was so much. When I balked he said that he could do it without the control panel for $995. I was still having a bit of sticker shock, so he offered an LED retro fit bulb for $550. Now, being the over analytical person that I tend to be, I went online and started reading up on this stuff. I am guessing the bulb is something like this: http://colorgloproducts.com/ which (assuming I need the 120v & assuming that it will fit into my current system) I could buy for about $250. Looks like if everything lines up right, it wouldn't be any harder than changing out a regular pool bulb, which should be well within my skill set.

Now, someone tell me why I would want to have it "upgraded" to the Intellibrite rather than using a retrofit LED in the system that is there. What do I gain? Has anyone used the ColorGlo light and are you happy with it?

Thanks! I really appreciate y'alls guidance through this venture!

 

[jblizzle]

I put a color changing LED bulb into my fixture ... I think the bulb was about $250 (ColorSplash 3G). Good to buy a new rubber gasket for the fixture, but it is about the same as changing a light bulb.

The Intellibright could be controlled by an automation system, but if you do not have that, then I would not spend the money (assuming the existing fixture is in good shape and the new bulb will fit.)

 

[ping]

With your light fixture being that old, I would hesitate to install the LED bulb, as the light fixture could very well need to be replaced. You might try installing a new cheap bulb first to see if it does work, then install the LED bulb. You have to make sure the LED bulb will work with your existing light fixture. I can't upgrade to the colorsplash bulbs due to that they will not work in a Jandy light.