Pool light cover broke!

[BurnChar]

Well, this will be fun.
I just removed my solar cover to do my first cleaning of the year and found that my pool light cover broke. There are now glass chunks of various sizes in the pool. This explains why I had a problem with main pool breaker tripping.

My questions are:

1) Crud. What do I do?
2) What could have broken it? It was intact when I placed the winter safety cover.
3) can anyone recommend pool light covers which are quite a lot more durable?

 

[BurnChar]

There's just enough light that I took a photo. this light looks different than many I've seen online. Does anyone recognize the type?

 

[skeeter_ca]

Look like a standard 300W(maybe) pool light. Make sure the breaker is turned off. Remove the screws to the outer frame and lift the entire unit out of the water onto the deck. There should be enough electrical cable coiled behind the assembly to bring it out of the water. Once out of the water you can disassemble the light and check to make sure the light fixture is still ok. Before reassembly make sure the inside is dry and rust free and turns on properly. Don't run it very long outside of the water as it can damage the fixture from overheating(Don't ask me how i know). Any pool supply place should have or be able to get the replacement lens for you, in either glass or plastic.

skeeter

 

[elwood58]

Make sure and buy a new gasket to seal the replacement lens. Follow the instructions included with the replacement bulb on proper sealing.

 

[jmhjgh]

I would guess it was damaged from freezing. A lot of people remove the light and wrap it in a towel and keep it on the pool deck during pool winterization.

 

[BurnChar]

Make sure and buy a new gasket to seal the replacement lens. Follow the instructions included with the replacement bulb on proper sealing.

Thank you for the tip. Amazon has a ton of pool light gaskets. Any idea which one this light uses by the look?

 

[ps0303]

Turn the breaker for the light off, pull the light out of the niche, remove the retainer ring around housing, and then remove the gasket and measure it. You should also be able to find, hopefully, a sticker on the housing telling you want brand/model of light it is. This will help you find the right gasket. Are their any pool stores near you? If so, might be easier to get what you need from them instead of amazon and then waiting on shipping.

 

[BurnChar]

I would guess it was damaged from freezing. A lot of people remove the light and wrap it in a towel and keep it on the pool deck during pool winterization.

Sounds like a great guess -- it got very cold last winter. I had no idea one could remove the light and put it up on the deck. Thanks for that tip, too!
Is it a bad idea to remove the light and let it sit near the bottom of the pool? I can't imagine that it would freeze 8ft down (6.5ft when partly drained for winter).

 

[BurnChar]

I ended up getting a Pentair Intellibrite 5G LED color light. The current light seems to be a Pentair, based on the pattern along the ring just outside the broken glass.
I'll post photos of the replacement process for those on this forum that have a similar problem (I suspect replacement will be the same even if using a standard replacement light).