Florida Sunseeker to replace Pentair Globrite in fiberglass pool

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davedoon

Member
Jun 16, 2023
11
Wilmington, NC
Like many others, I'm sick of replacing expensive Pentain Globrite lights as they crack and fail. I recently purchased a Florida Sunseeker replacement but can not get it to mount correctly in my fiberglass pool.

Here's what I purchased. It states that it fits into fiberglass pools with Globrite lights.
www.florida-sunseeker.com

PoolTone™ Nicheless 1.5 inch (large face) Swimming Pool or Spa Light 15 - 100 Feet

JLUW20W50 JLUW20W100 JLUW30W50 JLUW30W100 JLUW30W150 JLU4C6W50 JLU4C6W100 JLU4C6W150 JLU4C12W150 JLU4C12W100 JLU4C12W50 JLU4C24W50 JLU4C24W100 JLU4C24W150 JLU4C6W150S JLU4C6W100S JLU4C6W50S JLU4C12W50S JLU4C12W100S JLU4C12W150S JLU4C24W150S JLU4C24W100S JLU4C24W50S JLU4C6W50P JLU4C6W100P...
www.florida-sunseeker.com www.florida-sunseeker.com

The problems is that the Florida Sunseeker light does not mount flush to the wall because the niche protrudes out from the pool wall. I don't believe that part of the niche can be removed.

I've attached pictures of my original Globrite light/niche and the newly "installed" Florida Sunseeker light. You can see that the new light has a gap between the back of the light and the pool wall. The gap is at least half an inch.

Has anyone else had this issue? Any ideas? I did call Florida Sunseeker and they told me that their light will not work with my setup due to the niche. Seems odd because this is the normal Pentair Globrite setup for a fiberglass pool. They stated I can return the light, but then i'm back to square one.

Thanks in advance for any help.
 

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I do not have them in my pool, yet. They should come with a silicone ring that is used to keep them in the receptacle in the pool.
Adapter for Pentair® Globrite 1.5 or 1-1/2 inch lights
They will never be as 'secure' as the globrite. They should be as bright. Not as bright as the 'large' one you have now.
 
So here's how I got it to work. Spoiler alert...it wasn't easy. I hope the pics help b/c it's hard to explain.

I made a 1/2" thick ring out of StarBoard material to take up the gap between the large face Pooltone (Florida Sunseeker) light and the wall of the pool. You can see the gap in the pics a few posts up. That ring is 7 5/16" diameter with a 4" diameter inner hole (to fit around the Pentair Globrite niche). I used a 1/4" roundover bit with a router to smooth the edge. I also had to make a spacer ring to go between the back of the light and the larger adaptor ring. That one is 6" diameter with the same 4" diameter inner hole. I had to make that one a little over 1/4" thick (.295"), otherwise the light would be loose and the 4 mounting tabs would likely break if someone pushed off of it (if I used some type of washer to take up the gap). I also had to get some longer 1" (I think) M3 stainless screws and countersink them through the back of the larger ring(then smaller ring) and into their metal trim ring to hold it all together.

I was able to use the ridged black rubber piece that they include with the light and press fit it into the niche, however I did have to add some strips of rubber (from a plumbing coupler) behind it to make a tight fit. Without doing that, the light would just spin around easily.

The light is bright. Brighter than a Globrite. My pool originally had 2 Globrites. At this point, the only light I have working is this one Pooltone. I may eventually add another.

Overall I'm happy with the way it turned out, but frustrated with the amount of work it took to make it happen. The Florida Sunseeker site states that these lights are for "...Vinyl Liner, Fiberglass, concrete or Gunite Pools and Spas. Fits all standard 1 1/2 inch pool fittings. These are replacement color LED lights for Pentair® Globrite...". The install was certainly more involved than I had planned based on this description. I did call them and they said my pool was some special circumstance. Though if you have a fiberglass pool that came with Globrite lights, I'm pretty sure you'll have the same niche and problem that I had.

Hope this helps.

IMG_3598.jpgIMG_3579.jpgIMG_3603.jpgIMG_3604.jpgIMG_3606.jpgIMG_3605.jpgIMG_3610.jpg
 
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Very nice!
Yes, they do not work well on a fiberglass installation due to the thick ring on the Globrite receptacle. Your workaround looks great!
 

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Darn it, wish I saw this thread before I bought the large light yesterday, (it will be here Thursday).

In the picture below, other than the gap, is the light tight in the socket?

I have a couple of other ideas I may try to fill the gap, although what you did works out perfect.

lightpic.jpg

Actually, my Niche is a little different, has 4 screws for the cover, hoping I can remove the cover and be close to flush.

niche1.jpg
niche2.jpg
 
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Installed last night. The 75' pull on the wire was horrendous, getting the wire to the junction box took over an hour, inches at a time, then once I had a few feet through it was still very tight, and now your grabbing a lubed cable was fun. Conduit must be collapsed somewhere. Even the last foot was trouble.

Removing the cover on my niche, I'm less than an 1/8" from the pool wall. It is a little loose in the niche, but not flopping around. I was undecided on whether the black rubber niche adaptor they enclosed should go in front of the threaded part on the light, or if it should be stretched over the threaded part. I went in front.

Going to pull it out again this weekend and put that rubber adaptor over the threads on the light, that should give me the snug fit I need.

Overall brightness of the light is very good. I didn't play with the programming on it at all since the 45 minutes I thought it was going to take was pushing 2 hours.
 
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I had planned to use 3 Globrite lights on my pool and installed regular 1.5" returns to mount the lights in, however i may go with these instead as it looks like there have been a lot of issues with the Globrites. I'm guessing that when it comes time to replace my liner i would have to pull the wire out on with these lights considering the diameter of the light is great then the hole i would cut out for the return?
 
Hello,
I have the same issue after installing lights when building our in-ground pool back in 2019.
This summer(2023) 4 of my light are out and 2 remain. After 6-months being install, I contacted the Pent-Air rep to have someone come out and check my lights because they appeared to be " not as bright as when first installed" I hired an electrician to check voltages and he reported all was good. So I lived with it till this summer when several of my lights went out.
I then researched and found out about the defective glo-brites.
I was right, the, lights were not as bright! I blamed myself for not adding that extra light I kept for a spare. Ugh!

Where can I purchase these lights? I will just replace all of them this summer and hope for a law suit to get my money back at some point.
Thx. Tony
 

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