According to my PB, my pool is one of the first in the nation to install the new (released late spring 2014) Hayward LED Accent lights. These lights are a bit like miniature (1" diameter) versions of the standard Hayward Colorlogic lights. They essentially look like lightsaber handles for all you Star Wars geeks out there... The PB had niches (basically just open cylinders in the pool structure) incorporated into the design in my rock feature/waterfall (approx. 35 or 40 ft) and in a few strategic locations in the retaining wall around my pool deck. The lights have clusters of individual bulbs much like the standard Hayward LED lights, just crammed into a smaller package. They are apparently available in 2 brightness levels. The lights coordinate with all other Hayward Colorlogic lights and can also be "networked" for custom colors, although as of this review I'm still waiting for the network modules to be available/installed. Enough intro stuff, onto my impressions:
1. These things are incredibly bright, especially above water. It is really cool how they light the deck and rock features, but don't stare right at them or you won't see anything else for a little while. The ones in the retaining wall over the deck notably could use some type of "hood" to direct the light away from my eyes. As nothing like this is made by Hayward, I will probably just have to get creative.
2. The lights COMPLETELY transform your night time poolside landscape vs traditional low voltage lights or in-pool only lights. It seriously looks like some kind of bumpin night club up in here with the waterfalls, rocks, slide, and deck all lit up with the same color show.
3. Quality seems pretty decent. Of 12 or 13 lights, 1 was defective pretty much immediately upon installation with several colors not working. After some "percussion therapy", it has somehow started working. No problems with any of the others (about 1 month old now).
4. Not sure of the logistics of this and price comparisons, but I think it would almost be better to have about 8 of these spread around inside a pool instead of the typical 2-3 full size pool lights. Eliminate dark spots...
5. These seem destined to completely replace the older fiber optic light technology that people previously used to light waterfalls and things. My build was originally set up for fiber optic and luckily these lights came on the market in the nick of time and PB saw them at a trade show.
I will continue to report if I experience any negative issues with the lights.
Questions welcome!
1. These things are incredibly bright, especially above water. It is really cool how they light the deck and rock features, but don't stare right at them or you won't see anything else for a little while. The ones in the retaining wall over the deck notably could use some type of "hood" to direct the light away from my eyes. As nothing like this is made by Hayward, I will probably just have to get creative.
2. The lights COMPLETELY transform your night time poolside landscape vs traditional low voltage lights or in-pool only lights. It seriously looks like some kind of bumpin night club up in here with the waterfalls, rocks, slide, and deck all lit up with the same color show.
3. Quality seems pretty decent. Of 12 or 13 lights, 1 was defective pretty much immediately upon installation with several colors not working. After some "percussion therapy", it has somehow started working. No problems with any of the others (about 1 month old now).
4. Not sure of the logistics of this and price comparisons, but I think it would almost be better to have about 8 of these spread around inside a pool instead of the typical 2-3 full size pool lights. Eliminate dark spots...
5. These seem destined to completely replace the older fiber optic light technology that people previously used to light waterfalls and things. My build was originally set up for fiber optic and luckily these lights came on the market in the nick of time and PB saw them at a trade show.
I will continue to report if I experience any negative issues with the lights.
Questions welcome!
