One of the first things i noticed on my first pool at teh house I just moved into was that the shallow end pool light was not functioning I did a bit of research and ordered the new gasket and lamp. Installed it and everything went well for about 3 minutes when "Blooouup" a big ol bubble arose. That left me into further research and investigation. I dried everything out for a day, and put it all together again, being more careful this time to make sure everything was in alignment. Once again, the bubbles arose. Yesterday I went through the procedure again, but this time I held the lamp underwater while it heated to see where the leak was actually coming from.
Eventually I saw a steady stream of bubbles emanate from the strain relief where the cord goes into the fixture. Here's the fix I devised.
I had some west system G-flex epoxy which is a 2 part epoxy that retains some flexibility and will bond do almost anything. I mixed up a batch and coated the juncture of the strain relief and cord, trying to get as much in the crevice as I could. Let it cure, and re-tested this morning. It worked like a charm! I was in too much of a hurry, but here would be my suggestion for doing a better job of the fix:
First I'd make some sort of ",old" around the cord to hold the epoxy in while it cures. You could to this with tape possibly or with some sort of plastic tube that you could hot clue to the fixture. Or you could even hot glue some cardboard to make a box around the cord, This would allow you to make a bigger chunk of epoxy around the leaking area. Mine is definitely not pretty, but it did seem to work, so I left it alone.
Other notes:
Before I tightened the retaining wire around the gasket assembly, I turned the lamp on and let it heat up the air inside a bit. I've read a lot about NOT doing this, but my thinking is that a big part of the problem is the expanding air inside the fixture which seems to leak out, breaking the seal and then invite water back in when the lamp cools.
When I put the lamp housing / gasket assembly back together, I did it with the lens facing up. This let the hooks hang down and was easier to get the wire around all the rings, and made it easier to get everything aligned. If you put it together lens down, the trim ring is hanging down below the curved lens and its harder to get back together.
Hope this helps someone in the future. Now I'm wondering if G-flex epoxy might be the answer for my leaking skimmer boxes
Eventually I saw a steady stream of bubbles emanate from the strain relief where the cord goes into the fixture. Here's the fix I devised.
I had some west system G-flex epoxy which is a 2 part epoxy that retains some flexibility and will bond do almost anything. I mixed up a batch and coated the juncture of the strain relief and cord, trying to get as much in the crevice as I could. Let it cure, and re-tested this morning. It worked like a charm! I was in too much of a hurry, but here would be my suggestion for doing a better job of the fix:
First I'd make some sort of ",old" around the cord to hold the epoxy in while it cures. You could to this with tape possibly or with some sort of plastic tube that you could hot clue to the fixture. Or you could even hot glue some cardboard to make a box around the cord, This would allow you to make a bigger chunk of epoxy around the leaking area. Mine is definitely not pretty, but it did seem to work, so I left it alone.
Other notes:
Before I tightened the retaining wire around the gasket assembly, I turned the lamp on and let it heat up the air inside a bit. I've read a lot about NOT doing this, but my thinking is that a big part of the problem is the expanding air inside the fixture which seems to leak out, breaking the seal and then invite water back in when the lamp cools.
When I put the lamp housing / gasket assembly back together, I did it with the lens facing up. This let the hooks hang down and was easier to get the wire around all the rings, and made it easier to get everything aligned. If you put it together lens down, the trim ring is hanging down below the curved lens and its harder to get back together.
Hope this helps someone in the future. Now I'm wondering if G-flex epoxy might be the answer for my leaking skimmer boxes
