tl;dr- I can't get my Savi Melody light out to replace it. Any tips?
Long version-
I have 5 Savi Melody (now owned by Jandy/Zodiac) lights in my pool. 2 of them have failed and been dead for years (pool was built in 2012). This year I finally got motivated to try to fix them, so I bought a replacement cartridge to test out on one of them to make sure it works. It was just delivered, so I went out there today to replace the light cartridge. I decided to work on the failed light in my spa because I can easily drain the spa.
I ran into a couple of problems. First, the light fixture (including the fitting it is installed in) is crooked, so the installation tool that fits over the lens to unscrew the light won't fit. The plaster on one side interferes with the tool so you can't use it. I have both a plastic and a metal tool, so I cut off the handle on one side of the plastic one so the notch gets at least a little contact with the notch on the lens. I also carefully chipped away some of the plaster on that side too because it actually looked like they installed the light first and plastered around it, so some of the plaster was covering the edge of the light. That didn't help and I eventually broke the notch off of the plastic installation tool torquing on it trying to unscrew the fixture.
So then I got serious and pulled out some channel locks. I chewed up the exposed plastic edges of the lens squeezing on the dang thing as I tried to unscrew it. It won't budge. Its almost like they put some loctite on it, or maybe just 7 years of calcium buildup has achieved the same thing.
Now I don't know what to do- with the angle that the fixture is sitting relative to the plaster surface, the only thing that I can think of is to chip out a bunch more plaster so I can get channel locks all the way around the fixture. But then I would have to patch that plaster too (and try to color match- never done any pool repairs related to plaster before). Either way, I might be looking at replacing the whole fixture now with the condition of that lens.
Long version-
I have 5 Savi Melody (now owned by Jandy/Zodiac) lights in my pool. 2 of them have failed and been dead for years (pool was built in 2012). This year I finally got motivated to try to fix them, so I bought a replacement cartridge to test out on one of them to make sure it works. It was just delivered, so I went out there today to replace the light cartridge. I decided to work on the failed light in my spa because I can easily drain the spa.
I ran into a couple of problems. First, the light fixture (including the fitting it is installed in) is crooked, so the installation tool that fits over the lens to unscrew the light won't fit. The plaster on one side interferes with the tool so you can't use it. I have both a plastic and a metal tool, so I cut off the handle on one side of the plastic one so the notch gets at least a little contact with the notch on the lens. I also carefully chipped away some of the plaster on that side too because it actually looked like they installed the light first and plastered around it, so some of the plaster was covering the edge of the light. That didn't help and I eventually broke the notch off of the plastic installation tool torquing on it trying to unscrew the fixture.
So then I got serious and pulled out some channel locks. I chewed up the exposed plastic edges of the lens squeezing on the dang thing as I tried to unscrew it. It won't budge. Its almost like they put some loctite on it, or maybe just 7 years of calcium buildup has achieved the same thing.
Now I don't know what to do- with the angle that the fixture is sitting relative to the plaster surface, the only thing that I can think of is to chip out a bunch more plaster so I can get channel locks all the way around the fixture. But then I would have to patch that plaster too (and try to color match- never done any pool repairs related to plaster before). Either way, I might be looking at replacing the whole fixture now with the condition of that lens.
