Lets talk LED lights, converting from incandescent.

[JamesR]

I have the 20 year old incandescent bulbs in my pool and spa. Hayward Astrolite I believe. 500 watt pool light and spa is...? I forget, 100watt?
I would like to go to LED. Without changing the entire fixture, could I use Halco/J&J bulbs like the LPL-P2-RGBW-120 and the LPL-S2-RGBW-120 along with the XG color controller?
Opinions on this product?

 

[JamesR]

Friendly bump ?

 

[SDor]

I replaced an old fashioned bulb with an LED maybe 2 or 3 years ago. It worked great, until it didn't (at startup last year). I replaced it with an old fashioned bulb. Since the LED didn't last as long as a regular bulb, why pay the premium price?

It could be that I bought a cheapie LED (can't find the brand), but not only did the lightbulb fail, but it also corroded the light socket a bit. The actual light base on the bulb was very corroded while the socket was slightly corroded. There was no sign of water incursion. The base on the LED was silver while the old and new regular bulb was gold-ish (brass or copper or something), and I'm wondering if perhaps there's some chemical reaction between the bulb and the base.

My guess as to why it failed so early is that it's internal electronics were harmed by the cold winters, but this is just a guess. Next possibility is some condensation as it was very humid when I replaced the bulb, but that seems kind of far fetched given the small volume of the light niche.

I may try an LED next time around as technology keeps improving , but will definitely look for a "name brand" rather than shopper for price.

 

[JamesR]

OK, so instead of paying big $$ for the pool light, the spa light and the controller, I decided to just buy the pool light for now and see if I like it. I bought the LPL-P2-RGBW-120. It is the newest Halco/J&J series LED color changing light with a dedicated white as well. I popped it in this afternoon and will have to wait till late tonight for a comparison against the old 500W Halco Incandescent. I took some pics last night of the 500w. I have the new one on and although it is daytime, i am pretty certain this thing will not be nearly as bright as the incandescent. A bit disappointed at the moment in the brightness, but maybe tonight it will look better.

 

[JamesR]

Night time and the pure bright white setting was decent. Gave it a more blue appearance as I would expect due to my plaster color. I was actually happy with the brightness of it. For the actual colors though...ehhhh not as bright as I was hoping for. Red was a big disappointment, and barely got anywhere through the deep end. But doing some research it appears that red travels poorly in pool water regardless of who makes the light. Weather permitting this evening I will run through the other colors and post up some pics so they can help others in the market for an LED bulb. I wish my pool had 2 light fixtures. It only has one pool and one spa. I am also looking into the Pool Baron LED color bulb. It is rated at 35 watts while this J&J is 23 watts. You'd think that would be a major difference. Not much data online about them though. If i can get my hands on one for a decent price, I will swap it in there and compare.
Pics below of the original 500W incandescent and the J&J color splash set on bright white.

 

[GDN]

Congrats on the bulbs - looks good. I agree with the bluer color and you captured it well. I posted some comparison pics in this thread, but I couldn't capture that bluer less bright color. You did well. Here are my pics: J&J Electronics LPL-P2-RGBW-120 - color LED with PureWhite

 

[JamesR]

Here are some pics form last night. It has 5 fixed colors. White, blue, pink, green and red. Because of the color of the plaster/quartz, the white gives it a nice light blue tint. The blue gives it a rich deeper blue, the pink makes it look more purple-ish, although on the computer screen it till looks blue. It was definitely purple though. Green is green and red is a problem, it barely lights up anything. Perhaps if the spa bulb was also the same it would look better but I really wish this pool had 2 pool lights. the red would still be hopeless though. I would never just use red but the light does have a nice slow fade color show and when it gets to anything in the red spectrum, the pool goes dark. I am going to see if I can get a quality, higher power LED bulb. There is no way I can add an extra niche to an existing pool, so that Is my only hope. I took pics from the shallow end, facing the bulb and then from the deep end.
Here are the pics from the deep end. I can't put them all in one post.

 

[JamesR]

Here they are from the shallow end looking at the light. You can really see that the colors are not bright enough and the red is lame.