Pentair Globrite Replacement

[techjmw]

Updating here for others with this problem. My Globrite lasted 5 years before failing. Unlike some where the seal at the front fails and water gets into the electronics, mine the case actually cracked and water penetrated from the molded plastic that failed. Hopefully these pictures help explain.

I just replaced mine with a new one. To replace it is was very easy, I hooked a pull string to the old cable and pulled the old unit out, tied the pull string onto the new light cable in my spa and pulled it back. Pretty basic, I can easily drain my spa which makes it even easier. Also, since these are 12V, very low risk of electrocution unlike 120V lighting. Still be safe and power off everything before working on electrical and if you aren't comfortable call in a professional.

I have a total of 4 Globrites, 3 in my pool, 1 in my spa. I am hoping that the other 3 don't have the same defect as the spa since they are very expensive. I did apply silicon around the front area around the back of the lens where it meets the casing to avoid potential water penetration in the future. This is an optional step others on this forum have done which I recommend as well.

In the images you can see the silicon I used to seal it. I hung the unit to let it dry in the sun. You can see the water damage inside the light, it likely was a slow leak that slowly caused it to fail. The light would still turn on and switch between blue while dimming on and off, but no other colors would work. I may open it up to see what is inside out of curiosity. Here is hoping the new one lasts at least 5 years or longer.

 

[mknauss]

Welcome to the forum!
My Globrites lasted about 5 years and failed at the seal. I did as you did, used silicone to put a layer over that area of failure.

Will see. To be honest, we direct those installing new pools to NOT use Globrites. The proprietary receptable and failure rate are things to stay away from.

 

[techjmw]

I can see why mknauss. Hindsight is always great, but now those of us stuck with these are kind of held hostage unfortunately by Pentair without many options unless someone creates another option.

I actually have 3 other globrites that are stuck on white and will not change. I do not plan on replacing them until they actually fail, but it is very frustrating having spent over $1K on 3 that are no longer functioning as designed. I have gone through all of the troubleshooting steps and my last attempt is to call Pentair Support but I have low expectations on getting them working. I have two transformers, one for the spa and one for the pool and tried switching globrites between transformers and the issue follows the globrites with the issue unfortunately which leads me to suspect that the light engine died across the three. It makes me wonder if there is a reason, such as running 3 off of one power supply and pulling too much wattage or some other reason. They are all tied to together from a power perspective in the pool, perhaps one has an issue electrically that affected the others which are connected. I may add diodes to reduce the chance of electrical issues.

 

[techjmw]

Following up on the issue with my pool lights (Globrite Intellibrite) running on dedicated transformer for a Globrite group of 3 lights. Called Pentair support and the tech told me how to reset the lights when they get stuck and no longer change modes.

The procedure to reset the control board inside of the lights is as follows:

1. Turn the lights on
2. Within 10-15 seconds of turning on the lights, turn the lights on and off 31 times

This establishes a reset on the lights and in my case resolved the issue with my Globrite not changing colors properly. Hopefully this helps someone else in the future.

I will take this as a small victory to getting my pool/spa back to normal.

 

[Turbo1Ton]

That is good to hear, that you were able to get it. I am having an issue with mine with the lightshows not being in sync. I imagine a reset as you described, might address this.

Are you using automation? If so, how do you cycle it the 31 times?

I know the automation will cycle the appropriate amount of times for the color/lightshow. Not sure how to tell it to cycle for a reset. Might have to wire in a switch for this.

Thanks,

--Jeff

 

[techjmw]

I am using automation via the Intellitouch Panel, but did not use it to reset the lights.

To perform this, I had to remove the cover where the cords for the lights come up through the conduit and connect to the feed from the transformers. I just unscrewed one wire nut to the group of 3 lights from the source tansformer (black wire in my case) and manually touched the wires 31 times to the other 3 still twisted together and touched them about 1/2 a second apart each time. I don't think there is a way to do this via automation (although there should be since it would be trivial for Pentair to have in the app to reset the lights).

Good luck getting yours synchronized, hopefully it resolves your issue. Mine are still working properly after using a few times since my post, so it definitely resolved my issue it appears.

 

[goldmaes]

That is good to hear, that you were able to get it. I am having an issue with mine with the lightshows not being in sync. I imagine a reset as you described, might address this.

Are you using automation? If so, how do you cycle it the 31 times?

I know the automation will cycle the appropriate amount of times for the color/lightshow. Not sure how to tell it to cycle for a reset. Might have to wire in a switch for this.

Thanks,

--Jeff

Where you able to get your synced? I would be interested to find out what you did.

 

[Turbo1Ton]

Where you able to get your synced? I would be interested to find out what you did.

I tried the reset that Tech posted, cycling power 31 times within 10-15 seconds of turning them on. This did some sort of reset, as they were all turned to the white color. This did not fix my issue with the light shows though. My issue is that one of the lamps seems to power up 5 seconds or so later than the other 3. Not a problem with the solid colors, but with the light shows, it is an issue.

I am going to give Pentair a call this week and see if there is anything else to try.

Thank you

--Jeff

 

[goldmaes]

I tried the reset that Tech posted, cycling power 31 times within 10-15 seconds of turning them on. This did some sort of reset, as they were all turned to the white color. This did not fix my issue with the light shows though. My issue is that one of the lamps seems to power up 5 seconds or so later than the other 3. Not a problem with the solid colors, but with the light shows, it is an issue.

I am going to give Pentair a call this week and see if there is anything else to try.

Thank you

--Jeff

Keep me posted. Thanks