Should I buy real LED light or standard light and use LED lamp?

[Dan8899]

Hi all! Finally got around to pulling out the pool light that hasn't worked since buying the house. It's a pentair 120v 400w dated 2005, and the socket is all corroded so I'm going to install a new one. I definitely will be going with LED to save on the electric bill and I see I have 2 options, one being much less expensive.

The pentair Intellibrite LED models look to be about $450 , OR I could go with a pentair incandescent style for around $200 plus an LED lamp for another $100 - $300 total. So for about $150 less I get the LED energy savings.

If I ever need to replace the lamp I'm looking at just another $100 with the incandescent model instead of the Intellibrite replacement light engine for around $300 which is a little scary since they give me a whopping 60day warranty because I won't be using a 'professional' to install it (even though I'm a licensed master electrician).

I'm not seeing ever connecting this light to some fancy pentair control system so am I missing anything by going with the less expensive LED lamp route? Anyone have any thoughts why I would want to go with the real LED fixture and expensive future replacement costs?

Any other better suggestions?

It looks like they even make these replacement LED lamps that are remote controllable, so another question would be have any of you tried them and do they work well?

 

[Dirk]

Well, the Intellibrite 5G (is that what you mean?) offers five different colors plus another six fluctuating color "shows." Some find cool, others gimmicky. I like mine. A couple shows I like, and I do use a few of the different colors. I do worry about replacement costs. I researched and found a lot of bad reviews. But I rolled the dice. Lost! Mine did, in fact, poop out in less than a year. I had the full warranty so it got replaced. The tech showed me that I had the gen 1 version, which was known to fail quickly, which was revamped later to fix the problem, which is supposed to now last like an LED should. Time will tell. If you go with a 5G, make sure it is one of the new ones, and not someone's old stock (which is what I was sold).

It is my understanding that you don't need a controller to get all the functions of the 5G. You just quickly flick it on and off various times which the light translates into what scene/color you want. That's all the controllers do, you can here them clicking on-off a bunch of times. Crazy-lame technology, but that's how they work. A call to Pentair to make sure a normal light switch can do that job would be prudent, as I've never tried it myself (I have a controller.)