LED Nav Lights

[Barnacle Bill]

Any advice on the best LED Nav lights?

I need a new bicolour at the bows, and what I want is a completely sealed unit that can operate underwater (where, from time to time, it will be).

The conventional unit I have now never was very good - you always had to take the bulb out and clean the contacts if it hadn't been used for a while. (And now someone's broken it, in the marina, without owning up of course ...)

Lopolight look good - expensive, but a five year guarantee ,,,

Any advice or experience?

 

[Tradewinds]

Not mine personally but Old Varnish of this forum has a low opinion of Lopolight.

See here & more recently here (halfway down).

 

[prv]

Personally I'm a fan of Bebi, although their products generally need some DIYing into an existing housing rather than being a drop-in replacement. They build all their lights to be waterproof (the whole thing is a solid block of epoxy with the tips of the LEDs poking out) and among their testimonials is one from a guy who was dismasted in the Pacific and noted that his Bebi masthead light kept going even a mast-length underwater.

All the lights on my boat, internal and external, are now from Bebi, with the exception of the chart-table gooseneck and an old fluoro tube in the head that wasn't worth replacing. Haven't had any trouble with any of them.

Pete

 

[Cookee]

We use one of these on the race boat and it gets a lot of shock loading!

 

[Sans Bateau]

I had the same decision to make last year. After looking at the options I bought the Aqua Signal product, not as expensive as Lopo and of course Aqua Signal have been around for years so should know a thing or two about nav lights.

 

[Talbot]

I had a hella fitted earlier this year, but have not used it yet.

 

[Ex-SolentBoy]

Not mine personally but Old Varnish of this forum has a low opinion of Lopolight.

See here & more recently here (halfway down).

Each to his own.

I think Lopo is the premium product. We have them at bow, stern and mast top.

All electronic things can fail, but the advantage with a Lopo is that they have a very long guarantee, and if you buy them from IMP they are so easy to deal with and just send you a replacement.

 

[johnnys]

I had Hella fitted on the boat when it was new in 2008. Both were replaced under warranty and then both failed again, usually water ingress. Good idea but have now replaced with conventional ones as can't afford to keep paying nearly £80 a pair!

 

[Sans Bateau]

With their long experience of making marine nav lights, I hope the Aqua Signal one last. It was a tricolour plus anchor light I fitted, and it certainly looks robust. Aqua Signal mast head lights have the advantage that they are a simple bayonet fit, so you can take them home for safe keeping when the mast is down.

 

[Barnacle Bill]

With their long experience of making marine nav lights, I hope the Aqua Signal one last. It was a tricolour plus anchor light I fitted, and it certainly looks robust. Aqua Signal mast head lights have the advantage that they are a simple bayonet fit, so you can take them home for safe keeping when the mast is down.

Just can't quite see with a quick look at their website, is the Aquasignal light a completely sealed fully waterproof unit? (The old bicolours with bulbs in them are very poorly waterproofed, certainly not designed to be submersible).

Also the ASAP unit - looks quite a bit cheaper than Lopolight, is that filled and sealed too?

Lopolight tell me theirs are fully filled with resin and sealed, & have been trialed on submarines, so they do seem to be on the right track.

I'll ring the others in the morning and ask ...

Anyway, thanks guys for all your help.

 

[Sans Bateau]

Try here:

http://www.aquasignal.info/ecat/htdocs/index.php?category_id=1&subcategory_id=1&product_id=38

 

[Pinnacle]

We use one of these on the race boat and it gets a lot of shock loading!

I am thinking of getting one of these, but I do have a query. How do you wire up this unit? Do they supply a long tail so you make a connection somewhere dry, or do you make the connection inside the unit and then screw it together?

 

[rotrax]

Any advice on the best LED Nav lights?

I need a new bicolour at the bows, and what I want is a completely sealed unit that can operate underwater (where, from time to time, it will be).

The conventional unit I have now never was very good - you always had to take the bulb out and clean the contacts if it hadn't been used for a while. (And now someone's broken it, in the marina, without owning up of course ...)

Lopolight look good - expensive, but a five year guarantee ,,,

Any advice or experience?

Hi, We have Aquasignal lamps on our boat. I fitted LED bulbs to the existing lamps. The red portion of the bi-colour lost a row of LED'S very quickly-this was exchanged by the dealer. While we were waiting I used a spare all white LED bulb. I am aware that this is not recomended. As a purely subjective test I walked as far from the boat as I could and still see the illuminated lamp. It looked very bright-certainly bright enough for me not to worry. With the bi-colour LED in it is brighter-no question. I was also worried about water ingress. I found the Aquasignal rubber gaskets had stretched,making them impossible to refit. I have carefully cleaned and used petroleum jelly on the internal parts and have sealed the lamp with RTV sillicone gasket sealer. How it will last long term I will find out in due course. I thought about new LED lamps but I want something that I can repair with the simple tools kept on the boat, also a low consumption option that was affordable. The dimple ended festoon bulbs were from two different EBAY suppliers and were about £35.00 posted for four all white and one red/green. So far so good-very little current draw-the needle hardly moves when the bi-colour and sternlamp are on. With the halogens-21 and 10-watt-it was 2.5 amps. The rigger is coming soon to do a full rig check. While he is with us he will fit the anchor and steaming lamp LED bulbs. I am sure it is possible to make affordable LED lamps that have replacable bulbs AND ARE SEALED PROPERLY. I shall wait for this development with interest.

 

[Cookee]

Also the ASAP unit - looks quite a bit cheaper than Lopolight, is that filled and sealed too?

Lopolight tell me theirs are fully filled with resin and sealed, & have been trialed on submarines, so they do seem to be on the right track.

I'll ring the others in the morning and ask ...

Anyway, thanks guys for all your help.

We put a Lopo on a demo boat and I believe it's still going strong - it was the best around at the time but I think the other stuff has caught up now and not as eyewateringly expensive.

The ASAP stuff I posted is well made and sealed - if it works after the pounding we give it then it should be OK for "normal" use! We also run a battery charger for exhibitions with the lights on and have had none of the problems that have affected the NASA lights.

 

[Cookee]

I am thinking of getting one of these, but I do have a query. How do you wire up this unit? Do they supply a long tail so you make a connection somewhere dry, or do you make the connection inside the unit and then screw it together?

They have short tails - we use crimp connectors and glue heatshrink over the top where necessary as per industry standard although many also use solder and glue heatshrink for a smaller and neater join.

 

[Adrian Jones]

Any advice on the best LED Nav lights?

I need a new bicolour at the bows, and what I want is a completely sealed unit that can operate underwater (where, from time to time, it will be).

The conventional unit I have now never was very good - you always had to take the bulb out and clean the contacts if it hadn't been used for a while. (And now someone's broken it, in the marina, without owning up of course ...)

Lopolight look good - expensive, but a five year guarantee ,,,

Any advice or experience?

I would suggest that you invest in good quality conventional navigation lights such as AquaSignal and fit good quality 10-30V LED lamps into them. You then have an advantage as you can easily replace them with improved LED lamps as they come onto the market. Purpose made LED nav lights purchased only a couple of years ago are looking rather dull compared to the new high output bayonet fitting lamps available today, available for less than £10. Its costs very much more to replace a whole LED purpose made fitting.

 

[Cookee]

I would suggest that you invest in good quality conventional navigation lights such as AquaSignal and fit good quality 10-30V LED lamps into them. You then have an advantage as you can easily replace them with improved LED lamps as they come onto the market. Purpose made LED nav lights purchased only a couple of years ago are looking rather dull compared to the new high output bayonet fitting lamps available today, available for less than £10. Its costs very much more to replace a whole LED purpose made fitting.

I see you sell the replacement LED bulbs! There is still the issue of the bayonet interface that can fail as in a regular bulb. At the price of the latest offerings I would suggest that the all in one LED nav lights are cheap enough to replace if they do ever fail out of warranty - certainly the Lopo's we fitted several years ago are going strong and bright enough, likewise the ones we bought from ASAP are more than adequate for navigation otherwise I wouldn't recommend them.

 

[Adrian Jones]

I see you sell the replacement LED bulbs! There is still the issue of the bayonet interface that can fail as in a regular bulb. At the price of the latest offerings I would suggest that the all in one LED nav lights are cheap enough to replace if they do ever fail out of warranty - certainly the Lopo's we fitted several years ago are going strong and bright enough, likewise the ones we bought from ASAP are more than adequate for navigation otherwise I wouldn't recommend them.

I quite agree there are perfectly adequate LED purpose made fixtures available. However, some are more adequate than others. Purchasers should ensure that LED lights have integral constant-current electronic control circuits and spike protection. Many lower cost LED fixtures do not have these features and often that's why they are less costly. Lack of protection can result in a much reduced service life.

Regards

 

[noelex]

I would suggest that you invest in good quality conventional navigation lights such as AquaSignal and fit good quality 10-30V LED lamps into them. You then have an advantage as you can easily replace them with improved LED lamps as they come onto the market. Purpose made LED nav lights purchased only a couple of years ago are looking rather dull compared to the new high output bayonet fitting lamps available today, available for less than £10. Its costs very much more to replace a whole LED purpose made fitting.

The problem is the arc of illumination will be wrong. The colour is also likely to be incorrect.
The anchor light is the only one that will be satisfactory.

 

[vyv_cox]

The main reason I replaced my old masthead tri/anchor light was that the bayonet fittings were failing frequently, forcing me to climb the mast far more often than I prefer. On several overnight passages the tricolour would go off, only requiring a wiggle of the bulb to turn it back on. Sometimes by the time I was back on deck it would be off again!

I replaced it with a Lopolight about four years ago. Still working perfectly.