Led or normal bulbs for mast

Rhylsailer99

Rhylsailer99

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I have to re wire the masthead and steaming lights . Is it best to replace bulbs with led or a normal bulb ? as I would like the longest lasting bulb so as not having to replace so soon.
 
Led, for the tri and anchor of not for longevity then power saving!

steaming and lower navs there’s no much point as your running the engine anyway!
 
I installed LED's in the masthead tricolour and all-round white. I left the others with filament bulbs because of the on-going question of colour and cut-off angle with LED's. My argument being that the much reduced current draw would allow many hours more night time sailing. I have arrived at dawn on a lee shore and not been able to start the engine!
 
Definitely LED, I replaced all of mine. If you have the mast down for the rewire it maybe woth thinking about replacing the units. Again I did, because with time the covers become brittle and pass less light, and new units are purpose made to accomodate LED. All at a cost I appreciate.
 
I'd go LED with soldered/sealed (rather than just LED replacement bulbs) in my experience bad connections in the light fittings cause a lot of problems and sealed units will be a lot more reliable
 
LED's a lot less current so cables can be smaller but don't go mad, physical robustness of the cabling is important. I would suggest nothing less than 1mmsq
 
I know the steaming lights are not important for power saving (unless you have a really puny alternator :))

But, if yours is a bit old and could do with a replacement, i'd fit LED, in fact, i wouldn't buy LED bulbs for it anyway. These are pretty cheap, actually not much more than a pair of LED bulbs: Lalizas Midi >12m Combination Steaming/Deck light Black 30499

I've fitted a few of these, obviously nothing special, basically just something to hold the LEDS to the mast, but it is sealed and it's worth having just for the deck light, which is pretty bright.
 
LED everything, without question, they are fit and forget, but you need the whole 'sealed-beam' unit not just the bulbs. Bulb swapping from incandescent to LED can give very odd colours through plastic lenses.
I love being all LED, it effectively removes a big concern, of flattening the batteries.
Go for it you, won't regret it.
You do tend to get helpful yachties saying, 'you've left your spreaders on', yes it's to help find the boat when we come back from the pub :)
 
Can we get some more specific recommendations? It's pointless just saying "sealed unit" as that could be anything. The only one I'm aware of is the NASA combined tri/all around and those are terrible for all kinds of reasons on anything more serious than a dinghy. I'm looking to swap mine out soon and so far I've only seen NASA or bulb replacements.
 
Thanks, they look like they just screw into the old Aqua signal mount too which would be handy!
 
Are those sealed electronics? For the price I'm tempted to do that rather than replace the unit. I'm not overly worried by colour correctness as long as one looks green and one red - it's not like the crappy plastic in my existing lights is the same colour it was when new!

Also tempted by the ones Paul linked earlier which look decent for a replacement "bulb"
 
lustyd said:
Are those sealed electronics? For the price I'm tempted to do that rather than replace the unit. I'm not overly worried by colour correctness as long as one looks green and one red - it's not like the crappy plastic in my existing lights is the same colour it was when new!

Also tempted by the ones Paul linked earlier which look decent for a replacement "bulb"
Click to expand...

BAY15D 36 LED TRI-LIGHT - Bedazzled LED Lighting
 
Gary Fox said:
Bulb swapping from incandescent to LED can give very odd colours through plastic lenses.
Click to expand...

Please don’t just fit a white LED into existing lenses for the reason above. A couple of years ago on a wet and windy night, I was completely flummoxed by a vertical Blue - White - Blue. A yacht with LED whites in existing lenses, seen from stbd side with tricolour, steaming light and deck level nav light...... wrong on every level!

LED bulbs for retrofit ARE available?
 
That would be someone using a cool white like the 6000k one RogerShaw linked above (they specified for white lights!). Warm ones will be at least as good as the random colours produced by the cheap plastic in the lights anyway.
 
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