Lopolight - long term feedback

[Talulah]

One of the downsides of magazine reviews is that they review products which are supplied new. They never in my experience follow up on how the products do several years down the road.
If you search for Lopolight you'll find people who are very happy with the product but they have only had them for a couple of years.

I have mixed views.
Our Lopolights have all failed at around the 5 year mark.
First the stern light. 2 leds on, all the others dead.
Combined bow light. Starboard side failed completely with some failed leds on the Port side. You could see the corrosion arround the leds by looking through the resin.
And now the anchor light on the combined Tricolour/Anchor Light.
The stern light was replaced under warranty but all the other lights are just outside the warranty.
If buying Lopolights I would recommend avoiding combined units. i.e. have separate Port and Starboard Lights.
Now some will say Marine Equipment doesn't last for ever. But you have to balance this with the manufacturers claims. Lopolight claim a design life of 50,000 hours. This is over 5 years with the lights permanently on. In our 5 years of ownership I would guestimate 2000 hours of use. Not 50,000.
So all in all very nicely made units but fall a long way short of expected reliability.

 

[rotrax]

One of the downsides of magazine reviews is that they review products which are supplied new. They never in my experience follow up on how the products do several years down the road.
If you search for Lopolight you'll find people who are very happy with the product but they have only had them for a couple of years.

I have mixed views.
Our Lopolights have all failed at around the 5 year mark.
First the stern light. 2 leds on, all the others dead.
Combined bow light. Starboard side failed completely with some failed leds on the Port side. You could see the corrosion arround the leds by looking through the resin.
And now the anchor light on the combined Tricolour/Anchor Light.
The stern light was replaced under warranty but all the other lights are just outside the warranty.
If buying Lopolights I would recommend avoiding combined units. i.e. have separate Port and Starboard Lights.
Now some will say Marine Equipment doesn't last for ever. But you have to balance this with the manufacturers claims. Lopolight claim a design life of 50,000 hours. This is over 5 years with the lights permanently on. In our 5 years of ownership I would guestimate 2000 hours of use. Not 50,000.
So all in all very nicely made units but fall a long way short of expected reliability.

Hi, we have Aqua Signal lamps that take the dimpled end cap fesstoon bulbs. I recently fitted LED bulbs. I know the percieved wisdom is that they may not comply with regs. but visually,asking them to be switched on by a crew member when we got as far from the boat as possible at night they appear brighter than the normal bulbs and take significantly less current.For us its win-win,with the advantage they are not sealed units and can be serviced.

 

[Ex-SolentBoy]

Our Lopos are less than 3 years old and have had little use as we seldom sail at night.

We have had a stern light fail, and a port navlight as well. Hard to tell what the problem was, they just wouldn't light up at all.

Both exchanged under warranty.

I like the fact that they draw little power, but it seems the either work or they don't. Very expensive to carry spares!

 

[Martin_J]

Intriguing.. I wonder if there is any way they can be returned to Lopolight to find a definitive reason for them failing - corrosion or control circuitry issues.

You might remember - I went for the cheaper NASA lights.. They failed fairly quickly and the suggestion from some was that perhaps they had been used whilst on shorepower. Yes, I did occasionally test them (for whole evenings) whilst on shorepower to see if they still worked.

Replaced both masthead and anchor lights and now I ensure I only test whilst disconnected from shore power. No proof and perhaps clutching at straws but two years later they are still good.

 

[Paulka]

Orca Gren

My Orca Green TriAnchor is now over 5 years on the top of my mast, and still going strong.
Maybe I am just the lucky one.

 

[nimbusgb]

Going to be interesting to watch this thread develop given that the usual recommendation on this forum is 'buy the most expensive bit of LED kit around since that's the only way of getting a quality item'.

They are certainly expensive but I'm not convinced you are getting anything extra for your money!

 

[mitiempo]

The voltage on shorepower, through the mains charger, should not be any higher than the voltage when running the engine I don't think, unless equalizing the batteries.

 

[Martin_J]

Mitiempo.. Suggestions were made as to it being caused by noise induced by the Switched Mode charger rather than just pure voltage levels.

 

[Conachair]

One of the downsides of magazine reviews is that they review products which are supplied new. They never in my experience follow up on how the products do several years down the road.
If you search for Lopolight you'll find people who are very happy with the product but they have only had them for a couple of years.

I have mixed views.
Our Lopolights have all failed at around the 5 year mark.
First the stern light. 2 leds on, all the others dead.
Combined bow light. Starboard side failed completely with some failed leds on the Port side. You could see the corrosion arround the leds by looking through the resin.
And now the anchor light on the combined Tricolour/Anchor Light.
The stern light was replaced under warranty but all the other lights are just outside the warranty.
If buying Lopolights I would recommend avoiding combined units. i.e. have separate Port and Starboard Lights.
Now some will say Marine Equipment doesn't last for ever. But you have to balance this with the manufacturers claims. Lopolight claim a design life of 50,000 hours. This is over 5 years with the lights permanently on. In our 5 years of ownership I would guestimate 2000 hours of use. Not 50,000.
So all in all very nicely made units but fall a long way short of expected reliability.

Interesting. I've had my combined masthead for maybe 4 years now and still going strong, though the tricolour hasn't seen much use, the anchor much be well over 5,000 hours with no probs.

 

[Bosun Higgs]

Why use leds for the bow , stern and steaming light when these will only be used under engine?

 

[mitiempo]

Only the steaming light may be on under power. The lower bow and stern lights are a better choice than a tricolour for inshore use as they are more likely to be seen when close to.

Tricolour lights are great for offshore use.

 

[geoid96]

Why use leds for the bow , stern and steaming light when these will only be used under engine?

As well as reduced power consumption, which as you say is not an issue when under engine, a big consideration is longer life and hopefully fewer trips up to the bow on a wet and windy night to change the bulb.

I have Lopolights all round. These are two years old and still fine.

 

[Bosun Higgs]

In 20 odd years of sailing and with a lot of night time passages ( I like them) I have only had to replace a bulb twice.

 

[Talulah]

Only the steaming light may be on under power. The lower bow and stern lights are a better choice than a tricolour for inshore use as they are more likely to be seen when close to.

Tricolour lights are great for offshore use.

+1
The steaming light is the only one we have that uses a regular bulb.
NB Lopolight do a combined steaming/deck flood. However, as the deck flood doesn't use high output LED's it's bit of a damp squid.

 

[Talulah]

Interesting. I've had my combined masthead for maybe 4 years now and still going strong, though the tricolour hasn't seen much use, the anchor much be well over 5,000 hours with no probs.

Maybe time to go up the mast and have a closer inspection. See just how many of the LEDs have gone before the end of the warranty period.

 

[Sandyman]

Have given up using Nav LED's. Had to many problems with them.
The selling point of course is the reduced power consumption, but if you have a good set of batteries and a means of charging them, why bother with LED's ? We survived perfectly well before they arrived on the market.

 

[Conachair]

Maybe time to go up the mast and have a closer inspection. See just how many of the LEDs have gone before the end of the warranty period.

Probably should, you're right. Last time was after a trans atlantic and all seemed well, not been used much since then.
Just to set the cat amongst the pigeons, most offshore cruisers i know, myself included, don't use tricolour offshore, white masthead as there's slightly more chance of someone actually seeing you out there, thus the low hours on the tri lopo on my mast.

 

[Conachair]

In 20 odd years of sailing and with a lot of night time passages ( I like them) I have only had to replace a bulb twice.

You've only had to replace 2 bulbs in 20 years?? That's good going

 

[late-night-lochin]

Interesting Thread!

I fitted a pair of Aquasignal Series 32 LED nav lights about 4 yers ago. The port one failed and the starboard one worked but looked all cracked up inside. I also bought a stern light but had never got around to fitting it (old tungsten one still works).

I wasn't worried about the current draw (mine's a motor boat) but did fall, hook line and sinker, for the 50,000 hour service life!

To be fair, the dealer I bought them from did replace all three without quibble but Aquasignal have discontinued the series 32 and replaced them with the Series 34. Now a nav light isn't exactly a "fashion accessory" so in my opinion, they changed the design because the original design was flawed.

Although the Series 34 has the same mounting centres and hole size as the old series 32, a third hole is required for the cable (and there ain't no way of sealing it).

I originally fitted my LED nav lights to the wheelhouse and could just about access the cables by detaching the side of the head lining. After fitting them, a started to wish that I had fitted them 6" further aft and that way they would have been mounted on the overhang at the back of the wheelhouse so sealing wouldn't have mattered.

Anyway, this time I decided to bight the bullet and glassed up the old holes ready to fit the new ones in the overhang but now I'll be monitoring this thread closely. That will make me decide if I try again with the new LEDs or bin them and buy some conventional ones.

 

[Slipperman]

Lopolight -long term feedback

My boat had a Lopolight combined tricolour and anchor light fitted from new, which failed just under the 5 year mark. Because I was working full time for most of this period, I mostly just day sailed in daylight hours at weekends etc. So the total hours must have been very low - say 50 hours max rather than the 50,000 quoted. In fact, i wonder whether lack of use might have caused the problem?

The electricians who did the fault finding and went up the mast got me a replacement unit from Lopolight free of charge, but it still cost me a considerable amount in labour. Not sure what I shall do when it next fails - but at least now i am retired it is getting some more use than before.