LED replacement for bulbs

[crieders]

Anyone know the numbers for the Forespar deck and steaming light and the bow and stern aquasignal lights. I think the deck light is an MR16 flood but what about the festoon bulbs on the other fixtures?   I was going to replace the interior lights as well but the dome lights do not seem to come apart. Is that correct or am I just doing it wrong? What about the bulbs in the bow and stern cabins on a 1990 c34? Having bought a few LED flashlights, I am sold on the idea.

[Jon Schneider]

Can't supply the bulb part numbers (but I'd bet Forespar and Aquasignal could), but the interior fixtures do come apart (and I probably had the same ones as you, since our boats were built close together).  I can't remember how they come apart, but I know I replaced the bulbs in them once.  Last year, I replaced the fixtures with similar, but much better quality (not that that really matters in the interior) LED fixtures from Sailors' Solutions. 

[Stu Jackson]

Aqua Signal or another company is making replacement bulbs specifically for their Series 25 fixtures.  Check the West marine catalog in navigation lights.

[Jon Schneider]

Aqua Signal definitely makes LED products (I replaced my anchor light with an AS 25 LED), but I'm not sure if they offer the bulbs separately.  My new anchor light isn't user-serviceable.  Cliff, try doctorled.com; they have a variety of replacement LED bulbs (I mean that are meant as replacements for incandescent bulbs).  Also, the company that I mentioned earlier, sailorssolutions.com, has an LED replacement for certain types of incandescent fixtures. 

[Stu Jackson]

Jon's right.  Aqua Signal is not making the replacement bulbs, Dr. LED and Ancor are doing so. I stand corrected from my earlier post.  The AS Series 25 takes a double dimpled festoon lamp.  Dr. LED has a Polar Star 25 TM LED Replacement Bulb specifically for the AS Series 25 nav lights.  Ancor also makes festoon Dbl Dimple T1044.  Difference is price and configuration of the lamps.  See page 470 of the 2008 WM catalog.

[crieders]

I am told that none of the bulbs are Coast Guard approved. In addition I understand from both Forespar and Aquasignal that they do not endorse any of the bulbs and they question their brightness for exterior use. Further, their is no uniformity in specs. For example DoctorLED sells a 3 watt MR16 but the West carried product (the name was in a prior post) does not give the watts and the West product rep says their MR16 is not intended for the deck light that was in the original Forespar combo deck/streaming light. So whose to buy or whether bulb replacement for outside fixtures is a good idea. The West catalogue says one bulb they carry is for the Aquasignal 25 series but Acquasignal told me that was an unauthorized statement in the catalogue and that heat or cold could affect the life of the diode significantly since it was not in a "proper" fixture. Maybe they just want to sell entirely new units; who knows. So its not so easy after all.

[Stu Jackson]

Cliff,

I doubt if the CG is ever going to "approve" new lamps inside old fixtures.  It seems that they have a lot more to do these days.

Endorsement of any new lamps inside an existing fixture is also not unforeseen.  The fixture manufacturers sell their units with lamps.  Someone else selling lamps may not hurt their business, but eventually they'll find a way, as we know they will, to sell the same fixture with a lamp for the same price without a lamp!

What is needed is to simply check the candlepower of the lamp you are replacing.

The Aqua Signal Series 25 fixtures take a AS model 175203 double festoon lamp.  (WM 2008 catalog page 460).  Page 471 shows that 10 watt lamp to have 8 CP.  Page 470 shows the Ancor LED replacement bulb T1044 (noted above) as equivalent 8 watts for $17.99.  The Dr. LED Polar Star "Series 25 replacements" are $49.99.  Those seem to be the two choices one has for a dimpled festoon, since others are pointed festoons which won't work in those fixture's lamp holders.

I would try one $17.99 in your stern light and see how it shines.  What do you have to lose?  If you don't think it works, return it.  (And please let us know.)

If your goal is to reduce energy consumption, then go ahead, because the CG will keep you waiting for years.  Remember how long they took to "approve" the much superior inflatable life jackets? If you need to replace lamps, then the $5.79 #175203 is your least expensive option.

It all depends on what your goal is, but personally I don't think that the CG is going to approve any of these, nor needs to.  After all it's just a "bulb" in a "lamp" so the issue is your boat your choice on energy consumption and longer life compared to a simple replacement.

FWIW, I just installed a new steaming light / deck light combo, Aqua Signal 25, #41404, page 467, and chose to simply install the lamp that came with the fixture.

[Ron Hill]

Cliff : I'm really not interested in an LED for the steaming light, as by definition the engine is on and you don't need the amp savings of an LED.  Don't think that I've ever had to replace that one in 20 years!
On the deck light - I'm not too sure that an LED is going to be bright enough, although I'd sure like the extended life of an LED over a halogen bulb!!
I've replaced all of my interior festoon bulbs with LED festoon ones.  A few thoughts.   

[crieders]

As the posts show you can't compare the candlepower as between the mfg's. So how does one know whether it makes more sense to buy the 17 dollar or the 49 dollar bulb, for example. Also there is no way to compare the MR16 deck light between the halogen and the LED other than as to watts and watt wanna-bee. They are both supposedly the same as 20 watt but what does that really mean? So who knows. Maybe the thing to do is just go with my new Hella anchor LED and forget the rest for right now.

[Stu Jackson]

I may have not been clear:  If I personally REALLY wanted the LEDs (for whatever reason), I would buy the $18 lamp and try it out.  I would consider saving a trip to the store and buy both and try them both, and return either or both depending on what the results of the tests had been.  It's very easy to access both the bow and stern lights and the steaming light we have, an Aqua Signal same as the other two, has exactly the same housing and lamps as the bow and stern fixtures.  So far, no one has responded with their own experiences with nav light LED lamp replacement. 

As I noted, I used the older style lamp in our repair operation (see: http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,3533.0.html#lastPost).  The reason we replaced it was because of the lens deterioration.  See picture.

It's kinda like sailing, you can read all about it, but ya just gotta go out and do it.  Since the anchor light is a real electrical hog, I think your idea is a VERY good one.  If you can reduce that old anchor light draw down to essentially nothing, that's super. Your boat, your choice on the rest of the lights.

[Stu Jackson]

Then there's this that I found recently:  http://secure.orcagreen.com/xcart/product.php?productid=16142&cat=250&page=1

[Jon Schneider]

That's a neat one, Stu, because it includes the daylight sensor.  The only thing I don't like about it is the way it mounts, leaving a gap between the masthead cap and the unit.  At least on my 1990, there's a honking-big hole for the wire, which would require filling.  It's like they thought I was going to use 0 cable. 

I said earlier that I bought an Aqua Signal, but I just realized that I actually bought a Hella Marine product (http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|65136|739053|760449&id=769978).  I like it, but I haven't tested the two-mile spec yet.