I was in the same boat as you. My pool is the same size and it seemed silly to upgrade to a $700 LED.

After looking at a couple of pools with bright white "spotlights" and a couple with cool LEDs, I changed my mind. There is nothing as cool as the deep dark blue setting I use with my IntelliBrite.

Nosabe,
If you like the bright washed out look stick with the 500w light.
I love the blue at night. Here are a couple of examples.
{{!gwi}}
{{!gwi}}

Para,
$700 upgrade, I really need to start charging more.
I know I am a bad business man, but the things I really want to see in your pool I almost do for cost.

just-a-pb,

Stop posting pictures that make me drool.

I don't know if my PB told me it was a $700 upgrade, I thought that's what he said but I can't remember. I never said I paid $700 for it.

My upgrade fee was $650 for the pool light and $600 for the spa light. The things we do to make our pools look good! I never thought I would be paying that mucn money for a darn light!

i've posted a couple of times that i'm in a similar spot with our pool. the PB swears that because of the color of pool finish (blue granite PS) that one 500 watt light will be plenty to have in the pool. still haven't completely decided to spend the extra money.

A 500 watt light makes a huge glare when swimming. To change colors, a plastic lens cover must be snapped into place. Then it's a colored glare.
They have bulbs that will eventually need changing. This usually requires an experienced tech. Incorrectly done, this will kill a fixture when it leaks.

The LEDs are much easier to swim with.
Timed color change patterns add dramatic effects.
No bulbs. Very little heat. Its a Huge MTBF.

Scott

Thanks for info and pics. Paradigm (if you come back to this), what's the width (short side) of your pool?

nosabe,

The most narrow end is a tad over 10ft wide and the widest end is 17ft.

nosabe, my PB also suggested that if we upgraded to the LED light that we would definently need to go with two because one would not be the same as a 500W light. maybe other PB's on this site have some input on that as well.

paradigmdawg, you upgraded but stayed with the one light correct? looks great!

what does MTBF mean in poolguynj post? sorry for all the questions.

MTFB....here it means "Mean Time Between Failures"....

you don't want to know what else it can stand for.

The biggest reason is the reduced energy consumption, 500 watts versus 65 watts for the LED.

Nosabe, we have regreted not going with an Intellibrite LED. We presently have a 300w light and our pool is very small, about 10 x 20. We like to sit outside at night and the glare from it is not too pleasing. I have ordered an intellibrite and it should be here soon. The ability to have changing light patterns will be a great addition. We want to enjoy our pool at night and this will be a great addition. Please go with the upgrade and extra lights because you may regret it like we have.
Hope this helps :)

MTFB....here it means "Mean Time Between Failures"....

you don't want to know what else it can stand for.

I do. Email me it.

Scott

Nosabe, I was very fustrated with my 300w Pentair incandecent light. I bought an intellibrite from ebay. I could not resist as the price was very very irrestible and very very right. Got it on friday and installed it yesterday. It is better than sliced bread . The colors and light shows are awesome and rich. How stupid I was not to have done this during my pool build. Everyone who has a pool needs to have some sort of LED in their pool. It definately enhances and invites night time entertaining. It takes the pool to a different level. I was very surprised to see no glare with the sheer descent on and very little glare with it off. I am going to add a second light switch placed in the screened room and I am going to look into upgrading to the Intellibrite light switch controller. Please go with as many Leds you can afford, believe me it is well worth it and you will save from being fustrated as we have in the last 2 mths. Now we are very happy.

brentr - glad to hear it! This is why I only use IntelliBrites!

I'm installing a 34' x 16' fiberglass pool. The PB has two standard lights in the quote for a total of $1,000. I want to go LED. I have a friend who is a rep for Zodiac/Jandy. Does anyone have any experience with the Jandy WaterColors LED lights? How many would I need for a pool of that size? 17,000 gallons, max 6 ft deep.

Two.

Thanks. That's what I was thinking.

I have to get new lights also, and I thought that while the pool was drained for a re-plaster that I might as well bite the bullet and do it.

I have an existing Jandy RS8 controller. Is there anything in the Jandy that needs to be added or changed?

Thanks for any input...

How old is the RS8? Older units may not know what an LED fixture is and might need the U/G also.

Scott

Unless the RS8 was installed or upgraded within the last 3-4 years, it won't have support for directly selecting colors (I believe support for sAM lights was added in version L). You could still operate the lights using the basic switch on/off process, but for the LED lights, that can translate up to 12 on/off cycles to get what you want.

We're in the Boston area. I want a darker pebble sheen finish to try to keep the pool warmer. My PB says that a darker pool absorbs lots of color from the lights. He's recommending two standard 500W incandescent lights. I think I still want the LEDs.

Does anybody have any experience with colored lights in a dark pool?

How big will the pool be? That has more of an influence. Lighter color finishes will reflect more, that is true but size is more important.

Two 500W fixtures can light a Lot of pool.

Scott

My pool is Midnight Blue Pebbletec 49'x18' with 4 intellibrites. The main body of the pool is 43.5' long. The lights are great and i might have been ok with 3.

The main pool will be about 30'x18' with a sun shelf sticking out that's about 7'x10'. We're looking at Pebble Sheen Blue Granite. Since I'm a little smaller that chulaman's and not as dark, maybe I'll do 3.

Here's the initial conceptual drawing of the pool:

The top of the picture is East. (As you can see we're pretty constrained by our wierd property line.)

Note the 2 lights. I was thinking of having a third in the west edge to illuminate the sun shelf, but would that be too close to the surface? Maybe put the third in the west wall of the main pool ? Or maybe we only need 2? I'm a little concerned about lighting the swimout in the SE corner, but I don't want to have any lights pointed at the house. I have seen other posts here about that.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Maybe a red or blue 75W flood on the house by the sunshelf set high on the house by the word Office. Just enough light to see, not to much to blind or wash out the pool lights.

Given the deck is the entertaining area, the fixture near the step will blind you and guests. Putting it on the other side of the steps in the middle of that corner might be worth considering.

Scott

I got 1 Led light and it looks great. I have a smaller one in the spa. I was worried because everyone suggested two but my pool builder told me one was plenty. It gives a nice look with my Pebble Tec Midnight. my pool is 21x36ft 3-5-4ft in depth. I have the hayward light now but we will be running our own test swapping out the for a pentair and taking pictures. My BP will let me keep which ever looks better. I will post the results and pics. Someone did this earlier but with older light colored plaster. I am doing this test with my Dark Pebble pool.

In my sun shelf area I installed 4 Savi note LED lights. They work great and do not need to be as deep as standard lights. Even though the light shows are different than the Intellibrites I have found that I do not care. I also "pre-plumbed" additional spots for the savi notes @ my stairs and shallow end swimout but found I do not need them. It was a minimal effort.

In the picture below two of what appear to be pre-plumbed returns at the base of the spillway are actually for the Notes.

See the .pdf catalog I linked. If you need less than 4 lights use the melody

Here is a link that might be useful: savi catalog

It's me again. We moved the lights around a little. There will now be two lights on the east side of the pool and one on the corner in between where the two are shown on the above drawing. I still want to go with LEDs, but my PB says that with the dark Pebble-sheen, they won't provide enough light for safely swimming at night.

Comments?

Obviously he doesnt do many of these.
Check out the my second picture above, the free form pool.
It is 45 x 18+ and has 3 Intellibrites with Ocean blue sheen, and yes it is plenty bright, that is no photo shop work. You would probably be just fine with two. Your swimout will be a little bit darker, but it will be anyway unless you point a light right at it or use Savi lights on it.

Pentair advertises their LED lights as lasting 30,000 hours vs. 5,000 hours for a normal 500w. They are a lot of fun too. If you are concerned about it being too dark to see clearly, switch the color to white while in the pool. The colors are best enjoyed from the side of the pool (not in it) anyway.

what are your thoughts about LED lights with a pebble tec pool. One of the pool builders that is bidding on our project is suggesting that LEDs do not look good with pebble tec.

newbie0401, your PB is wrong. We have pentair intellibrite with blue granite pebblesheen. It's beautiful.

We are currently installing a 15x32 ft pool and chose a 500w white light instead of 2 LED's. My question is, can this light be replaced later on down the road if we choose to go with an LED? Also, since they already have the pool rigged for 1 light (we just finished the rebar process, no gunite yet) would 1 LED light be enough for this size pool?

quote" Why do I want LED lights? "quote

Because they're very cool and incredibly energy efficient regardless of the manufacturer.
I illuminate my pool (it's very large) with 4 Jandy LED's and have one in the cave and one in the spa.

jfitz0807-
quote" but my PB says that with the dark Pebble-sheen, they won't provide enough light for safely swimming at night. "quote
This, my internetr friend, is HOGWASH
If you want to illuminate the sunshelf and have 10" of water depth there place a spa led on the western edge wall of the sunshelf directly under the letter S in the word shelf of your picture. Tie it in on the same switch leg and it'll synchronize with the two in the pool.

newbie0401-
I agree with nosabe, your pool builder is way wrong. I've placed many many LED's into PebbleTec pools without a single complaint. People rave about how AWESOME they are.

ljcarey-
Afnajs is correct, you'll have to upgrade your computer chip or use the on off to change the colors or light shows

kamacdaddy-
quote" Does anyone have any experience with the Jandy WaterColors LED lights? How many would I need for a pool of that size? "quote
I've placed hundreds of Jandy LED water color lights and have had no problem with them. I placed hundreds of the old Hayward lights and found that the new Jandy and Pentair Intellibrite's blew them away. I haven't placed any of the new Hayward Colorlogics into service but have heard they're noticeably better than they used to be.

I'm with just-a-pb I should throw markup on my LED upgrades.
I sell mine to my buyers for 350 each above every allowed pool or spa lamp, this is at the actual extra cost. My pool's always have 2 pool and 1 spa, the upgrade for all 3 is 1050. I don't lose money on them and the labor is the same.

See ya,
Kelly

Kelly,
Regarding the 10" of depth on the sun shelf for a spa light, is the depth driven by the light size? I haven't seen anything that says less than 18". I would love one on my sun shelf but we are only planning 8" of water. Any thoughts or ideas are welcome! Other than 10" lol.

Please Help...Our PB builder put in two 500W reg lights...on our equipment list we two hayward LED lights...so we called them on it...he say's he will not put in the LED'S...because we were not charged for LED...so what should we do...keep the 500W..or just go online an buy LED...we should plaster next week..so now is the time if I'm going to get LED....Thanks for help!

ask the pb how much to upgrade. i just went through the pb bid process and most wanted $300-$400 per light to upgrade. worth it for much less power consumption, longer life and changing colors imo.