Pool light out

I have a Hayward light and niche in my inground pool. The light & niche - and I believe bulb - are from the original installation in 1982. What is the typical life span of the bulb? Is there a way to determine if a bulb is bad BEFORE going and spending the money on a new one? We hardly ever used it. I don't want to buy a new one for nothing. Every winter we pull it out onto the deck under the cover.

They say boats are holes in the water into which one pours money . . . some days it feels like pools are holes in the ground for a similar purpose (we just had 3 lines and all the valves replaced last week).

You can remove the bulb and check it with ah Ohm meter. You may just be able to look at the buld and determine if the filament is burnt. Regarding age, I can't comment on you model but I would guess 4,000 hours for a halogen lamp would be normal life expectancy. If you run light every night for 2 hours you should get about 6 years life.

I am new to pools but am pretty handy. The pool I got with the house I purchased last summer had a dead light. I found a 10,000hr+ LED light that has 14 programs from plane white to disco inferno. Kids and neighbors like it. :) It is a Hayward color logic. ($350-400 depending on length of cord) LED's should last 10 years or more. Easy to install. Turn off CB for light. disconnect at electrical box. tie a strong cord to wires and pull them out from pool niche. tie new wires to cord and pull back thru and make connections. reconnect light and power it up. Quickly changing the light swith changes the lights mode. I changed mine in about 20 min. Left light in niche over winter with 20 below....working great this year.

Why do people take their lights out? My pool closer did not.:confused:

Jake

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Originally Posted by KirstenHW

I have a Hayward light and niche in my inground pool. The light & niche - and I believe bulb - are from the original installation in 1982. What is the typical life span of the bulb? Is there a way to determine if a bulb is bad BEFORE going and spending the money on a new one? We hardly ever used it. I don't want to buy a new one for nothing.

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Our pool and light are about the same age as yours. When we bought the place three years ago, the light was not working. A replacement bulb didn't work. Thinking it may have been defective, I bought another bulb - still no light.

For some reason I had never thought about the junction box for the light - a plastic box, built in the pool deck about 3 feet away from the light. This is where the light's wiring connects with wiring from the switch. When I opened the box I could tell that water had seeped in. With the circuit breaker off, I disconnected the wires, stripped new ends, reconnected, and sealed it all back up. We've been enjoying the light ever since!

Thanks all - I will first call dad about where the junction box is, then see if I should replace it with a funky new one.