Pool Lights

[waterbear]

The color wheels on the Jazz lights turn about twice as fast as the ones on the SAM lights. The colors of the color wheel are very vibrant (deep) so they might not give as much illumination except when on white that you would expect (The FX lights are basically the same but they use Halogen bulbs instead of Metal Halide so they are not quite as bright, colors are basicly the same However, Metal Halide is a bluer light source so there are some slight differences...the green and deep blue and are very rich but the magenta is more purplish then compared to the FX lights)...SAM colors are more pastel (and therefore seem to illuminate better) and change more slowly. It depends on what you like. Metal Halide will produce a much brighter light than Halogen but they do not light immediately when you turn them on (sort of like a florescent light) and take a few minutes to reach full brightness. Also, when you turn them off they need to stay off for a few minuted before you try and turn them back on or the will not light. Once you get use to this little quirk of Metal Halide lighting you will have no problems. Because of this quirk they have two switches...one to operate the light itself and one to turn the color wheel on and off and to sync it if you have multiple lights. The Fiberstars FX and the Pentair SAM/SAl lghts just use one switch to control the light/color wheel and sync operations.
Interestingly enough, Pentairs fiber optics illuminator that is used with the SAM/SAL lights is also metal halide and uses the two switch approach but syncs fine with their halogen SAM/SAL lights. Fiberstars makes both a Metal Halide illuminator for use with the Jazz that is two switch and a halogen one for use with the FX that is single switch.

[Jinx32]

Waterbear, Thanks for the info. Do you have the Jazz lights in your pool, or the Sam lights? We still have our choice so do you have a recommedation? I like that the Jazz lights have a 2 year warentee and a 10k hour life span. Do you know of anyone that has them in their pool?

[waterbear]

Waterbear, Thanks for the info. Do you have the Jazz lights in your pool, or the Sam lights? We still have our choice so do you have a recommedation? I like that the Jazz lights have a 2 year warentee and a 10k hour life span. Do you know of anyone that has them in their pool?

I have had several problems with my pool construction...I started the thread "Pool builder from H**L. I was supposed to have FX lights in my pool and spa and a 2004AS fiber opitics illuminator. I ended up with the fiberstars illuminator and Sam and Sal lights so the colors didn't match and they wouldnt' sync. I now have the Pentair illuminator that works with the SAM and SAL lights. I actually prefer the pentair colors and slower color wheel rotation but the Jazz is a brighter light source so if you need the candlepower it would probably be the way to go. As far as Fiberstars warrenty, I have some of their water features and had some problems with them (fiber optics light bars fell off within hours after being installed) and could not get them to honer the warrenty. I had to repair them myself after a run around with their cusomter support.

[Jinx32]

I hope my pool construction goes smoother than yours did. But now that its all said and done are you happy with your decision to put a pool in?

[waterbear]

I hope my pool construction goes smoother than yours did. But now that its all said and done are you happy with your decision to put a pool in?

I am very happy with my decision to put in a pool. I was just unlucky in my choice of contractor. He had a good record and went bad while working on my pool.

[Jinx32]

Comeon guys I need a final decision on my lighting system. Color Logic or Jazz Lights, http://www.fiberstars.com/ps/prods/jazz.htm

[Simmons99]

IMO - it sounds like you really want the Jazz lights - are they more expensive? When we had our pool built we tried to do everything we could afford - if you are going to spend $40K on a pool - why not spend and extra $10k and have no regrets about it later.