T & D Pool lights burning out in 2 year old pool, normal?
 

Hello TOTV. We have loved our new build T&D pool. They are very responsive whenever we need them and we are pleased with the quality. However, I am puzzled, we have had to replace all 4 lights in the last year. This has been on their dime but when out of warranty they are $750 a piece to replace. We have owned the home and pool for two years.

The technician said that there is no sign of water damage or any reason that this has been happening. His suggestion is to not use the lights the 4 hours a night that we do, but only when we are swimming. That doesn’t make sense to me so I am looking for others who have owned pools much longer than myself.

The research that I see says an LED pool light should last 25,000-50,000 hours. Thoughts please?

I have no idea what type on lights were supplied, but I have seen LED based lights that should have many years of life. IMHO, I would investigate the possibility of replacing the original lights with LED based lights. NOTE: depending on the design these replacements could be LOW voltage or 120 VAC rated. Also, the LED versions may offer COLORED LEDs, remote control and other features.

Our T&D pool is 7+ years old and after about 3 years our lights went bad (they are multi colored LED’s). They were replaced under warranty and we were told there was a problem with the lights from that manufacturer that had been fixed and we should be good with the new model replacements. We haven’t had a problem with the replacements, but your report scares me since the new lights are no longer under warranty. LED’s should outlast our lifetimes if working properly. Fingers crossed. On another note, we recently had to replace both the salt cell (chlorinator) and the variable speed pump, which set us back about $3,500 since the equipment warranty had expired. Just a heads up for planning purposes.

Yikes!

I’d recommend calling T&D directly to see what your warrant is all about.

Our pool is just over 2 years old. T&D built it and has replaced the controller and recently a LED light, all under warranty. They really stand by their work.

Advising limited run time on lights is crazy. The technician is obviously misinforming people and I’m sure T&D would like to know about it.

Depending on equipment used, most companies like Hayward, carry the warranty. T&D is the service provider, that gets paid to diagnose, repair, or replace. You can look at your equipment company’s to see their warranty.
We wanted control our pool with apps instead of the outside unit. Our pool company talked us out of the stand alone remote, due to warranty. Instead we have an app on our Apple product, as well as two of our kids have the app on their iPhone, to control pool from anywhere.

Salt cells in the past few years also had an issue of not fully working, and have to be replaced, under warranty.

I asked about our lights today, (not T&D) the owner said he hasn’t replaced any lights under 4-5 years, depending on use. But since ours is only on 4-5 hours a day, we shouldn’t have a need to replace anytime soon.

I did mention about only using lights when swimming, he laughed and said, why would you install lights that shouldn’t be turned on. If there is a run of warranty issues, with lights, it needs to be addressed to the manufacturer.

Thank you all for your thoughts, they have been very eye-opening. Thank I need to have a discussion.

Pool light
 

We had our Hayward pool light fail after approximately 2 years. Of course it came with a 1 year warranty. I discovered as you did the replacement cost on just the light was pushing $1,000.00. I found a YouTube video on the subject and bought a light from Amazon for $72.00. Spliced the wiring together with crimped connections, heat shrink tubing and sealed it with liquid tape. Installed it and working as good as the $1,000 model. They are all low 12 voltage. I can replace this $72.00 light every two years for a long time before I spend the $1,000 a Hayward light costs.

Im a DIYer to but be very careful doing this as the light is $1,000 for a reason. Mixing water with spliced electrical wiring, etc can lead to dangerous consequences with no room for error. Google the recent hot tub fatality this summer of a vacationer in Mexico.

Pool light
 

No doubt you need to know what voltage and type of power you’re working with. Pool lights are low voltage 12 volt DC. I made sure mine was with my multimeter. When I removed the non functional light it was full of water and the power was still on. These aren’t underwater lights that operates on 120 volt ac power wired to a 20 amp breaker that would cause potential electrocution if the unit loses its seal, gets water in it and didn’t have GFI protection.

We have the pool Led lights also installed 10 years ago by T&D. They did have to replace them once about 5 years ago because of lighting. They are still working fine. Then again we only turn them on when we have guest over and not every night.

I'd like to ask a related question. Has anyone had an issue with the lights never staying solid and always changing color? I can't every get the lights to stay the same color without changing.

Are you using app on a device, or remote control? Do you have lights scheduled, on certain color or program and not realize

My pool is 1 1/2 years and T & D just replaced 2 of them no charge.

Our lights have about 30 different color modes, some modes where the lights cycle through different color sequences and other modes with a single color without changing. We don’t have an app that controls the pool equipment, just the remote that came with the pool and communicates wirelessly with the main control box outside by the pool equipment. I don’t like the way the remote changes the light mode. There is no way to jump to the mode you want, you have to cycle through all the modes until you get to one you want. If you turn the lights off and quickly turn them back on it will jump to the next mode. If you accidentally turn the lights off and back on too fast, and jump from your preferred color mode, you have to cycle through the next 29 modes to get back to your preferred color. It’s not user friendly at all. Also, the remote comes with a battery that is not designed to be replaced. After about 5 years the battery will no longer take a charge so the remote will only work if it’s in the docking station that has to be plugged into an outlet. The price of a new remote is jaw dropping, so now we can only use our 7+ year old remote while in its docking station. It’s a very poor design.

Good info, thanks. I’m going to put in a call to T&D with an inquiry about converting from the remote to app based controls.

T and D light system is horrible
 

Agreed. We have been very happy with our T and D pool. However, the light system is the worst!

Many calls for service.

Even when the lights are operational, they are usually out of sync and a constant source of annoyance.

I have an LED, multicolor, pool light with remote control that is still working after 16 years. I don't run it every night for four hour, though.

I've had a pool before, but it didn't have lights. I wonder reading this thread, does someone from T&D put on a bathing suit and dive under to change the lightbulbs?

I've tried to do it both ways. App and on the panel. I'm not aware of a program but I have clicked the options for the steady and a specific color and nada

I’ve had a pool for 8 years and used mine maybe ten times in all. Mine are burnt out with out even using them. Waste of money

I talked with T&D today about continuing to use our remote or converting our system so we can use the Hayward app to control our pool equipment. Here are our three options.

Continue to use our remote as we have been for about the last three years, with a dead battery that won’t take a charge. To use the remote, it has to be in its docking station which is plugged into an outlet. This option wouldn’t cost us anything.

T&D will replace the battery in our remote for $125 and we can then use our remote anywhere in the house or birdcage but still have to periodically place it into the docking station to keep the battery charged. After some research I am seeing I could buy an aftermarket replacement battery for about $75 and should be able to replace the battery myself. A new battery is expected to last about 4-5 years.

We could have our existing master pool control panel replaced with modern WiFi based components that would allow us to download the free Hayward App and control our pool equipment on as many devices as we like using the App. Upgrading our master control panel would cost us $1,950 (ouch).

As much as we would like to be able to control everything with the App, we have become accustomed to simply using our remote in its docking station and almost $2 grand seems like an awful lot upgrade, so we decided to keep things as is.