Marinebeam cabin lights

[goat]

I'm about to order a complete set of LEDs from Marine beam. I've no trouble with exterior lighting, I'm curious if anyone has experience with the overhead dome light bulb replacements. I'm happy with the amount of light and colour I've got now; 7 watt double base bayonet I'm guessing 6 CP.

Here are the choices I'm looking at.
Product Comparison: Bayonet 9-LED Array for Overhead Dome Lights Power Matrix VS LED for Dome Lights Constellation VS Bayonet 30-LED Matrix Bulb

I'm thinking the 9 bulb would be the closest match and at 15 bucks is do-able, but my Dutch-Scottish heritage says get the one that's on sale, it seems like more bulb for less money. Am I missing anything?

Thanks guys (and gals)

goat

[alctel]

I have this dome light from them 5.5" LED Cabin Dome Light - Stainless Steel or Titanium Brass Styling

and I'm really happy with it. I have a bunch of their LED strip light replacements as well, and also use their stuff for all my navigation lights. Very happy with them!

Really they look pretty similar with the same light colour and ampage draw, it just depends if you want 140 lumins or 108 lumins.

[a64pilot]

I've replaced all my lights with Marine Beam ones, call them on the phone and ask what they think is better, and why


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[gjorgensen]

I replaced the bulbs in all my cabin lights (mostly 5 W halogen, with a few 10 W halogen "tower" style bulbs in reading lights) with MarineBeam replacement LEDs. They've been fantastic - color is fine, they're quite a bit brighter than the original bulbs, and no RF noise that I've been able to detect. My only complaint is that they're not cheap, but it's worth it to get LEDs with good regulators.

[ranger58sb]

Around 2009, I replaced all of our interior overhead non-dimming 10W G4 incandescent bulbs with warm white (9-LED) bi-pin replacements and I swapped the exterior bridge G4 overheads to red (6-LED) replacements. All these were from Mastlight.com, at the time, and billed as more voltage tolerant for the marine (DC situation) environment. (Mastllight has since gone south, and I think their website redirected to marinebeam, at least at one point.)

Last season, I began replacing all the remaining interior incandescent 10W G4s -- on the dimming circuits -- with 12-LED (and a couple 10-LED) warm white G4s from marinebeam.com. Excellent, so far.

But during the process, I also replaced and/or moved some of the earlier LEDs... and discovered some significant evidence of heat damage on the backplane of several of those older ones. The backplane on the newer marinebeam products is significantly more intricate than on the earlier lights. (I suspect partly from evolution of design; i.e., not just comparing build quality.)

Also, about half the LEDs on several of the older 9- and 6-LED versions fail to light most of the time.

My LED project this season is to replace all the earlier LEDs with new from marinebeam.

In the meantime, the 9-LED versions did give us plenty of light, at the right color "warm white" temperature... and made a significant difference in our energy budget at anchor... so well worth the cost, at least for us.

From reading, it seems some folks have good luck with the $2 LEDs, and most don't. I suspect maybe some who "do" have good luck are giving early -- not time tested -- reports.... but that's just theory. I don't usually have time to do things twice. The heat issue speaks to me as well; a couple buck$ here or there isn't worth my worry about potential fire damage.

-Chris

[mserafi1]

I did a complete replacement internally and externally and I'm very happy with the Marine Beam product. The LED lights are brighter and draw negligible volts so I feel no need to conserve as the draw is barely detectable . Pay attention to the fixtures that specify polarity...it's important. In the cabin, I replaced incandescent reading lamps and overhead fluorescent lamps with MB LED and was surprised at how much more light they produced. I think MB walks the walk......pricey, but read their their product description and engineering philosophy and it seems worth it to me.

[ranger58sb]

Originally Posted by ranger42c

My LED project this season is to replace all the earlier LEDs with new from marinebeam.

Since the question reminded me of my project... I ordered 18 replacement LEDs a few minutes ago.

Full disclosure, though: only 13 of those will be from marinebeam, simply because they don't have one particular disc I'm after for the engine room.

The 13 from marinebeam include eight 12-LED G4-sidepins in warm white, two 12-LED backpins in warm white, and three 6-LED sidepins in red.

The 5 engine room LEDs are also part of a different project, to do a major improvement of lighting there. Those existing overhead fixtures take T10 wedge bases, and I had earlier replaced the original halogens with 36-LED towers and that was an improvement... but most of that light is wasted since its not all aimed downward. I've also added a 5m "rope" of bright (cool) white LEDs around one end of the ER, so I wanted to improve the overheads -- yet again -- with better bright white LEDs. Marinebeam only had 12-LED discs in warm white, but I found a bright (cool) white version at superbrightleds.com, the same place I got the original "rope.". (The next step in the ER will be to add another "rope" at the other end of the ER, length being dependent on ho many "free amps" I have left on that circuit. It's already approaching "surgery" quality, though.)

-Chris