LED water test

I used some Oznium LED’s on my current boat and I’m very pleased with them, so I plan to use a ton more on my next boat which I’ll be purchasing soon. However even though I’ve never had an issue with them, even the one in my livewell, I still wanted to test their waterproofness.

So to do this I filled a container of heavily salted water and submerged the LED’s, including the inline resistors, and have been agitating the water and testing them every few days to make sure they still work the way they should. So far so good.

Test started on 8/6/13


Testing the LED’s with a 9v battery, they are actually much brighter when you use a 12v source like they are designed for. So it’s been 10 days and they are just fine, I’ll keep going a while longer, but I’m sure they will last about as long as my boat will.


I’m going to use them in the cockpit and livewell again, but also in an underwater assembly mounted on the rear of the boat. For the underwater assembly I’ll probably use 5-8 of them per side. I also have some thoughts on making a light array for the front to spot lobsters and flounder……

Here is a picture of my current boat, I used just one of these 4 chip LED’s on each side, and one in the livewell. You can see how bright just one of these little LED's are.


Here is a link to the ones I used and are testing.
http://www.oznium.com/marine-led-floodlight

 

I honestly don't know. I'm not really sure how well they penetrate water, but the one LED lights the heck out of my 14 gallon livewell. I might rig up a battery and toss them in the lake to see how they do.

 

I decided to fill the bathtub cause I was bored. Keep in mind that the LEDs are only hooked to a 9v battery, but they are designed for 12v and would be much brighter. Also these are blue, the white are brighter, but I'll probably go with aqua or green

Here is the clear water


I decided to see how murkier water would effect the LEDs, so I grabbed a few fizzy bath tabs from my daughter. They turn the water colors, but don't stain the tub.


As you can see it did effect them a bit, but I still think they will work great as accent lights, and help attract bait at night.

 

Just about $3 per LED. Only thing is they stopped making the aqua color I was hoping to use so I may have to go with green or blue again.

http://www.oznium.com/marine-led-floodlight

 

Not sure what you mean. The boat above is mine, I used them on the console under the rod racks and in the livewell. They are nice and bright.

On my next build I may put them other places like under the gunnels, and underwater off the transom.

 

Ok, just remember you want them to accent stuff, not to be seen, if you can actually see the bulb they will kill your night vision. So make sure where ever you mount them there is something that keeps them from shining up.

Example: I mounted them under my rod tubes so they lit up the cockpit, but I wasn't seeing spots.

 

Even if they are tucked away where they won't get splashed, the salt air will kill any non marine electronics off very quickly. I hope they keep working for you, but if they aren't sealed and water resistant then they aren't making it on my skiff.

 

I just wired them together with the anchor light. They are all on a single 5 amp switch on my panel. They were seriously plug and play.

 

No problem, they draw so little power, you will dig them.