1. There are so many underwater boat lights available, why should I choose DeepSea?
DeepSea Power & Light’s SeaLites® were one of the first underwater boat lights offered back in 2003 and have earned a reputation as THE underwater boat light to have. Our focus is to design safe, reliable, high quality underwater lights that offer maximum light output. Many companies have jumped into the underwater yacht lighting market in recent years with little or no experience designing underwater lights. Worse yet, many of these companies are designing the cheapest lights possible, at the expense of quality, longevity, and light output.
DeepSea Power & Light offers two main types of underwater boat lights:
LED Underwater Lights
Our LED underwater lights utilize high brightness LEDs for maximum light output. We've integrated special circuitry that allows the lights to double as a fish attracting strobe light with the flick of a switch. We've also built-in exclusive dimming circuitry so you can adjust the light output to set the perfect mood. DeepSea's underwater LED lights are designed to function in water or while underway and even have a thermal safety switch that automatically protects the LEDs from over temperature. The LEDs last 50,000 hours on average and are available in blue, green, or white.
Gas Discharge Underwater Lights
Our gas discharge underwater lights feature high color temperature lamps for a brilliant white light that provides incredible penetration in seawater. DeepSea is the only underwater light company that utilizes scratch resistant sapphire ports for the ultimate in durability and heat transfer. Specially engineered reflectors ensure a wide beam angle and an even dispersion of light.
In addition to our experience in the recreational boating industry, we have over 25 years experience designing underwater lighting systems for deep ocean exploration, military applications, offshore oil, and commercial diving. This experience and expertise is unmatched in the underwater boat lighting market. To learn more about our oceanographic division, including our involvement with the Titanic expeditions, please visit DeepSea.com
Underwater light recommendations, based on the size of your boat, can be found on our Product Overview page at our Product Overview section. Please keep in mind that these are loose recommendations and not rigid guidelines.
3. What are the lumen measurements for your lights?
Many companies take the LED manufacturer’s lumen spec and simply multiply it by the number of LEDs in the light fixture. This inflates the lumen spec by not taking into account the losses in the driver, reflector and port. Any light that fails to find its way out of the underwater light fixture is not useful.
DeepSea measures the lumen output of our lights using a calibrated integrating sphere. This provides an accurate measurement of the number of lumens exiting the fixture and traveling into the water.
Below are the measurements from our calibrated integrating sphere.
Product
Lumens
150W HID Thru-Hull SeaLite
5,500 lumens
18 LED Thru-Hull SeaLite
2,000 lumens
12 Led On-Hull SeaLite
1,300 lumens
MiniLED Thru-Hull SealIte
800 lumens
4.
Why don’t you provide lux measurements for your lights?
Very simply, lux is just lumens per square meter. If you want to make a lower output, narrow beam light look “brighter” than a powerful, wider beam light, you simply compare the two by making lux measurements. The wide beam light can put out 10 times as much light, but the narrow beam light can yield a lux measurement easily 10 times “brighter,” as least as far as lux is concerned.
Imagine you are tasked with lighting up a baseball field for a night game. You decide to make your reference measurements on the pitcher’s mound. You decide to try two different lighting strategies. In one case you shine a 1,000 watt, high powered search light on the pitcher’s mound and you go down on the field with your handheld lux meter and you measure 10,000 lux. In the next case, you fire up 200 flood lighting fixtures of 2,000 watts each (400,000 watts total, 400 times more light on the field) that evenly light up the field; you turn off the spot light and go back down to the pitcher’s mound again. This time you measure 200 lux on the pitcher’s mound. Which set-up is more useful?
5. Can I leave my lights on while underway?
All of DeepSea Power & Light’s LED underwater lights can operate in water or while underway, but our gas discharge underwater lights must be water cooled.
Our LED underwater lights were designed with a unique thermal safety switch that automatically protects the LEDs from over temperature while operating in very hot environments.
Leaving DeepSea Power & Light’s LED underwater lights on while underway is not a problem. In fact, it creates a neat afterburner effect behind the boat, as you can see in the photo below of 70’ motor yacht, Never Say Never.
Yes, the whole food chain is attracted to the underwater lights; first plankton, then the bait fish, and then the bigger fish. The video clip below is a great example of this.
We recommend blue LEDs for use in seawater, green LEDs for use in freshwater, and white LEDs when color rendering is important (such as identifying a fish species based on markings).
In some cases, boat owners choose to mix and match the colors for a dramatic effect. The Yamaha AR210 in the photo below has 2 blue MiniLED Thru-Hull SeaLites® and 1 white MiniLED Thru-Hull SeaLite® and looks amazing.
No, because RGB (red, green, blue) LED’s, the technology used for color changing lights, do not provide maximum light output. For example, blue is the most popular color choice for seawater applications. To make blue light with an RGB LED, you’re only using 1/3 of the output of the LED. To get the brightest blue possible, you’re much better off using a blue LED instead of a RGB LED.
Underwater lights manufactured by DeepSea Power & Light have numerous safety features incorporated into the designs and utilize only the highest quality materials to ensure your safety. Design elements such as double seals, sapphire crystal ports, and thermal cut off circuits provide extra protection not found in lesser quality lights. As part of our rigorous QC process, we perform a low pressure overnight soak and a high pressure test on each light before it ships.
With over 25 years experience manufacturing underwater lights for deep ocean exploration, our lights provide the peace of mind in knowing they were designed by a company. No other underwater boat lighting company can match DeepSea Power & Light’s experience and expertise.
10. Do you offer a light that only requires a small hole through the transom?
Yes, our 12 LED On-Hull SeaLite® surface mount light requires only a 1/2'” hole through the transom for the power cable. It is also the only light on the market that combines incredible light output with exclusive strobe circuitry and dimming capability. To lean more, visit our 12 LED On-Hull SeaLite®
Installing our underwater lights is straightforward and can be performed by any qualified boatyard. Detailed installation instructions are included with each light and can be found in the user manuals on our website.
All of DeepSea Power & Light’s products are manufactured at our 36,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility in San Diego, California. Our factory was designed to be environmentally friendly with the goal of minimizing DeepSea Power & Light’s environmental impact, assisting in sustaining natural resources, and helping reduce operating costs. We have a crew of dedicated employees, some of which have been with the company 20+ years.
DeepSea Power & Light offers a limited one year warranty that can be found on our website. We extend the standard one year warranty to a two year warranty if the Owners Registration Card (shipped with each product) is completed and returned to us.
Below is a photo of Destiny, one of the first boats to install DeepSea's boat underwater lights in 2003. The lights continue to work flawlessly.
