The Jandy Color light is not LED. It actually has eight halogen bulbs in it. I tried them out and found that they were not as bright as the sAM lights. They also suffered from a bad lens design that didn't spread/mix the light as well as the sAM. The kicker is that Jandy suggests the replacement of all eight lights anytime one burns out. That's a $100 bill each time it occurs. For non-LED, the sAM is still the king. If you're looking for LED, the Pentair Intellibrite seem to do a great job. It has a custom lens that directs light downward to increase the surfaces it reflects off of.

According to the specs on Pentair's website, the SAm has an illumination equivalent of 300 watts. Hayward doesn't give out any wattages in their technical specs, so it's difficult to compare. What I do know is that the replacement LED matrix is very expensive compared to a $10 halogen bulb. And, being in the traffic signal industry, I know well that LEDs are prone to failure. My agency has not adopted LED traffic lights because of this, even thought the power requirements are much lower. What I do know is that our PB, whom I have a great deal of trust in, steered us away from the LEDs for these reasons. Hope this helps.

quote" when I started in the pool biz, a time clock and air switch was for high rollers........"quote I'm sitting here LMAO!!! When I started in this game we plumbed whistlers. They provided more hydro therapy action at the jet than any of todays whiz bang jets with a horse and a half air blower. The problem was the noise. Now I can't hardly remember the last dual timer and AS Relay I installed. Everything has been Aqualink for the past 10 years. Colt, I'm curious, do you work for the worlds largest pool wholesaler or PWP? If so please disregard the following. Deek, are you telling me I can buy a 4X160 from PWP for 718 bucks on their published price list? They, the worlds largest pool distributor, came to town and promised great service and fair prices. On the service aspect they've delivered in spades, but on the fair prices I've had my suspicions for some time now. If you can purchase the 4X160 pump for 200 less it means they're charging me almost 25% more. That equates to a near 40% markup for the distributor. This is way way more markup than normal construction wholesale distributors work for. My biggest joke with my outside rep when he asks me how I'm doing is "Not only am I smoking more and enjoying it less, but I'm also paying more for service and enjoying it less too" I haven't bought from PWP since the early 90's and haven't shopped pricing in 10 years but now I'm convinced I probably should. repairguy, I don't think I said that the starter of this thread could save as much electricity with a 2-speed pump. I think I said that they could save nearly an equal amount of electricity by utilizing a Jandy 2speed or Whisperflo 2speed pump and save money on their equipment purchase. I also didn't say that I don't embrace new technology I think I said that I'm sure that these pumps are the way of the future, but in the meanwhile I'll wait for the prices to drop. Please don't attempt to read things in my posts that I'm not saying and then rewrite them to play off of my reply. FWIW, I quote quite a bit of this new equipment and have placed it into service on quite a few pools. It's awesome stuff!!! But, I'll quote my buyers the actual cost of my setup -vs- your setup and let them make the decision based on their interpretation of whether it is or isn't worth the extra money. This way they won't have me to blame because I told them about the benefits of each. Don't take my replies as me knocking the product and don't take this as me knocking you. It's just my take on the situation. BTW, I'm sorry you don't like DE filters. I've always found them to be great filters. My pool is 120000 gallons and is always crystal clear even on short filter run times. I attribute this to my DE filters. Thanks for you guys input, this thread will go a long way towards enlightening new members contemplating a pool purchase. I saw where Eann is looking to purchase the variable speed online. I'm fixing to go over to that thread and second your advice to steer clear of Internet wholesalers. See ya, Kelly

I am in Central FL, but most here will tell you that the light price is high. One PB supplied only 1 standard light, and 2 ColorLofic LED would have been a $1600 upgrade. Another PB supplied 2 standard ligts, and his upgrade cost to 2 ColorLofic LEDs was $1150. So proces vary widely from one PB to the next. A buddy owns a 14' x 32' freeform and hs only a single Pentair Intellibrite light (non-LED) at the deep end. It easily lights the shallow end. Now, the Intellibrite is Halogen based. I have read reports from others here that the LEDs are good for about 25'... so you might need 2, and face them toward eeach other (one shallow end, one deep end). My advice: if you have not signed yet, then you have a strong position from which to make contract signing contingent upon his lowering prices.. once you sign, you have no leverege. -Gorilla