Jandy Infinite WaterColors Niched LED Lights

The Infinite WaterColors niched light is Jandy's color LED for a standard wet niche: a 50 W pool light and a 25 W spa light, both in stainless steel. It isn't Jandy's older WaterColors with more colors. Unlike those, the lights talk to their controller digitally, and nothing but that controller will run them.

That decides the first question, which comes before the niche or the color. It needs a Jandy AquaLink RS at revision Y or later. On a Pentair or Hayward pad, or an older AquaLink, this is the wrong light.

It runs on one controller and one automation system

Jandy's light manual is plain about it: the lights won't operate from any other transformer. They take 14 volts from the IWCLC300W controller, a box with its own 300 W transformer. The controller then talks to the AquaLink RS over RS-485.

Three things follow from that.

• No wall switch. The controller manual says light zones are turned on and off only through the iAquaLink app. Jandy also has an Alexa skill for voice control.
• No relay. The controller has to be powered straight from a circuit breaker, and the manual says so twice. On a pad where the old light's transformer hangs off a relay on the automation, that circuit changes. Jandy's brochure puts the upside plainly: the lights stop using up an auxiliary relay.
• No dimmer. The lights dim in the app and don't work properly on dimming circuits, so the manual says to keep them off one.

Swapping into an existing AquaLink RS has one more step. The manual says to remove the old light's auxiliary names, color light labels and schedules from the system setup first.

It fits other brands' niches

This is the useful surprise. Jandy's manual lists the niches the light is ETL listed for, and they aren't all Jandy's:

• Jandy large niches: PLNICLRG, PLNICVFLRG, WT000002, SSNICLRG1R and SSNICLRG1S
• Jandy small niches: PLNICSM and SSNICSM
• Pentair: 620004, 78210200 through 78210700, 78210401 and the small 79206600
• Hayward: the DuraNiche, SP0600U

So a pool with a Pentair or Hayward light doesn't always need a new niche to take this one, as long as the niche is on the list and the pad runs an AquaLink RS. Check the niche's model number before ordering. The manual also says to make sure the niche is meant for the pool's water, fresh or salt.

How many lights one controller runs

The controller takes 120 volts at 2.75 A and puts out 14 volts, up to 300 W. Jandy caps the lights on it at 240 W combined. Its manual gives the counts for the smaller nicheless lights, 16 at 15 W or 9 at 25 W, but none for the niched ones.

By that limit, four 50 W pool lights fit on one controller, at 200 W, and a fifth would take it to 250. That's arithmetic from Jandy's figure, not a number Jandy prints.

An AquaLink RS runs up to four controllers, and the whole system has up to four zones, each with its own color. The starter kit, IWCPSKIT100, is one pool light, one spa light and the controller.

The wiring rules are stricter than an old light's

The controller manual ties its wiring rules to the lights' digital signal, which Jandy's older WaterColors don't use. The rules:

• 200 feet at most from the controller to the farthest light, all the cable combined
• 10 AWG stranded wire at least from the controller to the junction box, and 8 AWG on some longer runs over 120 W
• Low and line voltage in separate conduit. Where line power and the RS-485 cable share a raceway, use shielded Type TC cable
• No daisy-chained junction boxes. Wire each one back to the power source; chaining them causes communication losses
• A junction box once there are more than two lights

On an older pool, that can be where the job grows. A long run in light-gauge wire, or junction boxes chained together, may need rewiring before these lights will talk reliably.

The controller goes at least 8 inches above the water, 4 inches above the ground and 4 feet from the pool's edge, on a GFCI-protected circuit, bonded with 8 AWG solid copper.

Installing it in the niche

The top of the lens has to be at least 18 inches below the water. Leave 4 feet of cord coiled in the niche so the light can come out onto the deck with the pool full.

Use only the special pilot screw that comes with the light. It holds the light in the niche and grounds the housing, so no substitute will do.

Never run it more than 10 seconds out of the water, since it heats quickly. At the controller, the light's black and white wires each join one of the controller's orange wires, and the green ground goes to the ground bar.

When power comes on, the lights run a rainbow sequence, which can take up to two minutes. That's the sign they're powered and talking to the controller. A light that stays dark goes to the dead-light checks, then to the controller's status lights in the parts list below.

Colors, zones and dimming

There are 10 preset colors and 5 light shows, plus custom colors from a color wheel in the app, and a brightness slider for each zone. During zone setup, a selected light flashes the color of the zone it's in. The defaults are green, white, red and blue for zones 1 to 4.

Colors change directly rather than by cycling power. That's the difference from lights that sync by switching off and on in a pattern, which the LED conversion guide calls the most common complaint about color lights.

The warranty is one year, not three

Jandy's warranty gives nicheless lights three years, and that's the only light it names. A niched light like this one isn't among the exceptions, so as written it gets the standard one year. Neither the sell sheet nor the family brochure states a warranty term.

And as with all Jandy equipment, there's no warranty at all if it's bought online. If three years matters, Jandy's WaterColors nicheless lights carry it, though they thread into a 1½-inch wall fitting rather than a niche.

Parts

The light itself has one service part, the circuit board kit: R0979600 for the pool light and R0979700 for the spa light. Each comes with a new lens gasket, and Jandy says to fit a new one every time the light is opened.

The controller has four: the transformer R0979800, the board with its bracket R0979900, the lid R0980000 and a pack of screws R0980100.

The catalog says black, white and gray plastic face rings can be ordered, but gives no part numbers for them. A dealer can look those up from the light's model number.