Jandy WaterColors Nicheless LED Lights with HydroCool

Jandy's WaterColors nicheless light with HydroCool has no niche. The fixture is 4½ inches long at 6 watts and 5½ inches at 12 and 24, and it threads into a standard 1.5-inch plastic wall or return fitting, and its aluminum body is molded over with thermally conductive plastic so the pool water carries the heat away.

It runs on 12 volts AC only, in 6, 12 or 24 watts, with a 100 or 150 foot cord. Jandy's product page lists 33 model numbers: four color series, a daylight white and a warm white.

Nicheless is not the same as no conduit

A nicheless light is often described as a way to add lighting without the work of a niche. Jandy's manual describes something more involved:

• A 1.5-inch pipe runs through the bond beam behind the wall fitting, at least 7 inches long for a 6 W light and 10 inches for 12 W and 24 W. Jandy recommends running it through the full width of the bond beam.
• Behind that, the cord runs in 1-inch rigid conduit, turning with sweep elbows only, never 90-degree elbows, all the way to the transformer.
• The wall fitting is not included. The light goes in with its construction cover on, and the cover comes off only once construction and plastering are finished; Jandy says not to plaster with it removed.

So the saving is the niche, not the plumbing or the electrical run. On a pool being built, that is a real difference. On an existing pool without a light, it still means getting pipe through the bond beam and conduit back to the equipment.

Jandy's retrofit into an existing niche is narrow. Its nicheless light adapter, R1077100 in white or R1077101 in gray, fits only Pentair's GloBrite gunite niche, part 620040, and the old GloBrite cable is used to pull the new cord through the conduit already in place.

Four inches deep, not eighteen

The niche lights on this site, Pentair's IntelliBrite Architectural Series and Hayward's ColorLogic, need the top of the lens 18 inches below the water. This light's rule is at least 4 inches from the water surface to the top of the lens, with 12 to 18 inches recommended for the best light.

Three more differences from a niche light, all from the manual:

• No separate ground or bonding wire. The light is low voltage with no exposed metal.
• A GFCI on the transformer's 120-volt side is required where the transformer maker or local code requires it.
• Within 10 feet of a pool, in a wet area, only the 6 W models may be used.

The transformer or junction box still goes at least 8 inches above the maximum water level or 4 inches above the deck, whichever is greater, and 48 inches from the pool edge.

The transformer and the cable run

Every light needs a Class 2 magnetic transformer that supplies 12 to 14 volts AC, listed by a nationally recognized testing laboratory for pool use. Jandy says to stay within the load the transformer maker specifies.

• The cable from the transformer to the lights can run 150 feet at most, junction box or not.
• Jandy strongly recommends solid-core wire over stranded, terminated on bus bars.
• The voltage measured at the bus bar has to stay inside a window that depends on the cord. For 6 W and 12 W lights, that is 10.7 to 13.2 VAC on a 100 ft cord and 11.82 to 13.8 VAC on 150 ft. For 24 W, 10.9 to 13.5 VAC and 11.43 to 14.1 VAC.

Lights that should change color together have to be on the same transformer, circuit or switch.

Fourteen color modes on a switch

The WaterColors color lights change mode when the power is switched off and on. To move to the next mode, turn the light off for 1 to 3 seconds and back on:

1. Alpine White
2. Sky Blue
3. Cobalt Blue
4. Caribbean Blue
5. Spring Green
6. Emerald Green
7. Emerald Rose
8. Magenta
9. Violet
10. Slow Color Splash
11. Fast Color Splash
12. America the Beautiful
13. Fat Tuesday
14. Disco Tech

Two other timings matter:

• Off for five seconds resets every light on the circuit to Alpine White, the start of the sequence. That is how lights that have drifted apart are brought back together.
• Off for seven seconds or longer, the lights come back on the last mode they were in.

Color lights are not dimmable and must not go on a dimmer switch or dimmer relay. The white-only lights can use a magnetic low-voltage dimmer.

Jandy's H-, P- and S-Series color lights have their own operating instructions, which the paper manual does not print; it points to Jandy's online manual for each.

Controlling it

Any switch works. On Jandy AquaLink automation, the manual has the transformer powering the lights wired to one of the controller's auxiliary relays, so AquaLink switches the transformer on and off like any other circuit.

Jandy's color light for a standard niche works the other way. The Infinite WaterColors niched light can't go on a switch or a relay, and runs only through its own controller and an AquaLink RS.

Choosing a wattage

Jandy's sell sheet sizes the light by the pool finish and how far the light has to reach:

• Light finish: a color light at 6 W reaches up to 12 feet, 12 W 12 to 20 feet, and 24 W beyond 20. White lights reach up to 16 feet at 6 W, 16 to 24 at 12 W, and beyond 24 at 24 W.
• Medium finish: color lights up to 10 feet at 6 W, 10 to 16 at 12 W, beyond 16 at 24 W. White lights up to 14, 14 to 22, and beyond 22.
• Dark finish: color lights up to 8 feet at 6 W, 8 to 12 at 12 W, beyond 12 at 24 W. White lights up to 12, 12 to 20, and beyond 20.

Winterizing

Do not leave the winter water level at the light. The manual wants it at least 4 inches above or below the light, depending on what else the pool needs, and warns never to lower a pool without checking the groundwater table.

Where Jandy's documents disagree

• The lens covers. Jandy's product page says the light includes quarter-moon and half-moon lens covers. Its sell sheet lists them as optional accessories, its manual says the half-moon cover is sold separately, and the product page itself lists them as separate items, LENSCVRW, LENSCVRG and LENSCVRB. What comes in the box, per the sell sheet, is the construction cover, the installation tool and two cosmetic trim rings.
• Warm white at 100 feet. Jandy's product page offers a 100 ft cord for the warm white light, but choosing it returns the 150 ft model number. The manual lists warm white only at 150 feet.
• The 87% saving. The product page's energy claim compares a 500 W incandescent light with a 65 W LED. That is not this light, which tops out at 24 W.

The warranty ends at the checkout page

Jandy gives nicheless underwater lights three years, longer than the one year on most of its products. But its warranty does not apply to Jandy products bought through the internet, with exceptions only for small valves, parts and accessories. A light bought online has no Jandy warranty.

It also has to be installed by a contractor licensed in pool equipment wherever such a license exists, and Jandy's exclusions include mis-wiring, incorrect wire runs, the wrong wire gauge, moisture in the conduit and poor winterization, which are exactly the ways a low-voltage light fails.