Product Review - Sensibulb !!!

[Maine Sail]

Hi All,

First, I know sailors are a cheap lot and I can be too but...

Those of you who know me know that I will only tout or support a product that I have; #1 put through the paces, and #2 feel works and actually lives up to and goes beyond my expectations and the companies claims.

It's actually quite rare that I come across these products in the marine industry.

For a long while I have been experimenting with interior LED lights. Basically, they suck, and I've tried many, many bulbs from many, many manufacturers such as Super-Brite LED and others including some eBay junk.

A few years ago I purchased one Sensibulb. My initial thought was "holy crap these are expensive" but once I got it installed my entire thought process changed! that original bulb had six LED's in it. The folks at SS/SCAD have since pushed the envelope and the new bulb has only two LED's but is considerably brighter than my original with six. The warm incandescent color though has not changed and these bulbs are a pleasure!

In short these bulbs ROCK!! They are the ONLY LED bulb that has a color spectrum that compares to an incandescent. They are also brighter than my 10W halogen bulbs that are/were in my ABI lighting fixtures.

Every time I'd install a "cheap" LED bulb my wife would complain and bitch that she couldn't read, hated the color and it was like a spot light, no beam width etc. so I'd switch back to halogens.

To make a long story short I ponied up and bought a bunch of Sensibulbs and WOW! I can run FIVE Sensibulb lights and not even break 1 AH of draw per HOUR!!

In contrast five of my ABI overhead lights, running 20 Watts of halogens, was burning close to 10 amps per hour!!!!! My wife and I are big readers and often run cabin lights from 8:00 p.m. until 1:00 am. Five of my ABI's running for five hours was burning almost 50 amp hours of my battery bank. I now burn five amp hours for the SAME amount of light output!!

My wife never noticed the change over from Halogen to SensiBulb and fortunately never saw the credit card bill!

Alternator upgrades and battery bank upgrades are far more costly than a few Sensibulbs! think about upgrading your bulbs first as they can be a BIG draw!


I honestly can't speak highly enough of this technology and Sensibulbs. NO ONE else has it and Sailor's Solutions/SCAD developed it. Yes they are pricey at $39.95 each but sooooo worth every penny!

I have NO stake or interest in this company other than to help out fellow boaters!

Sailor's Solutions.com

Sailnet.com Store / Sensibulb

P.S. Support Sailnet and buy them right here!!

[sailingdog]

Another point in Sensibulbs favor is that they do make a dimmer for them. Finally, the initial cost maybe high, but the long-term costs are much lower, since you won't be replacing bulbs for the most part and your not using as much electricity, so don't need to re-charge the batteries as often.

[Freesail99]

I have a couple of Sensibulbs and I love them. I even converted a large brass oil lamp to an electric lamp using a Sensibulb. Warm light and bright.

[erps]

How sensitive are they to voltage? I bought a cheap LED reading lamp that worked great when the batteries were topped off. It sucked when the batteries starting getting low. I have since pulled it back out and switched about half my lamps over to CFL's, which burn 1/3 the maps that the original bulbs were burning.

[jimmalkin]

Ray - I, too, am a Sensibulb devotee after trying 3 other types. I have not found them noticeably sensitive to voltage and frankly haven't noticed any different light pattern or brightness despite voltage readings of 14+ to down where I start getting "low battery" warnings from various other electric devices...

(I also offer the same disclaimer - no interest in sailors solutions, sensi bulbs, etc.)

[Maine Sail]

Originally Posted by erps

How sensitive are they to voltage? I bought a cheap LED reading lamp that worked great when the batteries were topped off. It sucked when the batteries starting getting low. I have since pulled it back out and switched about half my lamps over to CFL's, which burn 1/3 the maps that the original bulbs were burning.

Sensibulbs have an operating range of about 7 volts to 24 volts. They are also one of the only LED's currently available that can be dimmed, a nice feature seeing as they are so freaking bright.

[Trekka]

Sensibulb LED's are to other brands like an Avon/Zodiac is to a pool toy. They handle voltage variations, dissipate heat better (which affects both length of bulb life and maintaining the amount of light output, which drops off on others due to age and heat), have a pleasing color. Not cheap. But worth it. No question about it. There are gobs of cheap LED's flooding the stores now, but only a few good companies. Sensibulb is one.