School me on Exterior Motion Lights

[PaulR]

I want something good. I'm done with all of this Orange box and blue box **** that they sell. Heath-Zenith is plastic chinese junk. I made the mistake of buying about 6 of them for around the house and office and 5 out of 6 have failed for various reasons.

I did a search here and there isn't too much. Someone mentioned RAB lighting, can I get a testament to their quality? I want something that will last 10 years and not 6 months.

Also looking for a quality solar motion light, the one I bought from Northern was broken right out of the box, $50 down the drain.

What do the really real electricians install in commercial apps? and where can I get them?

TIA
Paul

 

[BFBOB]

I'm not a pro sparky, but have done quite a bit. The best results I have had have been using good quality fixtures with remote motion controllers. Even the cheapie heath-Zeniths seem to fare better when everything isn't stuffed into one little box. I think heat is the main issue. Even with PAR's on stalks, some of their heat migrates back into the box where the control circuitry resides. USing CFL's or LED's will also keep the heat down, if they put out enough light. STILL nothing matches a 150W PAR-40.

With the remote setup, installation is a little harder, but also frees you to use whatever light fixture you want.

And, of course, no matter what brand/type you use, pay attention to prevailing winds, weather trends, and try to put it all in as sheltered areas as possible, and caulk around edges to keep out weather and bugs. I like clear silicone because it's tenacious,long lasting, but not TOO strong.

 

[climbabout]

Rab - the "Stealth" series - that's what our contractors buy - we have very few returns and they are backed by a 10 year warranty. You can find a dealer here:
http://www.rabweb.com/

Most electrical supply houses will carry them.
Tim

 

[BigJohn20]

Here's a second for RAB.

 

[PaulR]

RAB it is!

Thanks guys. I'm off to my local Electrical Supply house to spend some real $$$.



Paul

 

[Teken]

One thing to keep in mind is to either have sweeping coverage. Or those products which incorporate *creeping* sensing.

ie. Hugging a wall to avoid detection . . .

 

[PaulR]

They sold me RAB Gotcha GT500's, he said bang for the buck its the best unit there is, he has very few call backs on them, and they sell them by the truckload. $35 a piece, , cheap as or cheaper than the Heath Zenith plastic junk that doesn't work. 5 Year warranty. He says anything goes wrong in the next 5 years just give me a call.

wow.

I loaded up on 5 of them for all around.

Every day I get a day older, and every day I over and over I say "screw the box stores"

 

[BLACK DEATH]

His did these lights work Out? Git a part number & Pics?

 

[Zick]

I'm thinking about getting some RAB's up this spring. Those cheapies drive me nuts.

http://www.rabweb.com/major_Group_Detail.php?group=SENSOR

 

[Gary S]

I don't like any of them. I've had cheap ones, and I've had expensive ones. None of them ever failed for me except when I had a huge hail storm that actually broke the lamps and fixtures.

But, none of them ever worked like I wanted. They all false triggered constantly if the wind blew, or if a bird crossed in front of them, or if you set the sensitivity lower, they failed to work at all in hot weather.

Also, most of the ones I owned, had two modes, automatic, and on, which were triggered by powering the light off and back on quickly. That made them all switch to the wrong mode every time I had a power failure, and I had to manually trigger them back to automatic.

I got rid of all of them 9 years ago and replaced them with photocell controlled lighting. Now, I have lights on when I want them on, and off when I want them off.

 

[4EyedTurd]

Are any of those flexible enough to mount under the soffit and still light up the yard?