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Baz Baz is online now
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: New Smyrna Beach, Florida
Posts: 47,045
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Couple more comments on who to buy from.

What I have seen in the big box stores (specifically on LED fixtures) is many of them do not have the capacity to replace just the LED bulb itself, should it burn out. IOW the whole fixture must be replaced. That is not ideal.

Another important factor is the material the fixtures are made of.

The high end fixtures are usually made of bronze, brass, or copper. And they are very pricey.

I have been buying my fixtures from this eBay seller (based in CA):

LED Landscape Lights, Path Area Lighting items in Landscape Lights 4 Less store on eBay!

Their fixtures are powder-coated aluminum and have held up really well in my coastal location where salt and moisture can really eat away at things.

Their pricing is not much more than what you would pay at the big box stores - but the quality is vastly superior.

The 3 main types of fixtures and bulbs that are commonly used are Path lights (G4 bi-pin bulb), Directional lights - aka uplights, spot lights, or bullet lights (MR 16 bulb), and Well Lights (Par 36).

For all of the above (G4 bi-pin, MR16, and Par 36) LED bulbs are available.

There are some other types of fixtures and bulbs but the three above are the most common.

In conclusion, you are better off to get a fixture which has a replaceable bulb, get one made out of decent material, and an LED bulb suitable for that application.

One more thing about cable...you can buy that at the box stores or if you have an irrigation supply store nearby they should sell it too. Funny thing about pricing on cable...usually the larger size (12 gauge) costs more but since it is in such high demand by contractors it is more cost effective than the smaller size (14 or 16 gauge). You really want to use 12 gauge if possible for the least amount of voltage drop.

Back to eBay - there's a lot of sellers ( here's a good one) based in the orient selling LED stuff and most of it is very decent quality at a great price so keep that in mind.

For example....here's the color-changing LED MR 16 bulb I mentioned. They're really cool!

New AC DC 12V Delicate MR16 3W RGB LED 16 Color Changing Light Lamp w Remote | eBay

As are the LED Par 36 color-changing bulbs i mentioned in my other thread. I just received a shipment from that company yesterday with some more of those plus some other goodies.

If I think of anything more I'll pass it along......
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