LED lights, are they still more vulnerable to failure while turning them on?

[kr2y5]

I've always read, and heard DMs instruct divers on every night dive I've been on, that primary lights should be kept on throughout the entire dive because they're most likely to fail at the moment they're being turned on. That's certainly true for incandescent bulbs, is it still true for LED lights with magnetic switches that are becoming so popular these days?

 

[Jim Lapenta]

It's not just the bulb they are talking about. It's the switch itself. And better to find out if a light is going to fail on the surface than fifty feet down.

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[Nemrod]

On simple little night dive? I will turn it on and off as much as I like. A penetration dive where the loss of a light begins a cascade to the next back up etc., no. Last fall in the Cozumel I turned my light completely off and left it off, there was enough moon light to make for a wonderful night solo dive.

What goes up must come down, what goes on can always go off and usually when you would prefer it not to.

All these huge reef burner lights that people take are simply too much and ruin the experience, all you need is a wide beam light with 200 to 300 lumen, 500 maximum. Even at that some people will complain you are scaring everything away. In other words, if your light is as bright as the sun, why night dive?

N

 

[BRT]

The LED itself is probably capable of turning off and on often enough and fast enough to transfer data. The switch certainly could fail. That said the switch on you car can too but you don't leave it running to avoid that.

 

[Damselfish]

As far as the bulb, less to worry about with LED. Still more wear on a switch and chance of that failing. But if you're not on a dive where it's all that critical, I say turn it on and off it you want - that's what backups are for. (And moonlight, if your backup fails too - been there done that - at least the moon was full.)

I turn lights on and off more during the day and care little about a failure then. At night if I don't want the light I tend to just point it towards myself. Another reason to leave a light on at night is so you can find it if you drop it.

 

[TSandM]

HID bulbs don't like to be turned on and off frequently -- IIRC, they accumulate some substance on the tips that interferes with the arc. It was my understanding that one of the major advantages of LED lights is that you CAN turn them on and off as much as you like.

 

[diversteve]

That was mine also, LED's are pretty immune to surges since there's no filament. The switch on the other hand is mechanical. Or buy twist-on lights, those seem to solve that problem also.

 

[Pavao]

Who would go down to 50' at night with the light off only to turn it on when you arrive there anyways?

Just jump in the water and descend until you hit the bottom, and THEN turn the light on?

Whatever happened to common sense????

 

[phoenix31tt]

Agreed, LEDs do not suffer from being turned on an off.. Its the switch in that case, and twist switches easily solve that problem... Most of my lights are now twist type switches

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[Damselfish]

Who would go down to 50' at night with the light off only to turn it on when you arrive there anyways?

Just jump in the water and descend until you hit the bottom, and THEN turn the light on?

Whatever happened to common sense????

For tropical diving this is sometimes done if there is a likelihood of sea wasps or other stingy things. They tend to be near the top of the water column and attracted to lights. So maybe not 50' and no one said anything about hitting the bottom, but leaving lights off when shallow is actually sometimes a good idea.