Proiduct Review - Sensibulb

Maine Sail · Post by **Maine Sail** » Tue Aug 12, 2008 6:23 pm

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 bemoan 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!

http://www.sailorssolutions.com

P.S. - I spoke with Nick this morning, one of the owners of Sailors Solutions, and a great guy. I asked him if he would extend a 10% discount to members who read this thread and mentioned it when purchasing a Sensibulb.

So all you need to do is mention you read about Sensibulbs on the plastic classic sailing forums and Nick will give you 10% off. Instead of $39.99 they will be $35.99. Better than nothing..!

BTW he ships USPS priority and it's very reasonable. When I ordered mine they were about $4.00 and change to ship..

Ceasar Choppy · Post by **Ceasar Choppy** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 8:24 am

How do I mention the 10% discount when ordering on the interweb?

Seriously... the best part of this is the 10% discount. I've been looking for a volume discount (OK, maybe 10 isn't too voluminous) at the boat shows with no luck. This is the best I've seen in the three years these have been available.

Oh, and I agree with your assessment acoustic

Peter · Post by **Peter** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 11:22 am

I read a review that mentions Sensibulb is coming out with a new model. Does anyone know more about this?

Maine Sail · Post by **Maine Sail** » Wed Aug 13, 2008 9:31 pm

The regular Sensibulb will remain in the line up and is still the choice for a "replacement" bulb. The totally new light will be more money and entirely different. I will not be a "replacement" type for the fixtures most of use are used to. I can't tell you more than that because Nick asked me not to. I can tell you what he told me about this new light is very cool though..

If you need replacement bulbs the Sensibulb will not be undergoing any major changes in the short term. They are always tweaking the technology and that is what you may find in the future, minor tweaks. I own the original 6 LED Sensibulb and the new 2 LED, actually 12 layered LED's, six in each of the two, but too complicated for me to understand, is brighter bu otherwise still the same great Sensibulb as my 3 year old first generation..

Peter · Post by **Peter** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 11:24 am

Thanks, acoustic. I'm going to try a couple in my reading lights.

Capn_Tom · Post by **Capn_Tom** » Fri Dec 05, 2008 8:42 pm

I was under the impression that sensibulbs were only available from sailor solutions but I just saw them on south east marines site www.semarine.com listed for $34.99. I didn't play the shopping cart game to check shipping cost.

I was also looking at the fixtures on sailor solutions and it appears to be cheaper to purchase the ABI xenon fixtures elsewhere and refit them with sensibulbs than to purchase them from SS with the bulbs installed.

Maine Sail · Post by **Maine Sail** » Sat Dec 06, 2008 6:36 pm

SCAD is the parent company of Sailors Solutions and their wholesale division. they sell Sensibulbs to other retailers. $34.95 is one heck of a price. Nick at Sailors Solutions will give you 10% off if you mention you read the review on this site but $34.95 is 12% off. Be careful with shipping and make sure you;re comparing apples to apples as sometimes when a company puts up a loss leader (they are making very little money at $34.95) they make it up on the shipping....

Ronin120 · Post by **Ronin120** » Mon Dec 08, 2008 4:29 pm

Maine Sail,

I sure hope you are right about the effect of the new LED's because on a major whim at the Annapolis Boat Show I bought those bulbs to replace all my lights, navigation and interior without ever even hooking up my brand new xenon lights which I've just installed in the boat. They cost a King's ransom, let me tell you.

Given that the entire electrical system is dismantled and I can't easily check to see how the LED bulbs work it all sounds okie-doke though. Any pictures on your web-site?

And thanks for the updates on wiring/tools. I'm getting ready to drop a bundle on battery cable, spools of primary wire, lugs, heat-shrink ring terminals, etc., etc...

Best.