Traditional fiber optic lighting systems.

Fiber optic pool lighting was all the rage for a few years and some nationwide pool builders installed it on all their pools.  Today, there are a lot of dead fiber optic systems out there and very few people who even know how to work on them. In this article, we discuss the operation and repair of fiber optic pool lighting systems.

Components of Fiber Optic Pool Lighting

Traditional fiber optic lighting systems have several different components which are contained in the light tower (also known as the photon generator).

• Power supply
• this provides the 24VDC needed to power the light bulb
• Fan
• this keeps the light tower cool.
• Halogen light
• this is the bulb that creates the light
• Color wheel
• this is a wheel with colored transparent lenses that pass over the front of the halogen light to create different colored lighting for the pool.
• Fiber optic cable
• this carries the light to the pool.
• Fiber optic lights
• these are the lights that are in the side of the pool.

Troubleshooting Fiber Optic Pool Lighting

“My fiber optic lighting is not working”

If your fiber optic pool lighting stops working, there are a couple of things that you should check:

• Is there power to the light tower?
• Is the bulb burnt out?

If you have either of these issues on your fiber optic system, it should be fairly simple and inexpensive to repair. If your fiber optic tower (photon generator) is defective, then it is time to consider upgrading to LED lighting.

“My fiber optic lighting is dim”

• This is a common complaint among people who have fiber optic pool lighting. Most often this is due to the fact that fiber optic pool lighting as installed by large national pool builders, was always dim and never did produce a lot of light.

The good news is that retrofit LED lighting is made that fits into the same 1.5″ fittings that were used for fiber optic lighting – and they are much BRIGHTER.

Sometimes algae inside the light lenses can cause the lights to appear dimmer than normal. The solution involves removing the lens cover and cleaning it out. It is a good idea to have a replacement lens cover ready in case you crack the old one when you take it out.

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