Pool Light Attempt

I tried to fix the pool light today. It was an adventure to say the least. First off, I turned off the breaker in the house for both what I thought was the pool light and outlet on the deck and for the pool pump itself, just to be sure that all power going out to that area was off. I also flipped the breaker inside the pool house just to be triple sure. Something about getting into a pool filled with water and fiddling with an object that is connected to electricity made me want to be a little bit careful.

So while donning my new googles, I got in the pool and made my way to the deep end of the pool. As far as most underwater pool lights go, the light bulb sits inside a sealed fixture that is then screwed into a hole in the pool wall that is also sealed so it is possible to remove the light without having to remove the water from the pool. This is nice since we have a vinyl lined inground pool and removing the water is very bad for vinyl lined pools. If the light is installed correctly, it has a long electrical cord that allows you to lift the light fixture out onto the deck of the pool, and thankfully ours was installed correctly.


There is only one screw holding the fixture in the hole. You would think that this would make the whole job really simple but it doesn't. Holding your breath, looking through goggles, trying not to float away from the end of the pool while holding a screwdriver and trying to actually use it and not lose the screw in the drain is not as easy as it sounds...lol. I was, however, able to get the fixture free of the pool itself pretty quickly. Since we don't know anything about the bulb in this fixture, there was no opportunity to buy the bulb in advance. I needed to get it out of the fixture so I could get a duplicate.

As you can see in the picture above, there are a LOT of screws along the outside of the fixture. This is to hold the seal really tight so that water can't leak into the fixture and blow the bulb, short the fixture or electrocute a swimmer. All good things, so I am not complaining, but it did take some time and patience to get all those screws removed. I took pics of the information on the fixture (since it was still connected to the pool) and took the bulb and the seal (you have to replace that each time too) with me to my local pool supply store. I also took both skimmer baskets for the pool hoping that they could replace those for me too since they were cracked and broken in several spots.

After getting everything I needed, I put the new bulb in, and put the new seal in place. Due to the newness of the seal, it took FOREVER to get the pieces of the fixture all put back together tight and perfect. At one point, I even thought perhaps that the seal was the wrong one, but once I got it all tightened in there, I placed it in the pool and pulled it underwater. There were no bubbles indicating that I had indeed sealed the fixture properly. It took me about 20 mins to get the fixture back into the hole in the side of the pool due to the fact that I was having to swim, hold on to the end of the deck, hold the fixture filled with air that kept trying to float to the surface in the hole and all while trying to put a screw in the hole and screw it in....I am sure the neighbors thought I was drowning with all the thrashing around I was doing.

I finally got it done, although I think it isn't perfect. It isn't floating to the top and it is where it should be so I am okay with it for now. Unfortunately after getting out of the water and turning all the breakers back on,  the light did not come on when flipping the light switch. It could be a number of different things that are causing it to not work, so it will be a process of elimination.