Member Review – Seelite LED Flood Lights

The members here at TinBoats.net are what makes this site awesome and a phenomenal resource to those that seek out answers to anything related to their boats. TinBoats member Lil’ Blue Rude did an initial review on some Seelite LED Floodlights and wanted to share his thoughts and findings. For that, I say thank you. This particular review will be on the Seelite 50 Watt True Warm LED Flood Light w/ X.D.Glass. How does the old adage go? Do you get what you pay for? How true, read on……

Seelite 50 Watt True Warm LED Flood Light w/ X.D.Glass

Before we get into Lil’ Blue Rude’s review of the Seelite 50 Watt True Warm LED Flood Light w/ X.D.Glass, I wanted to point out the specs directly from the Seelite website.

 

Specifications

• Model SBF50
• 50 Watt
• 5000lm
• True warm LED chipset
• Custom spectrums available
• Black housing
• Dimensions: 9.5″x11.5″
• weight: 5.4 lbs
• available with 12VDC , 24VDC, and 120VAC drivers
• 1 year in house warranty
• 120v Includes plug / 12/24v does not
• 4.6amp @ 12v; .46amp at 120v

While on the Seelite page for this particular light I also noticed that there is a “color” option and those are HPS, Halo, Hybrid, and Metal Halide. The retail price of this light is $105.00.

Lil’ Blue Rude’s Seelite review

My initial setup consisted of me having 2 cheap eBay 50W 110v cool white LED on the front and 2 cheap eBay 35W 110V cool white on the sides, one per side. The 50W lights were $32 a piece and the 35W was $28 a piece. They were run through an inverter and a battery and initially did pretty well. After one of the 50W lights quit me on the second outing I decided that I wanted something different. In fairness, The eBay seller sent me a new driver so I did get that light working again, but I just didn’t trust them.

I found a company out of Arkansas by the name of Seelite. They have been selling lights for bow fishing for a few years now and have built up a pretty good reputation in the bow fishing community. I figured I’d bite the bullet and give them a try.

I bought 2 of the 50W 12V halogen colored LEDs for $105 apiece. They offer them in halogen, high-pressure sodium, metal halide, and hybrid colors depending on if you prefer the yellow hues of light or more of a pure white light. The lights have a 1-year warranty no questions asked.

The Seelites have what they call XDG glass which is plexy glass instead of tempered glass Just like the eBay lights have. They are both the same size from the front but the Seelite has a thicker housing then the eBay light.

The Seelite’s are much sturdier made then the eBay lights. The mounting bracket is thicker, and the bolts are stainless from what I can tell.  The Seelites also have much bigger cooling fins then the eBay light as you can see from the picture below.

The Seelites are supposed to be 100% waterproof. Seelite claims to disassemble the seals and submerges all their lights before they ship them out. I can see where there is extra sealant around some of the gasket edges to back up this claim. I’ve read where people have sunk there bow fishing boats, only to come back a few hours later to retrieve the boat and the lights are still running on the bottom. The eBay lights have a simple gasket and water does get into them because when I replaced the driver on the light that quit, I noticed moisture in the driver housing.

I took a few before and after pictures to compare the lights. All pictures are with the same camera and the same setting with the flash turned off. With the eBay lights in the picture below you can just barely make out the white on the seats of my riding boat in the distance past the front of my truck.

Some things got moved around a little by the time the Seelites had come in but my gigging boat hadn’t moved. With the just the 2 Seelites you can see the boat hooked behind my truck which is just a little farther back then where my boat was parked with the eBay lights.

Notice in the pictures of the tongue you can see to the sides. The eBay lights (2nd Picture) had ADDITIONAL 35watt lights on each side to help illuminate out to the sides. The Seelites (1st picture) only had the two 50Ws on the front. There wasn’t a big difference in light output to the sides at all.

The pictures do not do justice to these lights. So far I’m pretty impressed with the Seelites quality and performance. We took the boat out tonight and the Seelite’s are night and day difference from the cheap eBay ones. They are all the light you could need to gig, with even with just the two lights you could see the bottom well enough to make out fish in 15ft-20ft deep holes of water. I wish I went with Seelites the first time around, hands down.

Thanks, Cody(Lil’ Blue Rude)

Final Thoughts

Again, I want to thank Lil’ Blue Rude for taking the time to give us his thoughts on his purchase of the Seelites. One indicator of good customer service is fast response times to inquiries. That was evident with my communication to Seelite. I sent an email to Seelite to ask a question and I got a really fast response from Seth Jones the GM at Seelite LLC.  Have you had any experiences with Seelite and their products? Let us know either below or in the forum. If you have any questions for Lil’ Blue Rude you can ask him here or send him a Private message on the forum.

Check out the Seelite Website here:  http://www.seeliteleds.com/