I have about 20+ 12" hardscape LED step lights. I have had them a little over a year and so far they have been great. Love the color. However, last night I noticed that one of them doesn't really light up all of the way across the LED light strip, only about an inch or two in the center. The rest of them light up nice and evenly. It got me thinking, how do you fix/replace these type of lights? They are hardscape lights set in mortar underneath capstones so it's not like you can just remove the unit and wire in a new one. Any ideas? Are the LED lights in those step lights replaceable? Not sure I saw replacement ones on the site. Appreciate any help you can provide!
You might have a dud. I believe it should be still under warranty. Ideally they should last about a good decade,I would think. The lighting elements aren’t replaceable so basically a masoner would probably have to chip away glue or mortar to remove the cap and swap in a new fixture. I like to do things myself so I probably would initially go for a surface mount option (if there was an easy way to hide and route the wiring).
When installing any kind of integrated light into a hardscape, it's always best to consider that you may very well need to remove a fixture for whatever reason it may be; service, customization, upgrades. For lamp-ready lights, it would be more so about making sure that the faceplate or lens is removable to be able to insert/swap a bulb when needed. We do sell a mounting plate for hardscape lights which allows for the lights to be easily attached and removed for situations such as this. I'd recommend considering adding one after we get the fixture replaced for you. Without some photos, we can't tell you exactly the easiest/quickest way for you to remove the partially lit light but, I would agree with @Mesodude2 that some material may need to be chiseled away. With the lifetime warranty, we can certainly get that light quickly replaced for you. Also, if you were to call in to setup the replacement order and wanted to purchase a mounting plate, we can include the mounting plate in with the replacement when it ships.
Thanks Evan and Mesodude2 for the responses. I can try to take a pic when it dries out here and at night. For what it's worth, I did purchase the mounting plates for all of these as well and it's the mounting plates that are set in the mortar between the capstones and the vertical bricks/pavers for the steps. But the problem does become the actual wiring itself. I wasn't the actual installer on these as it was done by my contractor and in hindsight I do see how these require some planning in order to figure out replacements/maintenance. So even if I were to be able to remove the lights from the mounting plate I am not sure how I would get these lights replaced without removing the capstones all the way across the stair(s) and then chiseling out wires. If I had it to do over again I would definitely force the use of conduit where possible even within the stair but I still don't see a real way to ever avoid having to remove capstones and chiseling out at least parts of the wiring. Replaceable bulbs are probably also preferred as I suspect that's the most susceptible piece of all of this. so maybe that one is for the R&D guys there . I'll get some pics and then I'll reach out to my contractor to see his thoughts on this as well. Once we have an idea on how to handle it we'll reach out to support for replacements.
Just thought of something else...By any chance is the light at the end of a run? That is, is it the last step (or first step--which could also be at the end of run)? Wondering if you might have a voltage drop issue that can be fixed by simply swapping in a heavier gauge wire or a more powerful transformer. Just floating a theory.
Mesodude2, The light is the first in the run (1st step) but the remaining lights on that seem fine. I have 12g wire to the thing from the transformer and it's about 25-30ft from the transformer. I think they just wired it into the subsequent lights rather than use a hub there so maybe I can insert a hub which I feel I can troubleshoot a bit easier. Looks like it will still be rainy here for a few days (SoCal) so I might see if I can at least get some pics.
Thanks but not sure I followed you. If it's the last light on a daisy chain. If you have 20 lights daisy chained and the first step light is at the end of the chain, that could explain why that first step light isn't fully illuminating. If you have easy enough access to the wires, you could test that one separately using a hub. Hope this helps.
