LED spray seal any good?

[Devaji108]

looks to add an ATS to my sump/fuge and will be powered by LED's and come across this:http://www.ledsupply.com/9013-07.php
anyone use it? have experience with it? most likely still will use a splash cover but thought this would help water proof or seal it at least form salt creep.

[Devaji108]

oh and do you just spray the LED stars solder pads or the whole array?
making sure not to get it on the lens?

[bemenaker]

Look up conformal coating. That is what this is. You can probably get it cheaper.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conformal_coating

[Devaji108]

thanks for the heads up i'll look around and see if i can find some brush on stuff.
so if I understand that right looks like you coat it with the stuff then after it cures add another coat of say Silicones to it?

could I just add silicone over the solder pads and call it a day?

[kcress]

I can assure you, any LED manufacturer would run screaming from such lunacy-in-a-can.

The life of a LED is directly related to the temperature of the optical dome. The thermal design of LEDs did not include a coating of goo on the lenses. Design your lighting correctly so it won't have to painted with stuff to work.

[Devaji108]

^ that was my 1st thought too. but then I thought well it could work...just looking for that extra bit of safe guard having this system in the sump.
I guess i'll just build I super amazing splash guard.

[bemenaker]

From working at an electronic manufacturing plant for 7 years, I can tell you, that almost every piece of purchased electronics you have touched is sprayed with a conformal coating. Think of it as varnishing the circuit board. It does help protect it from water. It will not save you from a complete submersion.

If you are pretty positive you aren't going to have to do any reworking of your wiring, aka resoldering connections, it wouldn't hurt. If you do need to resolder, than know you will be scraping all of your solder pads with an xacto blade first to get clean metal.

Honestly, I wouldn't bother, I would just put up an acrylic splash guard in front of my lights and be done.

[tomservo]

I can assure you, any LED manufacturer would run screaming from such lunacy-in-a-can.

The life of a LED is directly related to the temperature of the optical dome. The thermal design of LEDs did not include a coating of goo on the lenses. Design your lighting correctly so it won't have to painted with stuff to work.

Instead they were designed to be covered by optics and generally speaking, encapsulated in a big sealed container that's got a high ambient temperature. Think of how hot the emitters get in a PAR bulb. A thin conformal coating will be as nothing in comparison to poor heatsinking or ventilation. Cree LEDs would be more susceptible to damage from coatings, though, as they have no plastic dome over the silicone that encapulates the diode itself. Which, incidentally, gets hot enough to become molten when in normal operation.

I use "ducky electro seal" (amazon) on certain fixtures, it's expensive but not as bad as that LED Seal stuff. There's a bit of a learning curve to spraying it on and getting a smooth coating but AFAICT it makes no difference in light performance or spread. It's a great product for algae scrubber lights which are CERTAIN to get wet at some point, or refugium lights.

[Devaji108]

^ thanks i'll look in to it. at this point i just might make a acrylic box/splash guard been wanting to learn how to work with acrylic anyway...

[mtrcyclefish]

Go to Reefledlights.com. Bill used to have a demonstration on his site that showed an LED coated with LED Seal that was completely submerged in saltwater and continued to work for over 24 hours. I'm not sure if that video is still up on the site or not, but still a good reason to believe the stuff works.

[dunc101]

Here is the youtube video mtrcyclefish is referring too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07yWAi5Wkdo

[James77]

Maybe they could put a screen door on the bottom of a row boat and coat it with it.......That would convince me :lol:

[el aguila]

I considered using something like this product also when I built my build, and decided not to.

This has been hotly contested in other threads and probably other forums. Below is one:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1897672&highlight=led+spray

[bemenaker]

@James HAHAHAHAHAHA you just made me and my wife crack up, we love that commercial.

[Devaji108]

I considered using something like this product also when I built my build, and decided not to.

This has been hotly contested in other threads and probably other forums. Below is one:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1897672&highlight=led+spray

thanks for the post and link.
would love some updates from the folks that have used it. I personally think a splash guard is the way to go but seams that this is for an in sump ATS might not be a bad idea...but then again it's pricey for only 4 led's

[tomservo]

I've only used the ducky electro-seal product, which is just a random silicone conformal coating, but it's cheaper and comes in a bigger (11oz) can. I got mine from amazon, $15 a can. I use it for lights that I suspect will be subject to salt spray or splashing, like ATS lights or refugium lights. It is good to keep in mind that it may not be the saltwater by itself corroding things, but electrolysis which will happen with an energized circuit and conductive water - you can corrode almost anything very quickly this way.

It does produce a surprisingly tough film of rubber - I put some on a piece of plastic and was (just) able to peel it off in a sheet, but the adhesion was close to the strength of the film. I did this test on LDPE. DON'T attempt to apply it like spray paint (IE light coats) - it will come out looking like leperous turd. Spray on a good thick coat, preferably in a cool environment so the solvents evaporate slowly.

[reefergeorge]

It works.. When i was trouble shooting my setup i had to scratch through the coating to get a reading.

[Mike31154]

Depending on what type of LED you're using & how it's soldered & mounted, in most cases all you should need is a dab of varnish or epoxy on the solder joint itself. This will minimize any chance of corrosion or short circuits between the + - terminals due to salt creep or spray. Heat shrink might work as well, but a bit of a challenge on the standard 3 watt LED most people are using for DIY. Aside from the contacts, the LED itself is pretty much sealed. My build uses 10 watt multi chip arrays & all I used was heatshrink. The fixture is 8 inches above the water with no splash guard or optics. I plan to check it from time to time & give the LEDs a wipe with a damp cloth.

Here's a photo of the 10 watt chips mounted on aluminum rails. Left one with heat shrink pulled back to show soldered connections, center one with no connections yet & right one with heat shrink 'shrunk' over connections.

https://public.blu.livefilestore.com/y1p0wRfovmHeAJ6tMAAkJdS7yRbspBb09qh7Jg9mMoiYygDwA55DGGO1GCFZQBIgyfNpvFr9-2X5BM2aygWwW7-9A/P1040678e.JPG?psid=1

The LEDs are protected by a coating already so there should be no issues electrically. The surrounding metal will likely get spots from salt spray over time, but that's unlikely to affect the performance of the LEDs & an occasional wipe with damp cloth should easily remove the minor amounts of salt creep that accumulates. You'll need to do that even with optics to keep them clear.