Dr. LED Kevin LED Spreader/Deck Light - Two Thumbs Up

For the past six years we had two 55 watt halogen flood lights mounted on the stern of the boat, one facing forward to light up the deck and one facing aft to light up the space behind us or the dingy if it was in the water. Each light used 4 amps per hour so for the rare occasion that we used them we made sure they weren't on very long.

This past week we replaced the two halogen flood lights with two LED flood lights from Dr. LED, the Kevin series. Physically they are about half the size and much lighter. There are four high-flux LEDs in each of the sealed aluminum housing. Having only two wires it was pretty easy to remove the old and install the new.

The light output was much better than I expected. We turned on the forward light to light up the deck and immediately received a VHF call from Kate on Hello World who was in the same anchorage. She wanted to know if we were starting a Broadway show with the boat lit up so bright. While these lights are designed to have a beam that can reach 20' it had no problem lighting up the bowsprit with enough light to read by, 33' away. Unlike the halogens these lights are more white in color but not hard on the eyes. Again, they exceeded my expectations and I'm glad to have them aboard. Each of the Dr. LED flood lights are rated at 1.0 amps however we measured a draw of only .7 amps. Now if we plan on being off the boat and there is a possibility of not returning until after dark we feel comfortable leaving one or two of these flood lights on to light up the boat until we return. The San Blas is safe and we don't think about boardings here, Cholon in Colombia is relatively safe but we do worry about thievery there though it hasn't been an issue in the past. And now we can afford the amps to leave a light or two on just to make us feel better when we're off the boat after dark.

The lights are great, time will tell how long they last.