When I returned from Florida I went through the boat a bit to make sure that she was ok after being plugged into the dock for a few weeks.

As I reached up to turn on one of the halogens in the saloon using the little twist bezel I noticed something I didn't like. There was an electrical burn running straight through the plastic from the base through the twist bezel. Not good.

My assessment is that due to the design of the lights it is very easy to leave them almost on. Almost on means possible arcing, heat build up and bad things down the line from there.

These lights have some pros. They can be individually turned on and off, they are bright, and they dim nicely. On the down side, the bezels pop off easily and can get hung up making it hard to figure out how to turn them on or off, they are power pigs, and due to the less than positive on/off switching they have the burn problem depicted here. The last two items are the nails in the proverbial coffin.

Our friends on Andromeda have 12 LED composite lights that are the exact same size. My original concern was that the LEDs would not dim due to the voltage sensitivity but Andromeda's do. My last LED discussion was a year ago with a friend on Shanty in Exuma and voltage sensitivity was still a big issue. Looks like the LEDs are coming of age.

I am now scouring the Internet for a dozen or so LEDs to replace all of my halogen lights.