Red bulb has lost its coating

[Nancy]

The red bulb in our pilothouse dome light has lost most of its red coating. The bulb still works, but it's more white than red. It's a bayonet fitting with two contacts, and is marked 21CP. Is there some clever hack for putting a red coating on this bulb?

dome light red-1-05.23.18-800.jpg

I think Ancor 521140 is a direct replacement, but it looks like they only come in packages of two. I don't even need one bulb let alone two if I knew how to make this bulb red again. And if that's not possible, maybe I should switch to LED? The mind boggles at how to figure out what red LED to order.

We rarely use this light, but it would be nice to be able to.

[WillieC]

Red nail polish?
Or Marine beam.

https://store.marinebeam.com/9-led-bayo ... -ba-15-rw/

or

https://store.marinebeam.com/21-led-bay ... 142-21-ww/

Not cheap, but switchable red and white. I used the flat panel in my old 2 bulb red/white dome fixture. It will plug right into your existing socket, just look closely at it. Call them if necessary.

(I am not connected with them, just read all their literature and it made sense to me.)

[RobS]

Here's what I changed mine out with. Swapped the red for a blue LED. We would leave that light on when we were out on the dinghy on night's on the hook so wanted LED. The lighting was a tad uneven based on the design of the bulb but it was good. It was 6 years ago so may be better options out there now..

https://www.ledlight.com/SearchResult.a ... ords=53645

[Nancy]

I thought about red nail polish, Willie, but it will probably crack from the heat.

Rob, that little LED is the right price, at least before shipping. How's blue for night vision? Would it be the BA15D base?

[Norseman]

I put two LED bulbs up there, one white, one red.
Not sure why you would try to repair an old bulb Nancy, no benefits except to save $2.00?
Toss the old, in with the new.
(Every bulb on the planet should be LED)

[Nancy]

ha ha - it's not about the $2 or $7. I'm a child of a child of the Depression. I hate throwing away things that work. But yes, I will probably replace both bulbs, and I'm going to check what's in the cockpit courtesy light fixtures before placing the order.

[RobS]

Rob, that little LED is the right price, at least before shipping. How's blue for night vision? Would it be the BA15D base?

Do you mean night vision while underway? Don't know, anytime I ran in the dark with T-R I had all interior lighting off.

Yes the BA15D base = dual contact bayonet with the side lugs being at same height (see attached). The 1156 has the right lugs but is single contact and the 1157 is a dual contact but has offset lugs.

[Nancy]

Rob, yes, I was referring to night vision while underway in an emergency situation.

[DCatSea]

Years ago I bought a sheet of red acrylic to "night-vision-ify" flashlights for astronomy. Worked a charm, and could probably be bought now at Michaels or any shop that sells astronomy gear.

Just put it in the fixture - who needs white light on the bridge anyway?

[Nancy]

Thanks for the idea, Doug. With LED bulbs as inexpensive as they are, I'll probably go that route. The bonus is that we won't have to be as miserly about using it at anchor.

[DougSea]

Hey Nancy!

I'm a bit late to the game here! I switched my bi-color overheads to these: https://www.westmarine.com/buy/dr-led-- ... ecordNum=7

One disc, two colors, easy install in an existing fixture. The ones in Sonny's cockpit lights have been going for years!

[Nancy]

Doug! Good to hear from you! I ended up with this one in blue:

https://www.superbrightleds.com/moreinf ... mens/4595/