LED indicator lights on breaker panel.

The AC and DC breaker panel on my 2004 Mainship 30 II has LED indicator lights beside each breaker and they burn out frequently. I'm just not sure how to replace them with a new LED. Does it require opening the entire panel?

You will have to get at the backside of the panel. I have a bunch have have burned out and need to replace. I just haven't gotten around to doing it yet.

dhays said:

You will have to get at the backside of the panel. I have a bunch have have burned out and need to replace. I just haven't gotten around to doing it yet.

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Thank you, that's what I was thinking too. I'm curious why LEDs seem to have a short lifetime in this application when the LED light bulbs being sold now for home lighting, etc. seem to have very long lifetimes.

I'm willing to bet that what you currently have on the 12V side are not LEDs. Mainship didn't install LEDs in this vintage boat AFAIK.

Yes, the OEM lights do burn out with annoying frequency. You may well not have to remove the panel to replace them if you can just individually pop them out from the front. Pop one out, cut the wires, splice in an LED and push it back in.

That is what I did. Much less work than trying to undo all the lights from all the breakers -- that would have been neater but a massive pain.

I agree probably not LEDs, but if they are then it is from too much current flow, not too many hours. Too much current comes from having an inadequate series resistor. I would replace that, too.

By the way, when I replaced my GREEN lights with LEDs, I changed several of them (ER lighting, raw water wash down pump) to RED. That is my system for marking breakers-that-shouldn't-be-left-on.

So when I walk past the panel and see a red light, 9 times out of 10 that tells me I forgot to shut something down when I was done with it.

I've replaced several of our panel lights that were not working. The originals are not LED's. I replaced them with Blue Seas LED's. They are brighter than the originals so eventually I will end up replacing all of them.

I've had to replace several on my Mainship panel. I have purchased several spares from Pacer Group. These seem to be an exact match to the originals.
https://www.pacergroup.net/indicator-light-e3l-series-compact-snap-in-light-with-black-bezel/

Whatever was there originally, I would only replace them with LEDs so you only have to do it once. The cost differential should not be much.

FYI those indicator bulbs are incandescent bulbs and not LED's........

danderer said:

By the way, when I replaced my GREEN lights with LEDs, I changed several of them (ER lighting, raw water wash down pump) to RED. That is my system for marking breakers-that-shouldn't-be-left-on.

So when I walk past the panel and see a red light, 9 times out of 10 that tells me I forgot to shut something down when I was done with it.

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That is an excellent idea. I think I will borrow that idea from you.

George Harmon said:

The AC and DC breaker panel on my 2004 Mainship 30 II has LED indicator lights beside each breaker and they burn out frequently. I'm just not sure how to replace them with a new LED. Does it require opening the entire panel?

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I would think that your AC lamps don't burn out as often ( voltage is more stable ) as the DC ones. Very likely that none of the vintage ones are LED as was stated ..... The AC ones were likely incandescent or neon and the DC were incandescent. The 12 VDC lamps that are out there now are just that and rated @ " 12 VDC " ! They have no tolerance for over voltage, and it's common to have the DC systems on a boat at close to 14 VDC + at times. I replaced BOTH on my panel with LED's. You need a resistor and a diode for the AC and resistor for the DC side ( I forgot the values of resistors ... )

Because of the low current draw of LED's, you can get away with grouping each ( AC or DC ) common(s) and just having one resistor at the Negative bus or at neutral for AC. That's what worked for me ............... fb

Oh ... the body of LED's off the shelf are much smaller in diameter than the existing hole, I ended up using nylon tubing as a sleeve for a snug fit.

Ex Sailor said:

I would think that your AC lamps don't burn out as often ( voltage is more stable ) as the DC ones. Very likely that none of the vintage ones are LED as was stated ..... The AC ones were likely incandescent or neon and the DC were incandescent. The 12 VDC lamps that are out there now are just that and rated @ " 12 VDC " ! They have no tolerance for over voltage, and it's common to have the DC systems on a boat at close to 14 VDC + at times. I replaced BOTH on my panel with LED's. You need a resistor and a diode for the AC and resistor for the DC side ( I forgot the values of resistors ... )

Because of the low current draw of LED's, you can get away with grouping each ( AC or DC ) common(s) and just having one resistor at the Negative bus or at neutral for AC. That's what worked for me ............... fb

Oh ... the body of LED's off the shelf are much smaller in diameter than the existing hole, I ended up using nylon tubing as a sleeve for a snug fit.

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Thank you for the great information as well as all the other members for their great replies. Now I just need to get underway with this project.