grill light>

[justanotherguy]

Hi
I joined this forum in hopes of getting some technical help. The guys here have a good rep from what I hear on MTBR...
Here's the deal, I have a shiny new grill and I equipped it with two Weber grill lights.Two because I heard they were dim. EVEN as a pair they are pretty dim. Really they are underwhelming.

I took one apart and am wondering if I can transplant a brighter set of LED's into them.
There are 3 LED's as pictured, and each light takes 3 AAA batteries...Here are some pics I took.
Is this a crazy idea, or is it reasonably do-able?
I do like (A) the way the lights look and mount and (B) the way they function. IE they basically turn on and off with the lid opening/closing..
Thanks!
Tony

 

[jashhash]

There are some applications which i would definitely not recommend an LED light source. One of those application is for a grill light. Why? Because "White" LED"s emit very little light in the deep red spectrum. With an LED light source you wont be able to tell the subtle difference between a well done and medium well steak. Stick with incandescent for a grill light since it emits a LOT of light in the red spectrum.

Spectrograph of a "White" LED.

 

[LukeA]

If you want red in the spectrum, use a warm white Cree.

 

[R33E8]

If you want red in the spectrum, use a warm white Cree.

Yeah, or go with one of the high CRI Seoulsemi from Mouser.. Maybe you could just add a red emitter with regular HBLED's?

 

[justanotherguy]

thanks for the info so far....I have heard that about the color temperature too. Would the addition of a red LED make a difference?
Would all these be the same voltage and 'drop-in' ?
Tony

 

[Icebreak]

thanks for the info so far....I have heard that about the color temperature too. Would the addition of a red LED make a difference?
Would all these be the same voltage and 'drop-in' ?
Tony

justanotherguy -

Hang tight with your thread. Much like the most excellent MTBK forum, CPF seems to have a little less activity on weekends. Sounds like you need a little help from an LED modifier. I'm not but I might be able to help a little.

The Seouls and Crees mentioned thus far are Power LEDs and require different input power than the 5mm LEDs used on your grill. They would also require heatsinks.

Adding a 5mm red LED to each of your 3 LED arrays will help with the color rendition of a cooking steak. However, because they are self focused you'll get six overlapping beams. This is not necessarily a deal breaker. Just be aware of it.

If I understand correctly what you want to do is increase the output of your existing arrays by just changing out the LEDs. If this is the case the CPF knowledge base can help. The ever popular SureFire A2 uses three 5mm LEDs. There are many mods that have been done to that light. Knowing of these mods I'll submit that what you might want to try would be 4 white THC3 LEDs and 2 red THC3 LEDs. Here's a thread that shows reds in an A2. A2: greenLEDs comparisons of different LED colors.

So until a real modder can chime in and explain answers in a more detailed and technical way, you can investigate THC3s and A2 mods.

A more challenging approach would be to build from scratch using high CRI power LEDs. The result would be, as the other guys have indicated, much more effective and satisfying.

Lots of work is being done with those type of emitters. McGizmo (has his own forum on CPF) has had some good success with Nichia 083 high CRI LEDs in a cooking environment.

This is an interesting topic. I hope your thread gains steam in the next few days.

 

[Hooked on Fenix]

That grill light isn't the best to mod or use. Cooking on a grill requires that you see in pure white light to tell if the meat is done. 5mm l.e.d.s are almost always bluish. They make florescent grill lights. That would be the kind to use for better color rendition and brightness. The light would be better distributed as well. They also make Luxeon l.e.d. grill lights, but the light distribution wouldn't be as good as with a florescent.