I have a 2 sets of Dual Raiders on the pushbumper of my 2009 Tahoe. I have noticed lately that after a good rain or washing I have alot of condensation built up inside two of the lightheads. This is the first time I have had this problem with a Whelen product. I assume that it may be a seal problem and have thought about removing the lenses wiping them out real good with an alcohol based cleaner and trying to reseal them with maybe a thin coating of silicone on the lens seal. I would hate to have to pull them off and send both back, but if it continiues I may. The look of the cloudy lenes just iritates me! :evil: What is everyone elses opinion?
Condensation
- Thread starter JTipper
- Start date
warranty them if you can- the moment you start removing/resealing them yourself there will be no warranty.
My experience has been that you really need to shit the bed to lose the whelen warranty. Try:
1. Tightening the lense (mine was not completely tight, thus this issue.
2. You can try to seal it yourself. Apply a very, very small of clear silicone to the lens edge. Then screw it on and allow it to try.
Doing a little bit of both steps fixed mine. If you do not think you are capable of doing this, send it to whelen. They have repaired lightheads for me that were out of warranty for free.
1. Tightening the lense (mine was not completely tight, thus this issue.
2. You can try to seal it yourself. Apply a very, very small of clear silicone to the lens edge. Then screw it on and allow it to try.
Doing a little bit of both steps fixed mine. If you do not think you are capable of doing this, send it to whelen. They have repaired lightheads for me that were out of warranty for free.
I have heard of a couple Whelen lightheads with condensation issues. If it makes you feel better, the couple that I have seen continued to work with the moisture, but its annoying to look at if you are a little OCD.... which I am.
You can send it back under warranty if you want. Personally, I would wait for a nice hot dry couple of days and hope that the condensation cleared out, then I would put a thin bead of clear silicone around where the lens seals to the plastic housing and wipe the excess off. That won't void your warranty in case you need it, and will hopefully solve the problem.
You can send it back under warranty if you want. Personally, I would wait for a nice hot dry couple of days and hope that the condensation cleared out, then I would put a thin bead of clear silicone around where the lens seals to the plastic housing and wipe the excess off. That won't void your warranty in case you need it, and will hopefully solve the problem.
Thanks everyone, I think I'm gonna try to reseal them. If all goes bad i do have a spare set out of my old Vic mirror beams. I will just have to polish on the lenses a bit to get them to match the others.
Anyone have issues with condensation in a whelen liberty sx bar?
I have a brand new bar that is always getting condensation in and around the front LED take downs. Very annoying and looks awful up front and dead center.
Is a brand new bar. I understand they warranty alot of things but taking the bar off and undoing all the wiring etc. etc. is not an easy option...
Anyone have any experiances with this and any possible solutions?
I have a brand new bar that is always getting condensation in and around the front LED take downs. Very annoying and looks awful up front and dead center.
Is a brand new bar. I understand they warranty alot of things but taking the bar off and undoing all the wiring etc. etc. is not an easy option...
Anyone have any experiances with this and any possible solutions?
I would be surprised if there was something made by whelen that did not draw
moisture,
Jim Rogers
Northern Lights/Sirens
moisture,
Jim Rogers
Northern Lights/Sirens
I had a problem with a customers bar, I my local sales rep for a distributor relayed me this info from a Whelen rep. What the Whelen rep said was that in the assembly process, particularly with a few assemblers, the lenses were not being seated into the dividers and gaskets right. They're first suggestion is to take and re-assemble the lenses on the bar paying attention to seating them real well in the dividers. See if that helps.
I called whelen support yesterday about the five tir3's and a set of lin 4s that
are drawing moisture, one good ting is that they are replacing the lin4's with
linz6's according to the tech support. I really liked lin4's, but linz6's will make
some good trading material as they were a big disappointment. Hopefully there
will be someone out there wanting to trade.
Jim Rogers
Northern Lights/Sirens
Pods are the Future :mrgreen:
are drawing moisture, one good ting is that they are replacing the lin4's with
linz6's according to the tech support. I really liked lin4's, but linz6's will make
some good trading material as they were a big disappointment. Hopefully there
will be someone out there wanting to trade.
Jim Rogers
Northern Lights/Sirens
Pods are the Future :mrgreen:
that was quick, have someone that wants them once I get the linz6;s
Jim Rogers
Pods are the Future
Jim Rogers
Pods are the Future
tbski said:
I have the LED ultra freedom and live in South Florida. During the rainy months my lightbar gets a lot of moister in it and the condensation builds up to the point the front of the bar is covered. It happens to our all cars in the fleet. I guess it's a Whelen thing b/c the agencies using the legend, Pinnacle, and Defender do not have this problem. But even with the condensation the bar is still very bright.
Well, here is a little update on my condensation problem. In addition to my Raiders one of my LINZ6 headed in my Outer Edge now has the same problem. So I bit my pride and emailed Whelen tech support to find out what I needed to do. I did not get the answer I was expecting. Pretty much I was told that they are designed to operate just fine with the condensation and not to worry about it. I then replied that I understood that but it looks like crap. I was then advised that pretty much that is just the way they are and sooner or later the condesation will go away with use and don't worry about the salt residue left all over the inside of the lenses. These little one or two sentence emails kinda chapped my butt coming from a company like Whelen. I'm not very impressed with their customer service and will prob not be buying any more Whelen products if I can help it. I guess the Chiefs new ride will be done with either Fed-Sig or SoundOff. Maybe I'll do a poll when it comes in!
JTipper said:
It does look like crap and shame on Whelen for not caring. I have some SOS and FED Sig lights on my car. I even threw in some SVP and none of them have a condensation problem. Like I said before the agencies using the Pinnacle and Legend around here do not have the condensation issues we have with our ultra-freedom. I contacted SOS in regard to a mistake I made during install and was impressed with their customer service. I cannot speak for Fed Sig but one of my DLX3 lights stopped working and Star/SVP customer service was top notch too. Good luck and keep us posted.
Well, out of the blue this morning I got an e-mail now saying that I need to send the lightheads in for "inspection" to see if there are other issues. Was not expecting that but still not sure if I even want to go to the hassel now. The local radio shop has a few extra heads that I may be able to swap out if I send the Raiders off. Does anyone know if the Dual Raiders have a separate flasher in the housing or do they just use the built in flasher in the head?
I know we have freedoms and since now that winter is coming and the temps at night get pretty low if you go out in the morning all of the bars have condensation in them but all still work fine and about 20 minutes of driving it all pretty much goes away.
I used to like whelen LED's until I discovered Tomar. They are brighter and made better. It does take a little longer to get them from Arizona . If there is a problem they will replace it no problem. I guess Whelen got too big. They see the big bucks and need to produce the products even if that means cutting corners.
just send them in and put a note saying , sometimes they work fine, othertimes they dont work at all , and on a few occassions the pattern gets stuck on steady burn...
you will get new lights !!!
you will get new lights !!!
I've had the same problem with my Outer Edge on my Tahoe I've had 4 of the 8 heads replaced but am now noticing the others getting condensation. That's just with normal garden hose washing too.....not a pressure washer.
I'm sick of it. I wish Sound Off would make an exterior bar like the Outer Edge for a Tahoe. I've had much better luck with their stuff lately.
I'm sick of it. I wish Sound Off would make an exterior bar like the Outer Edge for a Tahoe. I've had much better luck with their stuff lately.