sitelights
10-13-2003, 04:06 PM
We've all heard this one "...the difficult we do immediately; the impossible will take a little time..." How about a wall mount fixture that cannot be mounted, wired or secured to a wall?
I purchased eight of Vista's SL5232s purely from the catalog spec page info. This is a cast aluminum unit 4" H w/flange and 3 1/4" dia. I special-ordered these items: a single water-tight connector on the base rather than two on the side, pre-assembled with a xenon 10w bi-pin lamp and 3' of 18/2 lead wire. It was clear from the catalog page that it would be impossible to mount these units as shown with two side mounted water-tight connectors since the diameter of the mounting hole would have to be larger than the flange and cover plate. Despite very explicit written instructions these SL5232s were delivered to me as a bag of parts: a housing and cover plate, two large water-tight connectors (not for use with 18/2), a heat shield with a socket attached, a 1/2" NPT blank to cover one of the pre-drilled and threaded side holes, a boxed 10w xenon lamp and two gel-filled wire nuts. This was not what I ordered. [A recent email from Vista maintains that the original purchase order from my distributor did not contain the instructions. My distributor's position is that Vista knew about the instruction because they were informed that the custom spec would result in an up-charge. I'm just reporting not judging.] These units were dated May '03 fulfilling an order placed in mid-September '03. Allegedly Vista assembles to order and, indeed, other type fixtures came to me with the actual assembly date printed on the UL sticker. [An anomaly acording to Vista in the same email.] To add insult to injury Vista up-charged the SL5232s as a custom order (although they did nothing) and sent me off-the-shelf stock items. [The price was ajusted.]
The instruction sheet accompanying the unit illustrated the fixture placed in a solid wall. As you will see, these standard items could not be installed as shipped in a solid wall, a hollow wall or a partition wall even with access to both sides of the installation surface..
I recently installed seven of the SL5232s in teak planter boxes. The design goal was to create discs of soft light from the back of each box onto a stone wall surrounding a pool. Since the pool area within the wall was entirely paved with cut stone slabs there was no opportunity to use any other technique: solid stone wall, thick, tightly-fitted pavers. The seven planter boxes (2'x2'x2') were cut with a 3 1/2" hole saw on the worst face to provide an opening into which the SL5232 body would fit snugly so that the flange on the top of this cylindrical fixture would act as a stop to prevent pushing the assembly into the hole. The stock fixtures were supplied 1/2" NPT threaded holes into which the large gland-type connectors would be screwed where they would protrude about an inch from the body of the fixture housing. A hole large enough to accept the housing and fitting(s) would be too large to fasten the flange to the surface of the planter box. It took about 5 hours to modify the fixtures so that they could be correctly mounted. I had to modify these units to meet the spec of my original order. Vista's tech support sent me UPS 2nd Day Air a supply of the smaller compression fittings so that I could customize the fixtures to conform to my requirements and meet a client deadline. The 8th fixture was returned to Vista breaking my rule of always having a spare of anything installed.
The 1/2" NPT threaded holes had to be fitted with blanks and sealed. The bottom of the cylinder that forms the fixture body had to be drilled to accept the proper 18/2 gauge compression fitting. The flange had to have three 1/8" holes drilled and countersunk to allow the cover to seat without contacting the screw heads in the flange. It was necessary to afix the luminaire so that it could not be pushed in or pulled out thus the drilled flange had to be secured to the surface of the box by three stainless steel screws. Three drill press operations later I had a mountable fixture. I also had to butt splice 18/2 to the socket leads and seal the fitting around the 18/2. The flange had small bosses cast to provide deeper threaded holes to secure the cover plate. This meant that on installation the perimeter of the 3 1/2" holes in the planter boxes had to be chiseled in four places to allow the flange to seat against the teak surface.
This luminaire is not designed to be installed; it is produced simply to fill a blank page in Vista's catalog. The installation method is a total fiction and the illustration has no basis in reality. The only engineering was done by me in the shop and in the field. This fixture was never tested in terms of installation because if it had been tested the numerous flaws would have been obvious to the to the meanest intelligence. I rate this unit an expensive joke.
Vista gets the "Most User Unfriendly" fixture award for their SL5232. It replaces the Hadco DRL-2 as the most difficult luminaire to install ...and by a wide margin. What were they thinking?
I purchased eight of Vista's SL5232s purely from the catalog spec page info. This is a cast aluminum unit 4" H w/flange and 3 1/4" dia. I special-ordered these items: a single water-tight connector on the base rather than two on the side, pre-assembled with a xenon 10w bi-pin lamp and 3' of 18/2 lead wire. It was clear from the catalog page that it would be impossible to mount these units as shown with two side mounted water-tight connectors since the diameter of the mounting hole would have to be larger than the flange and cover plate. Despite very explicit written instructions these SL5232s were delivered to me as a bag of parts: a housing and cover plate, two large water-tight connectors (not for use with 18/2), a heat shield with a socket attached, a 1/2" NPT blank to cover one of the pre-drilled and threaded side holes, a boxed 10w xenon lamp and two gel-filled wire nuts. This was not what I ordered. [A recent email from Vista maintains that the original purchase order from my distributor did not contain the instructions. My distributor's position is that Vista knew about the instruction because they were informed that the custom spec would result in an up-charge. I'm just reporting not judging.] These units were dated May '03 fulfilling an order placed in mid-September '03. Allegedly Vista assembles to order and, indeed, other type fixtures came to me with the actual assembly date printed on the UL sticker. [An anomaly acording to Vista in the same email.] To add insult to injury Vista up-charged the SL5232s as a custom order (although they did nothing) and sent me off-the-shelf stock items. [The price was ajusted.]
The instruction sheet accompanying the unit illustrated the fixture placed in a solid wall. As you will see, these standard items could not be installed as shipped in a solid wall, a hollow wall or a partition wall even with access to both sides of the installation surface..
I recently installed seven of the SL5232s in teak planter boxes. The design goal was to create discs of soft light from the back of each box onto a stone wall surrounding a pool. Since the pool area within the wall was entirely paved with cut stone slabs there was no opportunity to use any other technique: solid stone wall, thick, tightly-fitted pavers. The seven planter boxes (2'x2'x2') were cut with a 3 1/2" hole saw on the worst face to provide an opening into which the SL5232 body would fit snugly so that the flange on the top of this cylindrical fixture would act as a stop to prevent pushing the assembly into the hole. The stock fixtures were supplied 1/2" NPT threaded holes into which the large gland-type connectors would be screwed where they would protrude about an inch from the body of the fixture housing. A hole large enough to accept the housing and fitting(s) would be too large to fasten the flange to the surface of the planter box. It took about 5 hours to modify the fixtures so that they could be correctly mounted. I had to modify these units to meet the spec of my original order. Vista's tech support sent me UPS 2nd Day Air a supply of the smaller compression fittings so that I could customize the fixtures to conform to my requirements and meet a client deadline. The 8th fixture was returned to Vista breaking my rule of always having a spare of anything installed.
The 1/2" NPT threaded holes had to be fitted with blanks and sealed. The bottom of the cylinder that forms the fixture body had to be drilled to accept the proper 18/2 gauge compression fitting. The flange had to have three 1/8" holes drilled and countersunk to allow the cover to seat without contacting the screw heads in the flange. It was necessary to afix the luminaire so that it could not be pushed in or pulled out thus the drilled flange had to be secured to the surface of the box by three stainless steel screws. Three drill press operations later I had a mountable fixture. I also had to butt splice 18/2 to the socket leads and seal the fitting around the 18/2. The flange had small bosses cast to provide deeper threaded holes to secure the cover plate. This meant that on installation the perimeter of the 3 1/2" holes in the planter boxes had to be chiseled in four places to allow the flange to seat against the teak surface.
This luminaire is not designed to be installed; it is produced simply to fill a blank page in Vista's catalog. The installation method is a total fiction and the illustration has no basis in reality. The only engineering was done by me in the shop and in the field. This fixture was never tested in terms of installation because if it had been tested the numerous flaws would have been obvious to the to the meanest intelligence. I rate this unit an expensive joke.
Vista gets the "Most User Unfriendly" fixture award for their SL5232. It replaces the Hadco DRL-2 as the most difficult luminaire to install ...and by a wide margin. What were they thinking?