Comparison
Stainless Steel vs Aluminum Underwater Light Housing
Housing material is the underwater decision with the longest shadow: it decides how a fitting ages in chlorinated or salt water. Both materials sit in the Lesan range, in different models.
The materials in the range
| SUS#316 stainless, all four underwater housings | LX-UD005, LX-SC009 and LX-BG84786 carry SUS#316 alone; the LX-UD-001A offers SUS#316 / brass / aluminum |
|---|---|
| Aluminum options | An option on the LX-UD-001A; part of the LX-SC-002 materials (316 stainless steel, aluminum, tempered glass); the standard material of the above-water flood and washer families |
| Glass | Tempered glass across the range; T=10mm on the underwater models |
The trade-off
316-grade stainless carries molybdenum in the alloy, which is what resists chloride pitting — the failure mode of metal fittings in chlorinated pools, treated fountain water and coastal features. It is heavy and costs more, and the model weights show it: even the compact stainless models are dense fittings. Aluminum is light, dissipates heat well and serves perfectly well above the waterline — the flood lights and wall washers are aluminum-bodied — but submerged in chlorinated water it needs its surface treatment to stay intact, and crevice corrosion at fasteners is the known risk. Brass, the third material on the LX-UD-001A list, is the traditional marine compromise and appears on small fittings.
Choosing for your water
For chlorinated, salt or chemically treated water, stay with the SUS#316 housings on the stainless steel series page. For a freshwater decorative pond, the aluminum option on the LX-UD-001A can be a rational economy — with the water type stated in the inquiry so the material choice is made on the record. Above the waterline, aluminum is the range's standard and the question does not arise.
Confirm before ordering
State the water type — fresh, chlorinated or salt — in your inquiry, and confirm the housing material of the exact variant in writing before ordering.
What the weights are telling you
Material choice is visible in the model weights before it is visible anywhere else. The stainless underwater models are dense objects for their size — the LX-BG84786 reaches 3.4 kg around a single emitter — because 316 stainless is a heavy alloy and the housings are built thick enough to machine threads, glands and bezels into. That mass is not waste: underwater, weight is stability in a niche, thread engagement that survives repeated servicing, and a bezel that seats its seal evenly year after year. When a designer handles both a stainless and an aluminum fitting of similar face size, the difference in the hand is the difference in the service life conversation.
Decision checklist
- Chlorinated, salt or treated water? SUS#316, confirmed for the variant.
- Fresh decorative water, budget-led, accessible for servicing? An aluminum option can be argued — on the record, with the water type stated.
- Above the waterline? Aluminum is the range's standard; the question closes.
- Mixed site? Keep one housing logic per water body so servicing and spares stay simple.
Galvanic company: the fitting is not alone
One more consideration belongs in the material conversation: the fitting's neighbours. A stainless housing bolted to a dissimilar-metal bracket in treated water creates a galvanic pair, and the less noble metal in the pair pays for the relationship. Keep brackets, fasteners and niches in compatible metals, or isolate them, and ask the question explicitly when a quotation mixes materials across the assembly. The housing decision, properly made, is an assembly decision — which is why it is confirmed in writing, as an assembly, rather than left as a one-word line in a specification.