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Sector Labs H2GLOW 2 LED Faucet Light
Hookup and testing:
I said in the first place that not reading the directions would come back to get me. Well, let me elaborate. I took the device apart and installed the batteries just fine. It was easy to figure out which direction to put them in. The hard part was when it came to attaching it. I could not figure out, for the life of me, how it attached to the faucet. Of course, this was before I had taken my current faucet adaptor off. I spent several minutes trying to find out how to attach it to the faucet, then gave up and looked at the directions. After looking at the directions, I was still somewhat confused because the faucet attachment wasn't very detailed on the manual. The biggest problem I had was the fact that there were no threads showing because the metal screen gasket was so thick.
Eventually I got it all figured out and hooked up. It works on a pretty simple basis. There is a thermistor that is exposed to the running water. A thermistor is a device that changes resistance according to the temperature that it is exposed to. The circuit uses the water as a switch. There are 2 metal wires sticking out into the oncoming stream of water, and the circuit is complete when the faucet is turned on by using the water as a conductor. The faucet adapter comes on a small fraction of a second after the water is turned on and glows magnificently. The average threshold temperature was recorded by switching the water temperature back and forth numerous times. For a red to blue shift, which detects the presence of cold water, the temperature was about 95 degrees Fahrenheit. The average temperature for a blue to red shift was about 96 degrees Fahrenheit. This hysteresis effect, or dead-band between temperature switches, keeps the faucet from switching rapidly between red and blue LEDs, or having both on at the same time. Below are several pictures showing how it looks hooked up and how it looked during testing.
Conclusion and final thoughts:
I was very excited to test the H2GLOW and was not disappointed. With the lights out, the glow coming from this device was quite amazing. I like the fact that the water doesn't have to actually be scalding to warn you of hot water, but an adjustable temperature setting would be a very nice feature. There was one drawback that I noticed with the device - if you turn the faucet all the way on, there is a very loud, annoying whistling noise. I actually found a way to fix this. That little plastic piece with a hole in it, also known as the flow restrictor, is the culprit. I removed it and there was no more whistling. By removing this piece, it caused the water stream to spread out quite a bit, about the same as it would have if there was no faucet attachment on. This faucet attachment actually has quite the cool factor. If nothing else, it will spark a conversation with someone that uses it. Overall, I think Sector Labs has created a good product that I can definitely see paying $20 for. For revision 2, I would like to see the water pressure recharge the batteries, or if the flowing water was actually used to power it instead of batteries. The H2GLOW can be purchased from X-tremegeek.com for $17.99
Real Time Pricing: