JW Speaker lights useless in snow?
 

I just got the JW Speaker lights installed on Saturday and was thrilled by their looks and performance. That is until the commute home today in the snow. I noticed that the light was barely illuminating the road or the cars in front of me, but at the same time all the snow in front of the windshield was lit up brightly and blocking most of the visibility ahead. It made the drive home almost impossible.

After pulling over at the first safe spot I went outside and looked at the lights, and what I found was very disturbing. The lights were completely cool to the touch and there was a layer of snow about 1/4 inch thick blanketing the lights completely! That it turned out not only cut the light output to the road ahead drastically but had another very negative side effect of lighting up the snow where it shouldn't - in front of the windshield. I cleaned it up and kept on driving, but within 15 minutes the same thing happened again. All the other cars on the road did not seem to have this problem so I know it was not unusually cold conditions contributing to the cause. The temp outside was about 32 degrees and the snow was not overly slushy.

I read so many good reviews about JW Speakers but somehow never ran into an article describing this problem. Did anyone else notice this issue and if so how are you dealing with it? Living in the northeast, I can not imagine keeping these lights.

I'm interested if you want to sell, send me a pm. Sorry to hear they aren't working good for you though. Heard mostly good reviews.

Same thing happens to my Trucklites. The LED's don't get warm enough and the blowing snow sticks to them and piles up. I've always noticed it to be dim, never where I couldn't see at all.

LED's put off very little heat. This is going to be an ongoing issue with them.

Its a side effect of LEDs in this situation, LEDs actually create heat its just not as large as incandescent or other forms of light and its not projected forward like a incandescent.

All modern LEDs have heat sinks mounted to them to dissipate heat but that wont help to clear the snow or ice off the light unfortunately.

if the snow/ice build up is that bad, I would suggest going to a DOT approved HID setup with a projector housing, lots of light, lower power draw, and looks great.

You obviously didn't do any research before you bought them. That is what happened with them in slow. Been known now for years now. No reason to blame the product for it. Let me know if you want to sell them for $200.

I've read similar posts where one user has treated his LED lights with Rain-X.

He reported it helps keep the snow/ice build up off the lights. Other's report using a similar product, but I forget which ones.

I have heard of other products as well i just can't think of the names I will try to do some research when I get back to the shop

Been preaching this here for the past while. this is the main reason I am not switching my stock reflectors. they put the light where it needs to be actually. no, they are not the brightest. but using the phillips extra power light bulbs, they work good. these truck light, JW, HID retros for the stock lights, are NO GOOD for anything other than clear nights in the city. I put 60-70k a year on my jeep in the night, no road lighting, just my jeep, and I know what works and what does not. You will here lots of people claiming these led replacement lights are the greatest thing since sliced bread. but they are far from it. re install your stock lights, and hope to recoup most of your money.

Thanks for all the feedback. Since it is fairly easy to swap out, perhaps I will swap it out for the winter just like people do with summer tires. It is pretty annoying but not the end of the world.