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South Korea, Seoul
1 Level
711 Review
42 Karma

Review on Illuminate Your Ride With HOTSYSTEM'S Blue LED Toggle Switch - Perfect For Car, Motorcycle, Boat, And More! by Tim Rios

Revainrating 2 out of 5

Nice inexpensive LED indicated switch with a big caveat

These switches are "okay" with one huge caveat. I wouldn't use them in anything mission critical but for light casual use they're nice little switches for a very reasonable price. Now here is the big caveat and the reason for two stars: there is no documentation nor any mention in the description of their behavior when turned off. When you turn them off they shunt ground from the LED to the load terminal. This can be solved with a diode from the negative on the LED to the load pin, but budget an extra 5 bucks or so for a pack of diodes (1N4004 should work). If you don't use the LED or it's on its own circuit, then this isn't an issue. These switches are actually dangerous if you're not aware of this rather inconvenient and undocumented issue, since it could cause a huge current draw from your power supply or battery when the ground for the LED and your switched circuit ground are one and the same. These are durable enough to last for occasional use but they're not going to last for constant use. My application is for switching a couple low current circuits on a gas heater and some LED lighting that might get used a couple times a day so they're fine. I would prefer something much sturdier for automotive or aviation applications. Regarding the shunting issue, I noticed a couple other reviewers encountered the exact same issue so it's not just a bad batch it's the way they're designed, so buy diodes with these if you plan on using them the way I did.

img 1 attached to Illuminate Your Ride With HOTSYSTEM'S Blue LED Toggle Switch - Perfect For Car, Motorcycle, Boat, And More! review by Tim Rios



Pros
  • Great
Cons
  • The switch may be difficult to locate in the dark