The Hampton Bay Low Voltage 300 Watt Landscape Transformer is a low profile slim transformer that apparently can easily be concealed once its installed. It certainly is a small unit so I would agree that being able to conceal it should not be too much of a problem. But what are some of the outstanding specifics of this low voltage landscape transformer?
The Hampton Bay 300 Watt Landscape Transformer utilizes sensing circuits that can safely detect a system overload or short circuit in the landscape installation. The unit incorporates a ground shield which gives added protection when using submersible lights. The unit comes with a photocell to detect when its dark to switch on the power, or daylight to switch off the power. A digital timer makes it easy to program the on or off functions of the 300 Watt transformer.
In this article we will discuss the Hampton Bay Low Voltage 300 Watt Digital Transformer in more detail by considering the following:
- Specific Features of the 300 Watt Landscape Transformer
- How To Install the Low Voltage 300 Watt Landscape Transformer
- Review of the Hampton Bay Low Voltage 300 Watt Landscape Transformer
- Download the Hampton Bay 300 Watt Landscape Transformer
First, we would like to mention the main difference between the Hampton Bay Low Voltage 120 Watt Landscape Transformer and a 300-watt transformer.
It is all to do with the total load or cumulative wattage of all of the fixtures connected must be equal to 300 Watts or less.
The 300 Watt transformer has the potential to have connected over twice the number of similar fixtures as you would normally connect to the 120 Watt transformer.
You can get 600 Watt transformers and higher but rarely do you need to go over 300 Watts when using LED lighting with a LED system.
The bigger transformers are more if you are using a number of halogen lights with a halogen system as they tend to be a higher wattage fixture.
Specific Features of the 300 Watt Landscape Transformer
What we particularly like about the Hampton Bay 300 Watt Transformer is that it comes with dual voltage terminals of 12 Volts and 15 Volts.
This is handy if your fixtures require 15 Volts or if your cables are long and you may experience a voltage drop to the fixtures. Here are a few more specifics:
- The unit is a standard Plugin outdoor unit that is very weather durable and is very resistant to corrosion
- A nice feature is a remote photocell that allows for night and day detection
- A very easy to use digital display with many programmable functions for switching the unit on and off depending on the circumstances and situations.
- The 300 Watt Landscape Transformer can be used with submersible fixtures such as lighting for fountains, ponds and pools.
- Safety protection built-in with a resettable short circuit, and an overload and surge protection feature
How To Install The Low Voltage 300 Watt Landscape Transformer
Always Plug the transformer power supply unit directly into a wet location outlet. If you are not competent at installing electrical items than consult an electrician to do the installation.
You can download the manual which takes you through the installation procedure step by step at the end of this article.
The manual will take you through 7 installation steps and 9 operation steps for settings along with some troubleshooting questions.
7 Installation Steps Outlined in the Manual
- Preparing the cable
- Connecting the cable to the 300 Watt transformer
- Placing your light fixtures and routing the cable
- Attaching Your Lighting Fixtures
- Mounting The 300 Watt Transformer
- Mounting The light sensitive Photocell
- Protecting or Hiding the Cable
9 Operation Steps Contained in the Manual
- Setting The Internal Clock
- Operating In the Manual Mode Setting
- Setting the light sensitive PHOTOCELL AUTO ON/OFF
- Setting the light sensitive PHOTOCELL ON/ TIME OFF
- Setting the internal TIME ON/OFF
- Using the included TEST Function
- Power Outage – restoring original settings
- Display the Auto Shutdown function
- Restoring the Factory Settings
Review of the Hampton Bay Low Voltage 300-Watt Landscape Transformer
With over 200 reviews the Hampton Bay 300-Watt Transformer has an average star rating of 4.6 stars out of 5 stars, with 90% of customers recommending the product.
The Hampton Bay low voltage transformer is definitely an excellent option for you to supply the needed power to your outdoor lighting fixtures.
What we liked about this unit is that It comes with an easy to follow installation manual, which you can simply download.
This manual also covers assistance in helping you to plan your lighting landscape setting.
As regards the transformer itself you will need to ensure that it is placed high enough above the ground to suit your particular weather conditions.
One such scenario is if your snowfall is heavy and reaches up to the transformer wiring connection posts, you could have the potential of shorting the 300 Watt transformer out.
We found this out the hard way so learnt a valuable lesson of making sure the transformer is mounted high enough to prevent it from getting buried in snow.
The manual helps you with guidelines for your lighting setup, by helping you to ascertain the correct wattage draw for the fixtures used and correct wire gauge you should be using.
We have a few of the Hampton Bay Low Voltage Transformers for our outdoor lighting fixtures and have found the 300w unit is a very good option at balancing the price per Watt, capacity for the fixtures used along with sufficient capacity for any future growth we might entail.
Our LED lights only use 5 Watts each, so 40 of them in our backyard only draw 200 Watts leaving a total of 100 Watts still available for further additional fixtures as we see fit in the future.
It is very flexible with a number of different setup options for managing the lighting fixtures.
We are currently using the dusk/dawn photocell setting for our night lights.
While we would welcome a setting to turn on the light fixtures at dusk and then turn them off at a set time, the photocell option still works very well, considering all our lights are only 5 watts LED so not a lot of power usage when compared to the halogen bulbs.
We found the warranty and customer support numbers to be very good if you are having any troubles with the product or with the installation.
Download the Hampton Bay 300 Watt Landscape Transformer Manual
If you are wanting a copy of the Hampton Bay Low Voltage 300 Watt Landscape Transformer Manual then please click on the link below. You will be able to download a PDF copy which can be viewed with Adobe PDF reader or similar product.