Initial Thoughts on the Kessil 360X

[ca1ore]

Had one of my older 360WE lights burn out, so rather than buy a replacement at a discount I decided to get one of the new X lights and controller. Here are my initial, and almost certainly incomplete, thoughts:

Form factor is nice, though a push versus the older one. It’s a little lighter than the old model, which makes getting it to hang straight a hair pulling process.Hopefully the cooling is improved over the older model that had a tendency to build up lint.
I do like the ability to adjust the three new colors - not sure how much I’ll use red or green, but violet makes my fish and corals look spectacular.
Dimming is significantly improved over the prior models, though it DOES NOT dim smoothly to complete darkness. This is quite disappointing to me. The transition from 1% intensity to zero is quite apparent. I suppose if one were going to use them for moonlights, this is less apparent; though even at 1% these are still too bright for a realistic moonlight in my view.
To my eye, as currently sold, these have a wider light dispersion than the older model. I imagine for many, the forthcoming add on lenses will be required.
Jury is out for me whether this is worth the premium. Older 360 can be had for $350; the X is $450 plus the cost of a lens, should you require it. That’s a sizable premium.
The X controller is fine. Nice that you don’t need a dedicated power source anymore. I do personally find the Kessil controllers cludgy to program .... maybe I just don’t speak Kessil.
Not sure if apex compatibility will be forthcoming or not. Hopefully yes.

 

[frank the tank]

Had one of my older 360WE lights burn out, so rather than buy a replacement at a discount I decided to get one of the new X lights and controller. Here are my initial, and almost certainly incomplete, thoughts:

Form factor is nice, though a push versus the older one. It’s a little lighter than the old model, which makes getting it to hang straight a hair pulling process.Hopefully the cooling is improved over the older model that had a tendency to build up lint.
I do like the ability to adjust the three new colors - not sure how much I’ll use red or green, but violet makes my fish and corals look spectacular.
Dimming is significantly improved over the prior models, though it DOES NOT dim smoothly to complete darkness. This is quite disappointing to me. The transition from 1% intensity to zero is quite apparent. I suppose if one were going to use them for moonlights, this is less apparent; though even at 1% these are still too bright for a realistic moonlight in my view.
To my eye, as currently sold, these have a wider light dispersion than the older model. I imagine for many, the forthcoming add on lenses will be required.
Jury is out for me whether this is worth the premium. Older 360 can be had for $350; the X is $450 plus the cost of a lens, should you require it. That’s a sizable premium.
The X controller is fine. Nice that you don’t need a dedicated power source anymore. I do personally find the Kessil controllers cludgy to program .... maybe I just don’t speak Kessil.
Not sure if apex compatibility will be forthcoming or not. Hopefully yes.

For the moonlight on my 360x I set the intensity at zero and put the violet at one percent You can set that into your program and it is about the perfect brightness for a little late night viewing.

 

[ca1ore]

Tried that; doesn’t look at all natural to me.

 

[shoggoth43]

Kessil suggested that with their wireless control/dongle it would theoretically be possible for Apex/Profilux to control the 360X lights but it would be up to Neptune and GHL to come up with a way to do that. I suspect with a different module or card they could add a cabled method, but they'd need to natively speak "Kessil" on the wire, so it'd probably be easier to do a wireless module to speak to the Kessil wireless controller.​

 

[hart24601]

Had one of my older 360WE lights burn out, so rather than buy a replacement at a discount I decided to get one of the new X lights and controller. Here are my initial, and almost certainly incomplete, thoughts:

Form factor is nice, though a push versus the older one. It’s a little lighter than the old model, which makes getting it to hang straight a hair pulling process.Hopefully the cooling is improved over the older model that had a tendency to build up lint.
I do like the ability to adjust the three new colors - not sure how much I’ll use red or green, but violet makes my fish and corals look spectacular.
Dimming is significantly improved over the prior models, though it DOES NOT dim smoothly to complete darkness. This is quite disappointing to me. The transition from 1% intensity to zero is quite apparent. I suppose if one were going to use them for moonlights, this is less apparent; though even at 1% these are still too bright for a realistic moonlight in my view.
To my eye, as currently sold, these have a wider light dispersion than the older model. I imagine for many, the forthcoming add on lenses will be required.
Jury is out for me whether this is worth the premium. Older 360 can be had for $350; the X is $450 plus the cost of a lens, should you require it. That’s a sizable premium.
The X controller is fine. Nice that you don’t need a dedicated power source anymore. I do personally find the Kessil controllers cludgy to program .... maybe I just don’t speak Kessil.
Not sure if apex compatibility will be forthcoming or not. Hopefully yes.

Nice review! Seems pretty unbiased which is hard when we get a new toy!

 

[ca1ore]

Kessil suggested that with their wireless control/dongle it would theoretically be possible for Apex/Profilux to control the 360X lights but it would be up to Neptune and GHL to come up with a way to do that. I suspect with a different module or card they could add a cabled method, but they'd need to natively speak "Kessil" on the wire, so it'd probably be easier to do a wireless module to speak to the Kessil wireless controller.​

I’ve generally found it wise to buy something based on what it can do today but it would be cool to get apex control (my assumption is via WXM).

 

[ca1ore]

Note to Kessil: the L shaped end on the connecting cable is not useful. Please use one with straight connectors on each end.