JT-HLM Red Green Navigation Lights Review: basic LED nav lights that get the job done on a budget

I put these JT-HLM red/green navigation lights on a small 5m fishing boat that I use mostly on a lake and occasionally in a coastal area at night. I wasn’t looking for anything fancy, just something that would keep me legal and visible when I come back after sunset. I picked this set mainly because of the price, the 12–24V range, and the fact they’re LED. The brand is basically generic, so I went in with pretty low expectations.

After a few evening trips and a couple of really wet, windy days, I’ve got a decent idea of what they’re good at and where they feel cheap. I wired them into a 12V system, mounted them on the bow, and used them for several hours at a time. I also left the boat outside in the rain to see if anything fogged up or leaked. Nothing scientific, just normal use the way most people would treat a small boat light.

The short version: they work, they’re bright enough for a small boat, and they haven’t died yet. But you can clearly feel that this is a low-cost, generic option: short warranty, basic plastics, and no real brand behind it. If you expect premium marine hardware like you’d find on a big yacht, this isn’t that. If you want something that simply lights up and doesn’t draw much power, they’re fine.

So in this review I’ll go through how they’re built, how bright they really are, how they handle water and bad weather, and if I think they’re worth the money compared to more known marine brands. I’ll be honest: they’re not perfect, but for a small fishing boat or pontoon where you just need legal nav lights on a tight budget, they actually make sense.

In terms of value, these lights sit firmly in the budget category. You’re paying for simple LED nav lights that meet basic needs, not for a big brand name, long warranty, or fancy design. For what they cost, I’d say they’re pretty solid value if your expectations are realistic. They turn on, they’re bright enough, they’re waterproof enough for normal use, and they don’t pull much power. For a small fishing boat, pontoon, or casual weekend boat, that’s often all you really need.

Compared to more established marine brands, you’re giving up a few things: usually better materials, tinned wire, often some compliance certification, and longer warranties. Those brands often cost two to three times more for a similar red/green setup. If you’re running a boat that’s worth a lot of money or you’re regularly out at night in busy or rough areas, I’d probably pay extra for the peace of mind. But if you’re just trying to get legal lights on an older boat without dropping a ton of cash, this set makes financial sense.

Where the value feels a bit weaker is the short 3-month warranty and generic manufacturer. If one unit dies at month four, you’re basically just buying another set. For the price that’s not the end of the world, but it’s something to keep in mind. Also, since there’s no mounting hardware or gasket included, you’ll need to factor in a few extra euros for stainless screws and sealant if you don’t already have them.

Overall, I’d sum it up like this: if you want bulletproof, long-term, brand-name gear, spend more. If you want “good enough, cheap, and LED” for a small recreational boat, these are good value for money. Not a steal, not a rip-off—just a decent budget option that gets the job done as long as you’re okay with the compromises.

Design-wise, these lights are pretty straightforward. The housing is a white plastic shell with the colored lens at the front and a flat-ish base for mounting. The viewing angle is listed as 112.5°, which matches standard side navigation light requirements. In practice, when I walked around the bow at night with them turned on, the cut-off is fairly clean: you see the red clearly on the port side, the green on starboard, and they don’t bleed too much forward or backward. It’s not perfect like high-end marine lights, but for a small boat it’s decent.

The shape is slightly rounded, nothing sharp or weird, so you’re not going to snag anything easily. That said, they do stick out a bit. If you’re constantly throwing cast nets or docking against rough pilings, you’ll want to mount them where they’re less likely to get knocked. The base doesn’t have a built-in rubber gasket, so for a proper install on a fiberglass deck you’ll want to add some marine sealant or a separate gasket to keep water out of the screw holes.

One thing I noticed is the plastic looks and feels like basic PA/PC, not premium marine-grade stuff. That’s not necessarily a dealbreaker, but it tells you these are made to a price. The lens coloring is clear enough: the red is definitely red, the green is a proper green, not that washed-out pale color you sometimes get on cheap lights. For visibility and recognition by other boats, that’s important. At night, from a moderate distance, they look like standard nav lights, which is exactly the point.

From a usability perspective, you only have two wires per light, so wiring is dead simple. No built-in switch, no extra modes. That’s good if you just want a basic on/off tied to your nav light switch. On the downside, there’s no flexibility: you can’t easily reconfigure them for combined masthead or anything fancy. Bottom line: the design is simple and practical, but you can tell it’s a budget product. It’s fine for a small recreational boat where you’re not worried about aesthetics or squeezing every last bit of performance out of your gear.

The lights are made from PA and PC plastics, which basically means a nylon-type housing and polycarbonate lens. That combo is pretty common in cheaper marine gear. In hand, they feel light but not completely flimsy. If you squeeze the housing there’s a little flex, but nothing that screams “this will crack in a week”. I’ve installed more expensive lights that felt sturdier, but also plenty of cheap ones that felt worse than these, so I’d call it mid-range for a budget product.

The lens itself looks reasonably thick and doesn’t have obvious casting defects or bubbles. I checked for gaps around the lens where it meets the housing, and on my unit the seams were clean. They claim IP66 waterproofing and a fully sealed LED unit. I didn’t take them apart, but I did run them in heavy rain and hit them with a hose for a bit to see if they fogged up. After a few days of that plus some cold nights, I didn’t see any condensation inside, which is a good sign.

The wiring is where you really feel the cost cutting. The wire gauge is thin but acceptable for low current LED use. The insulation is okay, but I wouldn’t leave the bare wire ends exposed to salt water without proper heat-shrink or connectors. There’s no tinned marine-grade wire here, just basic cable. On a freshwater lake boat, that’s probably fine. On a salty environment, I’d take extra care with how you terminate and protect the connections.

Overall, the materials match the price. Better than the really trash-tier stuff you sometimes see, but clearly not on par with established marine brands that use thicker housings, tinned wire, and longer warranties. If you treat them reasonably, seal the base with decent marine sealant, and protect the wiring, I think they’ll hold up for several seasons. If you just screw them on bare and let salt water and sun eat them, don’t expect miracles. For a budget light, the materials are acceptable but nothing more.

Durability is always the big question with cheap marine stuff. So far, I’ve had these on the boat for a few weeks, through several rainy days, a couple of rough outings with spray over the bow, and some cold nights. The IP66 rating means they should handle heavy splashes and rain, and in my testing that seems accurate. No water ingress, no fogging inside the lens, no corrosion visible yet around the screws or wire exits. That’s encouraging, but it’s still early days.

Where I’m a bit cautious is the short 3-month warranty and the generic branding. That usually means the manufacturer isn’t betting on these lasting for many years in harsh saltwater conditions. The plastics might eventually chalk or fade in strong sun, and the basic wiring might corrode faster than tinned marine wire. On a budget lake boat, I’m not too worried. On a boat that lives in a salty marina year-round, I’d keep an eye on them and maybe rinse them with fresh water when you can.

The mounting area is another durability point. Since there’s no rubber gasket included, you really need to seal the base properly yourself. If you just screw them down dry, water will creep under and maybe into your deck or cabin roof, and that’s how you end up with rot or rusty screws. With a proper bead of marine sealant and stainless screws, the physical mount feels solid. I tried wiggling and lightly knocking them with a hand and they didn’t feel loose or fragile.

My honest take: these will probably last a few seasons if installed correctly and not abused. They’re not lifetime fixtures, but for the price that’s acceptable. If they start to yellow or a LED dies after a couple of years, replacing them won’t hurt your wallet much. If you want something you install once and forget for 10+ years, you should spend more on a known marine brand. For a small boat you’re slowly upgrading over time, these are a reasonable “good enough for now” option.

Performance-wise, these lights do what they’re supposed to do: make your boat visible and show clear port and starboard colors. The specs say 61.5 lm for the green and 19 lm for the red, which on paper doesn’t sound like much, but remember these are navigation lights, not floodlights. In real use on a dark lake, they’re clearly visible from a reasonable distance. I had a friend in another boat check them from different angles and he had no trouble identifying red/green orientation at normal approach distances.

The beam spread seems to match the listed 112.5° fairly closely. When I stood ahead of the boat and slowly moved around the bow, there was a fairly sharp change from green to nothing, and same on the red side. There’s a bit of overlap towards the front where you can see both if you’re dead ahead, which is expected. They’re not as perfectly cut off as some higher-end, certified nav lights, but for a small recreational boat, it’s functional. I never felt like they were too dim or confusing to other traffic.

I powered them off a 12V battery system, but they’re rated 12–24V. I briefly tested them on 24V in the workshop just to see if they got hot or overly bright, and they behaved fine—no flicker, no weird noise from the driver. Heat was minimal in both cases, which is what you want from LED units on a plastic housing. Less heat usually means longer LED life, assuming the internal driver is halfway decent.

In short, the performance is solid for basic navigation use. They’re not designed to light up your deck or help you see obstacles; they’re purely for other boats to see you, and they do that. If you’re running a small fishing boat, pontoon, or similar at moderate speeds and close to shore, they’re enough. If you’re doing serious offshore night runs or need certified lights for commercial use, I’d look at a recognized marine brand with clear compliance markings. For casual night fishing and evening cruises, these perform well enough.

Installing these is pretty straightforward if you’re even slightly handy. Each light has two wires: positive and negative, no surprises. I removed my old halogen nav lights, reused the existing wiring run, and just spliced these in with heat-shrink butt connectors. On a 12V system, they fired right up with no flicker. If you’re starting from scratch, you’ll need to run cable from your switch panel or fuse block to the bow and handle all the usual boat wiring basics.

The base doesn’t have a specific mounting pattern marked, so I just used the housing as a template, marked two screw holes, and pre-drilled with a small bit. I used stainless screws and a bead of marine sealant under the base to keep water out. Once tightened down, they sit flush enough. There’s a little room to rotate them slightly before the screws bite, so you can fine-tune the angle to get the correct coverage and alignment with the bow.

In actual use, switching from my old filament bulbs to these LEDs was nice mainly because of the lower power draw and instant full brightness. I can leave the nav lights on for hours while trolling or anchored without worrying about draining the battery as much. There’s also no bulb to rattle loose or burn out from vibration, which happened to me more than once with the old setup. I ran them for about 4 hours straight one evening and they stayed consistent the whole time.

The only annoying bit is the lack of documentation. If you’re new to boat wiring or not sure about the correct orientation and rules for nav lights, there’s nothing in the box to help you. You’ll need to look up basic navigation light regulations yourself. For me that’s not a problem, but I can see some beginners mounting them slightly wrong. Overall, installation is easy for anyone with basic DIY skills, but don’t expect instructions or extras. It’s a barebones kit that assumes you know what you’re doing.

Out of the box, the package is as basic as it gets. You get two lights: one red, one green. They’re meant to be mounted on the bow sides, so classic port (red) and starboard (green) setup with a stated 112.5° angle each. There’s no fancy branding, no user manual booklet with glossy photos, just the lights and short wire tails. The listing says they’re 3W each, but the product data elsewhere mentions 6W; in practice, power draw is low, typical LED stuff, and they barely get warm.

The wires come pre-attached, but they’re not especially long. On my small boat it was fine, I only had to extend them a bit to reach the switch panel. If you’re planning to run them further back, just assume you’ll be crimping or soldering extra cable. There is no hardware included: no screws, no gasket tape, nothing. You’re expected to provide your own stainless screws and sealant, which is pretty standard for cheap marine lights but worth knowing before you start the install.

In terms of size, the green one is about 108 x 92 mm and the red around 80 x 70 mm, so they’re compact and don’t look out of place on a small boat. They’re not low-profile designer lights, but they’re not huge clunky things either. Visually, they’re a white plastic housing with a colored lens—red or green polycarbonate. They look like generic marine lights you’d find in a bin at a boat shop, which is basically what they are.

Overall, the presentation is very no-frills. You get exactly what the listing says: two nav lights and nothing else. If you like tidy packaging and detailed instructions, this will feel cheap. If you just want functional lights and you already know how to wire and mount them, it’s enough. Just don’t expect any hand-holding from the brand; you’re on your own for installation details and mounting hardware.