Tivah 316 Stainless Steel TRI Colour

316 stainless is the right choice near the coast and the one finish in this family that comes with homework. Havit is explicit about both halves. All 316 stainless steel fittings must have regular cleaning maintenance to avoid tea staining forming on the fitting — and the warranty does not cover tea staining. Havit recommends servicing every six months, more often in coastal air, and sells a maintenance kit for it. None of that makes 316 a bad choice; it is the best metal here for salt-laden air. It just means the fitting is specified with a routine attached, and a buyer who does not know that will read the brown bloom as a defect.

What tea staining actually is

It is a shallow surface discolouration — a light tan film that appears on stainless in marine or polluted air where airborne salts sit on the surface undisturbed. It is not rust and it is not structural: the metal underneath is unaffected, and a wash with the right product takes it off. Rain does not do the job, because sheltered faces are exactly where it forms. That is the whole reason the maintenance interval exists.

A metre of stem, aimed at a path

The spike is 1000 mm long, 23 mm in diameter, and holds the head near knee height once set — a bollard in behaviour even though it installs like a spike. Choose the height before the cable run is buried, because the lead leaves the bottom of the stem.

Light, and the supply behind it

One 5 W MR16 tri-colour globe is supplied into a 20 W socket, preset to 3000K and switchable at the globe to 4000K or 5500K by twisting off the cover and lifting out the glass. Output is 270 lm, 285 lm and 300 lm across those three settings. The beam belongs to the globe, not the housing — the supplied MR16 is a 120° flood, and a narrower MR16 makes it a spot.

• 12 V DC from a suitable 12 V DC LED driver. Do not connect the fitting directly to 240 V.
• 25 m maximum from that driver, supply held within ±5% — warranty conditions, both.
• 2 m of reinforced cable; every joint soldered and sealed watertight.
• Not dimmable, and adjustable through 90° tilt and 270° swivel — stop at the mechanical limit rather than forcing past it.

IP65, IK08, protection class 3, CRI above 80, and a 3-year replacement warranty.

Lights For You will tell you plainly whether you actually need 316 for your site — inland, the brass or copper versions of the same fitting are often the better buy, and neither of them asks you for a six-monthly clean.