Castaldi Polo bollards.

At the start of 2025 I visited a certain reclamation yard, and as I was just wrapping up with purchases, I spotted these tucked away in a corner. Me being me, I bought them immediately, as I'd never seen bollard lights this small ever. I did notice the lamps were smashed, and some louvres were also damaged too, but I knew I could sort these minor issues.

Returning home, I got straight to cleaning the broken glass and smashed lamps out of them. I have to say these are very fiddly things to work on, you basically have to take them almost completely apart just to get to the lamps. After I cleaned them, repaired the louvres and polished the lenses I moved directly to testing them. All of them had HF ballasts that didn't work, so I decided to make them into switch start bollards. Getting the necessary components, I drilled holes to mount starter socket's, and then fitted 16w 2D ballasts, the best equivalent to run the 18w PL lamps. I also took the opportunity to wire them it a way where both 2 pin and 4 pin lamps can be fitted, meaning the versatility of them has doubled. I got them lit, and I have to say for being as small as they are they're impressively bright, and they light the surrounding area incredibly well! This is in part due to the fact the bottom of the louvre is white plastic, the top being black, so there's also next to no upwards lighting, a very very well thought out design.

Then Dad saw them, and to my surprise he said he really likes them and they'd look perfect on the steps outside our house, so I'm now moving into the next step of their repairs. I'm going to respray them all to satin black, I would keep them grey but I think black would better suit them. I'm also in touch with the company that made them, as these bollards are still made today (but LED only surprise surprise) with hopes of getting some brand new plastic lenses for them, owing to the fact these are yellowed, slightly cloudy and in some cases surface cracked. If I can get all this done, hopefully very soon they'll be lighting the steps on the front of our house!