LED bulbs are bad for us. Better to use low-voltage incandescent halogen lights.
What Happened to the 100000 Hour LED Bulbs?
301–310 of 519 posts
Re: What Happened to the 100000 Hour LED Bulbs?
#302I've taken every single LED bulb that has failed on me to pieces and it's always the same failure mode. The heatsink compound isn't applied properly to the back of the LED board. The LEDs immediately in the gaps smoke out. Alas this isn't a problem. If a lightbulb goes, Amazon send me a new one out now free of charge and tell me to throw the old one in the trash. This is one manufacturer, prevalent on Amazon, the Lon…
I replaced around 25 bulbs in my house with cheap Walmart "Great Value" LEDs just under 3 years ago and they've all been fine. Previously, I had replaced around 4 bulbs with Cree LEDs from Home Depot, and half of those were dead within a few months. The Walmart bulbs without any special pricing were way cheaper than the Cree bulbs from Home Depot, but even better, there was some sort of automatic rebate or something…
"Previously, I had replaced around 4 bulbs with Cree LEDs from Home Depot, and half of those were dead within a few months."
Were those the original Cree bulbs with the heavy, finned metal heatsink around the base ?
I currently have a bag of about 14 of those that I bought (with great enthusiasm) and that burned out (or turned weird purple colors) within 2-3 years.
New style cree bulbs appear to have these issues solved. In fact, I continue to buy them as they perform better than other (satco, fein) bulbs that I have. In most cases I get satco/fein as long as they have the color temperature and output I want, but if I am having issues with a dimmer, etc., I get a cree bulb.
Re: What Happened to the 100000 Hour LED Bulbs?
#303So, engineering lead of a (outdoor) led Luminaire manufacturer here. And our sales director used to work for one of the biggest Asian light bulb OEMs. Happy to answer specific technical questions out there that this article triggered.
What's your take on why so many dimmable LED bulbs have flicker/buzz issues?
I've tried through 5 different MR type LED bulbs and every one of them had an extreme flickering issue. All of them were labeled as dimmable.
I've had better luck with the standard A type bulbs. But only because there were more thorough reviews available.
Re: What Happened to the 100000 Hour LED Bulbs?
#304New Yorker:'LED Quandry' (2016) https://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/the-l-e-d-quanda... "A light bulb at a fire station in Livermore, California, has been on almost continuously since 1901. In 2015 it was recognized by Guinness World Records as the world’s longest-burning bulb.... Giles Slade, in his book “Made to Break,” traces the term “planned obsolescence” to a 1932 pamphlet, circulated in New York, title…
Re: What Happened to the 100000 Hour LED Bulbs?
#305Earlier quoted context omitted.
The law once mandated that you hire the services of a licensed electrician to replace a lightbulb. Imagine if the same laws where applied to tech. Need to update Microsoft office? No way arround it you need to hire the services of a licensed IT professional! You might get electrocuted in the process not being a professional. So it all makes sense.
Cite please. Was that ever really a law anywhere other than Victoria, Australia?
Actually it is the law at every trade show I've ever exhibited at, just about to the point where you can't plug in anything without a union electrician doing it. One can usually get away with plugging in a laptop, but certainly if you need anything more than the single standard 10A 2-outlet power drop, expect to pay and wait for the official electrician (and they will kick you out of the show for violations).
Edit: I've seen this at least in NY, Florida, California
Re: What Happened to the 100000 Hour LED Bulbs?
#306I've taken every single LED bulb that has failed on me to pieces and it's always the same failure mode. The heatsink compound isn't applied properly to the back of the LED board. The LEDs immediately in the gaps smoke out. Alas this isn't a problem. If a lightbulb goes, Amazon send me a new one out now free of charge and tell me to throw the old one in the trash. This is one manufacturer, prevalent on Amazon, the Lon…
I bought a pile of cheap LED bulbs[0] when they first became available on Amazon Canada, and replaced every light in my home. They've run cheap and cold for years now, without a single failure. I suspect that there's some planned obsolescence in newer products. 0: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B01EN9L8YU?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_m...
Similarly, I replaced all my bulbs around 2011/2012 after buying a new place and I have yet to have a single one fail on me.
These were fairly expensive, about $11 each (the going rate at the time), and were TCP brand, but it was unpleasant to read that newer bulbs might be far worse when it comes time to replace them, even if they are cheaper. I love the fact that they die so infrequently that I don't have to keep any spares around.
Re: What Happened to the 100000 Hour LED Bulbs?
#307Earlier quoted context omitted.
I replaced around 25 bulbs in my house with cheap Walmart "Great Value" LEDs just under 3 years ago and they've all been fine. Previously, I had replaced around 4 bulbs with Cree LEDs from Home Depot, and half of those were dead within a few months. The Walmart bulbs without any special pricing were way cheaper than the Cree bulbs from Home Depot, but even better, there was some sort of automatic rebate or something…
Those early Home Depot Cree bulbs were definitely defective. We bought a ton of them and have since replaced nearly all under warranty... twice. The first round they replaced with identical ones, which also quickly failed. (Always the same; started with an intermittent flicker, which progressively got more severe and regular.) More recently we've gotten a new design back, which seem better. Fortunately, after the fir…
"Fortunately, after the first ones, it's been as simple as replying to the email thread and telling them how many more replacements I need!"
Could you tell us that email address ? I have a box of 14 original Cree bulbs that I would like to get replaced...
Re: What Happened to the 100000 Hour LED Bulbs?
#308Lifetime isn't even my #1 concern with LED bulbs. It's strobing/flickering. I film all the LED bulbs I buy in slow motion at 240 fps with an Android phone, and play the movie back on a PC with mplayer using the dot(".") key to move frame by frame. Here is a shot I made comparing 2 brands of LED bulbs: https://youtu.be/QbenId_F2RQ (Edit: yeah you don't have to transfer to a PC, just playing back in slow motion on the…
Philips has some solid products. Our old television used to be Philips and it lasted a full decade and a half - we only got rid of it to get an LED TV. Most of our light bulbs have been Philips all my life and they have generally lasted a good while better than other brands we have used.
Re: What Happened to the 100000 Hour LED Bulbs?
#309My father in law is a general contractor and religiously keeps all his LED bulb receipts. If anything goes out before the listed hours he returns it to HomeDepot. He hasn’t had any issue so far including some of the older bulbs described in the article.
I’ve found that Cree is very responsive for warranty replacement. I usually just email them with a picture of the dead bulb and approximate date of purchase and a new bulb shows up in my mailbox a week or so later.
What email address do you use for cree ?
This is relevant to my interests...
Re: What Happened to the 100000 Hour LED Bulbs?
#310So, engineering lead of a (outdoor) led Luminaire manufacturer here. And our sales director used to work for one of the biggest Asian light bulb OEMs. Happy to answer specific technical questions out there that this article triggered.
Is there a way for me to know whether or not an LED bulb will have a proper driver that does not throw away half the current and produce a "strobe" before I buy it? The flickering (in the presence of moving things) drives me crazy.