LED bulbs suck!

[scottatl]

I have tried many brands, and not the cheap ones. These darn things do not last. I imagine the manufacturers use such cheap parts that they just burn out fast.

Does anyone know what brand has higher-quality circuits and heat dissipation? Just for standard indoor bulbs.

I searched for a good review but all i could find is the cruddy internet reviews by people that don't know anything.

 

[bigburly912]

You will get at least 2 people that are going to tell tou that you are wrong and that LED bulbs will save the world and last 636525278636 times longer blah blah blah. My experience mirrors yours. I worked at lowes a few years back between jobs and none of them we had were worth having. Technology may be a little better now but I can't find it!

 

[vicv]

I will confirm the first part of the above reply. I've used mostly ikea brand, globe i bought from Costco, and some other brand I can't remember from Amazon. Been running some for 10 years. Not a single failure. Ever. No flickering. I can control the colour temp. They're smart and follow routines. Dimmable. The are the epitome of the opposite of sucking in my experience. When it comes to flashlights, I like my incandescents. For house lighting, led all the way. Without question. I do find this forum funny. You'll get a lot of people agreeing with you. Those same people will think incandescent flashlight suck and their little TS10 is the greatest. I wonder if it has to do with regulations. Incandescent household lighting has basically been banned. So people naturally love it because no one can tell them what to do.
Anyway, led household lighting does in no way suck

 

[Dave_H]

I have tried many brands, and not the cheap ones. These darn things do not last. I imagine the manufacturers use such cheap parts that they just burn out fast.

Does anyone know what brand has higher-quality circuits and heat dissipation? Just for standard indoor bulbs.

If you're having such bad luck across different brands, it suggests issues with the electrical supply. If everyone's situation was this bad, there would be a whole lot of legal action and people abandoning them in droves. Incandescents are still available, to varying degree, despite attempts to "ban" them.

I have my doubts of some claims of bulb lifetimes, but nothing approaching what you are saying.

Dave

 

[Dave_H]

I gave a neighbour an Ikea G25 LED bulb for a porch light. It ran for several years 8-12 hours per day ormore, in temperatures up to +30C or higher, or down to -20C to -30C, and only recently failed. It may not have reached its 25,000h life rating, but earned its keep. I am sure some other bulbs would hold up equally well, or better.

Dave

 

[N8N]

I've had very good experiences with the Feit "Enhance" bulbs, as well as Cree and Philips branded ones. The Feit are cheaper however and have the best dimming of any bulbs that I've tried (dim to almost off with a Lutron dimmer, come back on correctly on a very dim setting, and have the least buzz/hum of any I've used.)

Now about 5 years ago I tried some "100W" Feits and they were garbage, three out of the package failed in the first month. the "60W" have been excellent however for years, every time I need more I just go to Costco and get more and haven't had any issues with them. I also like that they're listed as 90+ CRI although of course I have no way of verifying that, but they look good.

 

[cyberhobo]

All of my indoor lighting is LED. Brands include Cree, GE, Sylvania and believe it or not Great Value. All have been in service for at least 5 years and some have been burning 24/7 365 without issue. I do "clean" protect and regulate my power at the service panel mainly for the benefit of my sound systems.

 

[Joel]

I replaced our incandescent lights in our building lobby 8 years ago with LED lights. They have been working 24/7 365 without a single failure. They are not in an enclosed fixture so they don't get that hot. The bulbs that we put in enclosed fixtures last about a year. I think it's the heat that is the deciding factor in the lifespan of the bulbs.

 

[jtr1962]

If you're having such bad luck across different brands, it suggests issues with the electrical supply. If everyone's situation was this bad, there would be a whole lot of legal action and people abandoning them in droves.

I was going to say the same thing. LED bulbs are now over 50% of market share in the US. If they were as bad as the OP suggests, they never would have become this popular. Besides, it's not like incandescents were ever that long-lasting. Even before the flood of cheap incandescents bulbs lasted maybe 6 months if they were on 4 hours a night (and consumed huge amounts of power relative to their light output). By the 2000s you were lucky to get half that with most of the cheap bulbs on the market.

 

[orbital]

+

Personally use filament led bulbs,
have some outside that are going on seven years (or more) average 12 hrs/day ~ everyday.

Believe they use less energy than the chip led bulbs, and they look nice.

 

[jtr1962]

+

Personally use filament led bulbs,
have some outside that are going on seven years (or more) average 12 hrs/day ~ everyday.

Long-life bulbs? It's possible to get very long life, but at the expense of making the already poor efficiency of incandescents much worse.

Believe they use less energy than the chip led bulbs, and they look nice.

If they are then they're giving off very little light. I can light a room decently with a few tens of watts of LEDs. To do the same with incandescents requires a few hundred watts.

Incandescents to me were such a lousy choice I replaced much of my lighting with linear tube fluorescents back before CFLs, or LEDs, even existed.

 

[haveyouseenthelight]

I've generally had good experiences with LED bulbs. One or two have failed, but generally they are reliable. I have a lot from Ikea but various other brands too. Some are on most of the day and evening in the winter.

 

[Dave_H]

In order to shed much more light on the OP's situation, we would need more specific info such as the type(s) of bulbs used, how used , and how they are failing i.e. completely dead, dimming, flickering etc.

Dave

 

[orbital]

Long-life bulbs? It's possible to get very long life, but at the expense of making the already poor efficiency of incandescents much worse.

If they are then they're giving off very little light. I can light a room decently with a few tens of watts of LEDs. To do the same with incandescents requires a few hundred watts.

Incandescents to me were such a lousy choice I replaced much of my lighting with linear tube fluorescents back before CFLs, or LEDs, even existed.

+

No idea what your talking about.

I have from 2.5W up to 7W filament led bulbs,, they give off an many lumens as the chip style LEDs', likely more since the bulb isn't frosted.

 

[vicv]

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No idea what your talking about.

I have from 2.5W up to 7W filament led bulbs,, they give off a many lumens as the chip style LEDs', likely more since the bulb isn't frosted.

I don't think he got that you were talking about LED filaments. As far as what the OP wants, have they even checked back in on this thread? This might be more of a Reddit style thread, where they are just looking for lots of reactions.

 

[jtr1962]

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No idea what your talking about.

I have from 2.5W up to 7W filament led bulbs,, they give off an many lumens as the chip style LEDs', likely more since the bulb isn't frosted.

Sorry, I saw "filament" bulbs and thought you meant regular incandescent. Filament LED bulbs are generally more efficient than the ones using chip LEDs. I recently bought some of the Philips ultra-high efficiency bulbs giving off 800 lumens using only 4 watts.

 

[Chauncey Gardiner]

I've been happy with these -

for the last couple of years. The fine folks at Prometheus Lights quickly remedied an issue with a couple of them.

 

[jtr1962]

Pretty good efficiency for 95+ CRI.

 

[Chauncey Gardiner]

5600K not yer cup o tea. No problem. Prometheus also offers a 2700K -

 

[orbital]

+

You can get filament led bulbs that are DC powered,
I have several in different voltages that run off various power sources (batteries 2S~4S or powerbanks)