Are LED lamps just bad?
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LED lamps should be great. LEDs are great, they're efficient and almost never die (unless mishandled, of course). Put them in a lamp and suddenly they become trash - the kind of trash that has "100000 hour MTBF" on the box and then dies within a year. It keeps happening, I've thrown away about a dozen broken LED lamps over a time period that would have cost one or two incandescents. LED lighting in other form factors seems to be holding up well though. By the way, some of the LED lamps have a noticeable flicker. Not the kind of noticeable where the individual flashes are visible as such, but the kind of noticeable where the difference is easy to see, for example they replace motion blur with a trail of ghostly copies of a moving object. These lamps are trash, never labeled as such, stop making it.
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LED lamps should be great. LEDs are great, they're efficient and almost never die (unless mishandled, of course). Put them in a lamp and suddenly they become trash - the kind of trash that has "100000 hour MTBF" on the box and then dies within a year. It keeps happening, I've thrown away about a dozen broken LED lamps over a time period that would have cost one or two incandescents. LED lighting in other form factors seems to be holding up well though. By the way, some of the LED lamps have a noticeable flicker. Not the kind of noticeable where the individual flashes are visible as such, but the kind of noticeable where the difference is easy to see, for example they replace motion blur with a trail of ghostly copies of a moving object. These lamps are trash, never labeled as such, stop making it.
The LEDs themselves last seemingly forever. It's the power supplies in the bulbs backing the LED's that don't.
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Dave Kreskowiak -
LED lamps should be great. LEDs are great, they're efficient and almost never die (unless mishandled, of course). Put them in a lamp and suddenly they become trash - the kind of trash that has "100000 hour MTBF" on the box and then dies within a year. It keeps happening, I've thrown away about a dozen broken LED lamps over a time period that would have cost one or two incandescents. LED lighting in other form factors seems to be holding up well though. By the way, some of the LED lamps have a noticeable flicker. Not the kind of noticeable where the individual flashes are visible as such, but the kind of noticeable where the difference is easy to see, for example they replace motion blur with a trail of ghostly copies of a moving object. These lamps are trash, never labeled as such, stop making it.
The MTBF of the average LED is 20,000 hours, but for lighting LEDs it rises to 50,000 to 60,000: and since that is an average, generally the loss of a few LEDs isn't that noticeable - hence the "100,000 hours" they quote as a possible time for all LEDs to probably die. And generally, they do last pretty damn well: I have had LED bulbs in my kitchen for over 15 years, and while a few individual LEDs have failed they still illuminate well (replacing the 50W halogens I moved in to). Elsewhere in the house, I moved to LED almost exclusively five to ten years ago, and I've had a few "bulbs" fail. Those have all been the PSU part of the lamp that failed though so all LED's in the bulb went dark at the same time. Generally, I think they were where I bought cheap ones rather than the higher quality and price versions. I've never had a LED bulb fail in less than a year!
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony "Common sense is so rare these days, it should be classified as a super power" - Random T-shirt AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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LED lamps should be great. LEDs are great, they're efficient and almost never die (unless mishandled, of course). Put them in a lamp and suddenly they become trash - the kind of trash that has "100000 hour MTBF" on the box and then dies within a year. It keeps happening, I've thrown away about a dozen broken LED lamps over a time period that would have cost one or two incandescents. LED lighting in other form factors seems to be holding up well though. By the way, some of the LED lamps have a noticeable flicker. Not the kind of noticeable where the individual flashes are visible as such, but the kind of noticeable where the difference is easy to see, for example they replace motion blur with a trail of ghostly copies of a moving object. These lamps are trash, never labeled as such, stop making it.
They contain other electronics that have to get the 120 /240 down to levels the l.e.d s can take. It's not the LEDs that give up, but the support circuits.
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LED lamps should be great. LEDs are great, they're efficient and almost never die (unless mishandled, of course). Put them in a lamp and suddenly they become trash - the kind of trash that has "100000 hour MTBF" on the box and then dies within a year. It keeps happening, I've thrown away about a dozen broken LED lamps over a time period that would have cost one or two incandescents. LED lighting in other form factors seems to be holding up well though. By the way, some of the LED lamps have a noticeable flicker. Not the kind of noticeable where the individual flashes are visible as such, but the kind of noticeable where the difference is easy to see, for example they replace motion blur with a trail of ghostly copies of a moving object. These lamps are trash, never labeled as such, stop making it.
I've not noticed the flicker, but I have noted the irritatingly short lifespans of the LED lamps. At this point if I can find incandescent bulbs, I'll buy them instead, it's sad really.
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment "Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst "I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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They contain other electronics that have to get the 120 /240 down to levels the l.e.d s can take. It's not the LEDs that give up, but the support circuits.
White LED's started showing up in US in the late 80's early 90's (if memory serve) NICHIA was first company. The white LED's spawned the use of LED has an illumination appliance. flash lights, overhead lamps, etc. Philips was one the first to have a quality, uniform LED light in the standard filament light bulb format. Now the LED industry is all over the place. Super bright LED flashlights are often over powered and so they don't last. In fact, this is often common in other LED appliances as well. Poor driver electronics are also victims.
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LED lamps should be great. LEDs are great, they're efficient and almost never die (unless mishandled, of course). Put them in a lamp and suddenly they become trash - the kind of trash that has "100000 hour MTBF" on the box and then dies within a year. It keeps happening, I've thrown away about a dozen broken LED lamps over a time period that would have cost one or two incandescents. LED lighting in other form factors seems to be holding up well though. By the way, some of the LED lamps have a noticeable flicker. Not the kind of noticeable where the individual flashes are visible as such, but the kind of noticeable where the difference is easy to see, for example they replace motion blur with a trail of ghostly copies of a moving object. These lamps are trash, never labeled as such, stop making it.
Yes, LED lights are filth.
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I've not noticed the flicker, but I have noted the irritatingly short lifespans of the LED lamps. At this point if I can find incandescent bulbs, I'll buy them instead, it's sad really.
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment "Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst "I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
Normally I don't notice the flicker, but... Where I live it can be very hot in the summer, and my HiFi preamp is pure Class 'A', that also gets very hot and that combination can make the preamp extremely hot, so I have fitted a row of five small 12 volt PC fans across the cooling vents at the back. They are wired in series with a supply adjustable from 12 to 24 volts DC so they run extremely quietly, but fast enough to keep the preamp cool. When illuminated with a diode lamp, at certain speeds there is a distinct stroboscopic effect on the fan blades, so yes - they do flicker.
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LED lamps should be great. LEDs are great, they're efficient and almost never die (unless mishandled, of course). Put them in a lamp and suddenly they become trash - the kind of trash that has "100000 hour MTBF" on the box and then dies within a year. It keeps happening, I've thrown away about a dozen broken LED lamps over a time period that would have cost one or two incandescents. LED lighting in other form factors seems to be holding up well though. By the way, some of the LED lamps have a noticeable flicker. Not the kind of noticeable where the individual flashes are visible as such, but the kind of noticeable where the difference is easy to see, for example they replace motion blur with a trail of ghostly copies of a moving object. These lamps are trash, never labeled as such, stop making it.
Earlier generations of led bulbs had more visible flickers; now they are quite stable.
I'd rather be phishing!
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LED lamps should be great. LEDs are great, they're efficient and almost never die (unless mishandled, of course). Put them in a lamp and suddenly they become trash - the kind of trash that has "100000 hour MTBF" on the box and then dies within a year. It keeps happening, I've thrown away about a dozen broken LED lamps over a time period that would have cost one or two incandescents. LED lighting in other form factors seems to be holding up well though. By the way, some of the LED lamps have a noticeable flicker. Not the kind of noticeable where the individual flashes are visible as such, but the kind of noticeable where the difference is easy to see, for example they replace motion blur with a trail of ghostly copies of a moving object. These lamps are trash, never labeled as such, stop making it.
I replaced every light in the house 6 years ago and haven't had a single one fail. Oh, except the one outside that had a leak in the housing. I had to replace that one, once.
"Never attribute to malice that which can be explained by stupidity." - Hanlon's Razor
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LED lamps should be great. LEDs are great, they're efficient and almost never die (unless mishandled, of course). Put them in a lamp and suddenly they become trash - the kind of trash that has "100000 hour MTBF" on the box and then dies within a year. It keeps happening, I've thrown away about a dozen broken LED lamps over a time period that would have cost one or two incandescents. LED lighting in other form factors seems to be holding up well though. By the way, some of the LED lamps have a noticeable flicker. Not the kind of noticeable where the individual flashes are visible as such, but the kind of noticeable where the difference is easy to see, for example they replace motion blur with a trail of ghostly copies of a moving object. These lamps are trash, never labeled as such, stop making it.
I've observed none of these problems - and considering just about every one of them is made in China, I'm quite surprised. The white ones, where appropriate, give much more apparent visual bang for the buck but I've realized the warm-white is more applicable to living space. Where I can get away with it I'll mix the two, brightening the area and still not making it look like a workshop. Now the house isn't full-blown LED: I have quite a number of the squiggly fluorescent bulbs still in use - only slightly less efficient (both relative to incandescent). I still have a stock of these and they'll be cycled through in places where they make sense: places where the light stays on for a while between toggles. Fluorescent bulbs typically fail when the filament finishes burning out (black in bulb is slow sputtering of filament metal ions - as it slowly thins). They still last a long time, with the occasional loser. And an occasional breakage. My grow-bulbs for seed started are mixtures of red and blue LED's in more-or-less wands. No failures yet and for the time they're in use (Feb, Mar, Apr) they're on rough 12/7 . And the seedlings just love them.
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"If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010
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LED lamps should be great. LEDs are great, they're efficient and almost never die (unless mishandled, of course). Put them in a lamp and suddenly they become trash - the kind of trash that has "100000 hour MTBF" on the box and then dies within a year. It keeps happening, I've thrown away about a dozen broken LED lamps over a time period that would have cost one or two incandescents. LED lighting in other form factors seems to be holding up well though. By the way, some of the LED lamps have a noticeable flicker. Not the kind of noticeable where the individual flashes are visible as such, but the kind of noticeable where the difference is easy to see, for example they replace motion blur with a trail of ghostly copies of a moving object. These lamps are trash, never labeled as such, stop making it.
Nope, LEDs by themselves are perfectly OK and will last their typical 50.000 to 100.000 hours or so. It is all of the shoddy electronics they use to power them that fails. You know what it is like: anything they think off to shave a few cents of the total price is a bonus. If you can ride on thereputation of LEDs who cares if it fails prematurely? Originally being an electronics engineer instead of a programmer I can guarantee that the first thing you need to know as one of those is to work out the thermal analysis of any device you design. Alas, finding people who really understand that is just as difficult as finding a really good software developer.
