Every time I buy some led bulbs to replace 100W incandescents, a decent percentage of the leds typically die long before their advertised life. I’m sure the led chips are still fine, but the electronics in the base of the bulb that drive those leds are not. Almost all of the manufacturers say just to return the bad bulbs and they’ll replace them, but it costs more to ship the bulbs back than they’re worth. May as well return to using my stash of incandescent bulbs so I don’t have to worry about premature failures!

That is all.

Yup, VERY Frustrating....The LED's cost TEN Times as much as Incandescent Bulbs, but they DO NOT last Ten Times as long!

I've got a crapton of undercounter and cabinet lights that I've swapped out. Hard to find those small bulbs in a soft white temperature, and they burn out like popcorn it seems.

I replaced every bulb inside and outside our new to us home two years ago with LED, at least 150 bulbs. I have had two go out. These are the Home Depot store brand.

Don't know if if makes a difference but they are all the daylight ones, half dimmable

Never had a problem here. Mostly Sylvania bulbs & a few store brand 'Edison'-type bulbs with a visible 'filament'.

Have just the opposite problem. 3 way incandescents don't last long at all. Mostly it's the low setting that goes first. We think it's a way to get people to switch to LEDs

I've been telling you guys for years that they suck. OP is correct the internal driver fails on them especially when used in enclosed fixtures, when installed with screw base up, or if you live in area subject to power fluctuations or outages.

The only place I've seen LED's have an issue are on very small enclosed housings. I did all LED in my home in 2015. I've replaced 2 bulbs. Some brands are much better than others. CREE and Sylvania are the ones I've been using. I've had some issues at another house with a few more going bad (but not nearly as often as incandescents) but they are the LOWE's cheaper brand. They pay for themselves with the reduced electricity in a year or less and 60w equivalent A19's can be had for around $1 each these days.

I started using the Walmart Great Value brand which were around $2.40 for the 60 watt equivalent. I have had only one failure in about six years out of about 19 total. I also use the LED's in outdoor fixtures.

I still have compact bulbs in areas requiring 150 watts.

They have paid for themselves by the additional electric bill savings and I am starting to make a profit. Where do I pay the income tax??

I starting using the compact bulbs sold by Lights of America back in the early 80's. It would be interesting to know how much I have saved. The first compacts I had were some GE's which look like antiques compared to the LOA.

LOA still makes compacts but their website only shows LED fixtures. One of LOA best compact was the 42 watt with 2000 lumens which is still available and makes a good reading light.

http://www.esplighting.com/2342.html

CREE SUX!

Yeah, incandescents for me from now on.

Motorcycle riding chum had to replace a burned out LED headlight bulb on his late model BMW motorcycle.

Sold only as a sealed complete assembly - $2,000 new or $1,000 used item at the dealership.

He went with the used headlight housing.

Older motorcycles I owned used a H4 or H7 bulb.

The house brand LED’s at Lowe’s seem to suck more than others. I’ve had several go out.

We're still using CFLs and a few incandescents. Whenever I looked at LEDs, the cost vs benefit of LEDs vs CFLs convinced me to wait.

I've heard LEDs have the same problems as CFLs with overheating in enclosures without enough air flow. Once we've used up our current set of spares, I'll see if the cost of LEDs makes sense.

quote:

Originally posted by dry-fly:
The house brand LED’s at Lowe’s seem to suck more than others. I’ve had several go out.

Utilitech is the worst of the worst.

I looked into replacing a Cree under warranty.
They wanted it back ] in the original packaging, with receipt.
Seriously.... who keeps the packaging for a light bulb?

quote:

Originally posted by zoom6zoom:
I looked into replacing a Cree under warranty.
They wanted it back ] in the original packaging, with receipt.
Seriously.... who keeps the packaging for a light bulb?

Home Depot stores used to swap them out for free without the packaging or reciept, not sure about lately.

My luck with CFLs was crappy. I went all LED and have had a couple fail early. I took them back and Lowes exchanged them. I had kept the receipts, given the expense. I use Sylvanias.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:

quote:

Originally posted by dry-fly:
The house brand LED’s at Lowe’s seem to suck more than others. I’ve had several go out.

Utilitech is the worst of the worst.

I had a Utilitech specialty LED bulb threaten to catch fire! (Large-ish round bulbs with a small, night light base.) Took them all back and won't buy Utilitech LEDs any more.

We've also had highly-variable experiences with screw-in LED replacement bulbs.

I'm going to be putting all Lithonia slim, round recessed LED lights in the man cave. I sure hope they have a much better MTBF than the screw-in LED bulbs we've tried.

I've got 4 recessed lights in the kitchen - the GE Reveal bulbs had a 10 year warranty and were around $15 each so I saved the receipts and packaging just in case. I've replaced 3 under warranty so far. The process was pretty simple, but the last time I had to contact GE 3 times. They sent me about $100 in coupons for replacement bulbs. The new replacement bulbs no longer have a 10 year warranty.

For the recessed lights, I think the heat at the base of the buld kills them. I've got older LED bulbs outside that screw in base down that are older and haven't had any issues with them.

I have about 12 ceiling cans in my living area that I replaced with Cree LEDs from Costco about 2-3 years ago. Initially I have 3 of them start flashing and puke within the first month or two. I returned a package to Costco for replacements and haven't had one fail since. They are all on dimmers and I generally run them at 50%. I'm a happy camper.
Mike

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