Dad used to have two 8' dual bulb fluorescent units in the garage that ran lengthwise in line with the cars. We replaced them with two 4' LED units from Costco, and put the across the garage.

For his needs, just as bright. We're happy.

@cee_Kamp:

I'm in lust with your shop. Will you adopt me?

More to the point of the OP:

I bought a cheapo corded unit from WalMart. 4 foot fixture, two strips of LED's, about $20. I bought the first one on a "what the hell, for $20 it might work" basis.

I wound up buying 4 for my wood shop, two over the work benches in my garage, two over the work benches in my basement, and I may very well wind up replacing my new-ish low-temp, electronic ballast fluorescents in the rest of the garage with them. MUCH brighter, work perfectly in cold weather.

quote:

Originally posted by snwghst:
I have 12 4' fixtures in my shop and replaced them with 5000k led. direct replacements

I bought these while on sale and bulk buy

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ph...ack-472910/303040479

snwghst

This is what I just bought. Installed and they don’t come on. I’ll check this weekend on ballast compatibility. Did you have to do any wiring or un-wiring to your fixtures for them to work properly? I have fluorescent T8 in now, Phillips from HD. 4ft fixtures. Thanks

quote:

Originally posted by rangeme101:

quote:

Originally posted by snwghst:
I have 12 4' fixtures in my shop and replaced them with 5000k led. direct replacements

I bought these while on sale and bulk buy

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Ph...ack-472910/303040479

snwghst

This is what I just bought. Installed and they don’t come on. I’ll check this weekend on ballast compatibility. Did you have to do any wiring or un-wiring to your fixtures for them to work properly? I have fluorescent T8 in now, Phillips from HD. 4ft fixtures. Thanks

I didn’t. Had the correct ballasts in the fixtures already (I got lucky because I didn’t check them before I bought 3 boxes)

quote:

Originally posted by PowerSurge:
Another option is to retrofit your existing 8’ fixtures to use 8’ led bulbs.

This, no more ballast. Cheaper in too. A better solution.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:

Hypericon makes crap products, I'd stay as far from them as possible.


I repair lights and other electrical things for a living. I've seen more failed hyperikon lamps than any other brand.
I'm at the Lacoste store every two months replacing them.
They should not have experienced one failure yet if they lasted as long as they claim.
They should last a decade.

Granted I am responsible for maintaining thousands of lamps so I see more failures than someone with seven lights vs 70 or 700.

I respect your opinion and experience.
I wonder if the fixtures, conditions and previous installations may have contributed to any of the failures.
How does it compare with other industry rates?
FWIW, Amazon has 86% or better 5 star ratings with a many, many reviews for Hyperikon.
Just trying to keep it in perspective.
Thanks

I can definitely tell you that install does have some a part, probably in the Lacoste store I referenced as well as lamp type and fixtures. That one store also makes up a large percentage of hyperikon failures I've seen. The tubes not so much, so it may very well be that the tubes are a better product. In that store they are using MR-16 lamps which are very small and they are in a very smell fully enclosed fixtures with no proper heat sink to expel the heat. I think you are on to something.

As far as comparing to other LEDs I still believe they fail at a higher rate, but I don't think it's a huge difference. They are very well reviewed on Amazon I see. I think I revise my assessment since I deal with a huge volume of lights and fixtures I probably have a skewed perspective on them.

I can promise this though. LEDs in general do not last anywhere close to promises by manufacturers. Originally I was concerned I'd run out of repairs to make, nope not the case, we stay busy now repairing/replacing LEDs along with older tech now.

I personally can't recommend any product as being significantly better than the next. I'd suggest following smlsig's advice. You will have a better product every time buying from an electrical supply house than buying from Amazon or HD. The company I work for mostly buys direct from a manufacturer, they don't have any name brand on them, but the ones I've installed so far have not failed yet, but we don't supply a lot of the LED stuff we install, it usually provided by stores or homeowners.

Truth be told. I personally don't even use LEDs. To many problems with dimming; reliability is not where it needs to be yet; no industry standards; products released one week are no longer made the next week; CRI numbers are complete BS; lastly I find the light to harsh and it makes my head hurt.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
Hypericon makes crap products, I'd stay as far from them as possible.

I've got 10 Hypericon bulbs in my home and 4 in my FIL's home.
Not an issue with any of them.

I've had mine in my garage, laundry room, and master closet for over 5 years.
Still running strong, no hum, and no fluorescent cold weather lag....

I have no need to DIM my lights in these areas.
And not one of them makes my or the wife's head hurt.
Maybe you should try a different temp for your fragile composure..
YMMV, obviously..

quote:

Originally posted by 1lowlife:

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:
Hypericon makes crap products, I'd stay as far from them as possible.

I've got 10 Hypericon bulbs in my home and 4 in my FIL's home.
Not an issue with any of them.

I've had mine in my garage, laundry room, and master closet for over 5 years.
Still running strong, no hum, and no fluorescent cold weather lag....

I have no need to DIM my lights in these areas.
And not one of them makes my or the wife's head hurt.
Maybe you should try a different temp for your fragile composure..
YMMV, obviously..

Wow, this dude, really likes his tube lights, so much so he's willing to call someone a pussy over them. Damn that's commitment. Sorry if I touched a nerve there, didn't mean to dis your bulbs bro.

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:
FWIW, Costco has some 4' lights on sale for $20 right now.

These are great, and the price is right. I have eight of them, linked, in my 30X40 shop. They are mounted 14' up and I have no shadows. Highly recommended.

quote:

I am using a 'Big Ass' LED garage light fixture. Its so bright they send you a pair of sunglasses with the box.

https://store.bigassfans.com/the-garage-light

$399? For one?

Glad I went with the $20 models.

https://www.amazon.com/Hykolit...olity+led+shop+light

I put 4 of these in my 2 car garage and they do a fantastic job.

I am having trouble with the cheaper LED shop lights lasting very long.
I bought 5 at Menards when they were on sale for $20 or less. I hung them in my unheated (most of the time) shop. They were great. For a while.
After 6-8 months one went out. I took it back and they did not have a replacement so I got a store credit. A couple months later 2 more went out. Back for another store credit.
I decided I would try a different brand. I ordered two from Sam's online.
Yesterday I had three go out and one of them was the new one that I would guess only had 5hrs max on it.
Any idea why these LED shop lights are failing so bad?????

quote:

Originally posted by rexles:
I am having trouble with the cheaper LED shop lights lasting very long.
I bought 5 at Menards when they were on sale for $20 or less. I hung them in my unheated (most of the time) shop. They were great. For a while.
After 6-8 months one went out. I took it back and they did not have a replacement so I got a store credit. A couple months later 2 more went out. Back for another store credit.
I decided I would try a different brand. I ordered two from Sam's online.
Yesterday I had three go out and one of them was the new one that I would guess only had 5hrs max on it.
Any idea why these LED shop lights are failing so bad?????

I would take a hard look at your wiring and electricity. It's possible you have a loose connection, loose neutral or some other issue.

quote:

Originally posted by PHPaul:
More to the point of the OP:

I bought a cheapo corded unit from WalMart. 4 foot fixture, two strips of LED's, about $20. I bought the first one on a "what the hell, for $20 it might work" basis.

I wound up buying 4 for my wood shop, two over the work benches in my garage, two over the work benches in my basement, and I may very well wind up replacing my new-ish low-temp, electronic ballast fluorescents in the rest of the garage with them. MUCH brighter, work perfectly in cold weather.

This also worked well for me. I do different projects throughout the garage and didn’t want/need to have the entire place lit up. Personally, I like being able to pull all the chains and have the garage awash in light or just a few for where I need it.

quote:

Originally posted by rexles:
I am having trouble with the cheaper LED shop lights lasting very long.
I bought 5 at Menards when they were on sale for $20 or less. I hung them in my unheated (most of the time) shop. They were great. For a while.
After 6-8 months one went out. I took it back and they did not have a replacement so I got a store credit. A couple months later 2 more went out. Back for another store credit.
I decided I would try a different brand. I ordered two from Sam's online.
Yesterday I had three go out and one of them was the new one that I would guess only had 5hrs max on it.
Any idea why these LED shop lights are failing so bad?????

As Jimmy said a loose neutral is a very likely culprit for LEDs going faster than normal. Another clue is $20 per fixture, sometimes things are too good to be true.

I deal with LED failures all the time, in a race to be the cheapest and a lot of companies use lower quality components. Unfortunately it is currently the wild west right now in LED options and technologies. One day it will become more uniform and quality will level out.

This is why I don't use LED's in my house. I'll stick to my filament bulbs until the federal government pries them from my hands.

I looked at the $20 Costco FEIT lights, but they are plug-in, not made for hard wiring, and designed to hang down.
Instead I used these from Home Depot:
4 foot LED wraparound lights

I've got six of the $20 Costco 4 footers in the garage, and two in the laundry room. If you need the prewired/plugin type that are linkable (up to four in series) these are very good in my opinion. 2 years so far and haven't had an issue. I believe these are made by Feit and the model number is 73983.

P.S. I want to hang out in cee_kamp's garage for a bit!

quote:

Originally posted by jimmy123x:

quote:

Originally posted by rexles:
I am having trouble with the cheaper LED shop lights lasting very long.
I bought 5 at Menards when they were on sale for $20 or less. I hung them in my unheated (most of the time) shop. They were great. For a while.
After 6-8 months one went out. I took it back and they did not have a replacement so I got a store credit. A couple months later 2 more went out. Back for another store credit.
I decided I would try a different brand. I ordered two from Sam's online.
Yesterday I had three go out and one of them was the new one that I would guess only had 5hrs max on it.
Any idea why these LED shop lights are failing so bad?????

I would take a hard look at your wiring and electricity. It's possible you have a loose connection, loose neutral or some other issue.

Crazy thing is I have several on the same circuit and some plugged into the same duplex outlet and one goes out and the other has been burning fine. If it was a loose neutral would it not affect all of them?