Trouble with Home LED lights

[bjr]

I had a jelly jar porch lite that a LED just would not work (would not come on). Put in a old incandescent and it worked fine. I don't have the patience for things that don't work, just wears me out. I've a Dimmable LED on a dimmer switch in the basement that is about to go away as sometime it just goes off on its own, Probably go back to a dimmable CFL. I'm tryin' not to get sucked down the LED rabbit hole to far too hard on my pocket book chasin' fads. bjr

 

[Industrial Toys]

I bought LED X-Mas lights a few years back thinking this was for life. They all went dim and died! This is why I still just have a few cheap T-8 strip lights in my three year old shop and will put in LED lighting when it proves itself and comes down in price.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I had a jelly jar porch lite that a LED just would not work (would not come on). Put in a old incandescent and it worked fine. I don't have the patience for things that don't work, just wears me out. I've a Dimmable LED on a dimmer switch in the basement that is about to go away as sometime it just goes off on its own, Probably go back to a dimmable CFL. I'm tryin' not to get sucked down the LED rabbit hole to far too hard on my pocket book chasin' fads. bjr

I have never had an LED light that wouldn't work. The 2 that I recently replaced still worked on all the LEDs in each light, they just got dim after 5 years of about 18 hours per day of use. These were over our computer work station which I turn on between 5-6 each morning and wife turns off about 1 pm each night. I calculated 31000 hours on these bulbs. None of the other LEDs in the house have started to dim yet.
By the way, the old LEDs had a second or two of hesitation before coming on but the new ones are instant on. I guess they have fixed that little problem with the old ones. I hope I get the same service on the new ones as I did on the old ones.

 

[Toyboy]

The only problem I've encountered with LED's, is new one -65w flood- that blinked every so often after being on an hour or so. Very annoying. When I replaced it it seemed very warm/hot. That didn't seem normal to me, but I've not had to mess with any before either.

 

[ultrarunner]

So far not a bad one...

My brother just bought Cases of them and not a bad one in 200... can't say that with incandescent.

Excellent advice try a sample first to see of the light produced is suitable...

 

[Oaktree]

The 750w LED's that I've installed are 3000k or down around the warm scale. Way too harsh for some areas. The 650w I've ordered are a little better at 2700k. So I hope this does the trick.

I hear ya. I just put a 5000k LED bulb in my kitchen light. It's BRIGHT!, but is also rather harsh. I'll probably switch to something warmer and put this one in the garage or something.

Hopefully, they can tone down the harshness of white LEDs. We have clear Christmas lights strung around the perimeter of our living room for accent lighting. Thought I'd replace them with LED lights to save on electricity, but again too bright and harsh for the room...sticking with the incandescents.

I would like to replace the CFL outdoor spots we have with LEDs...the CFL ones take a good 10 min. to reach full brightness in cold weather (about the only time I use them...to illuminate the driveway when plowing snow). Right now they're way too pricey.

 

[Toyboy]

I hear ya. I just put a 5000k LED bulb in my kitchen light. It's BRIGHT!, but is also rather harsh. I'll probably switch to something warmer and put this one in the garage or something.

Hopefully, they can tone down the harshness of white LEDs. We have clear Christmas lights strung around the perimeter of our living room for accent lighting. Thought I'd replace them with LED lights to save on electricity, but again too bright and harsh for the room...sticking with the incandescents.

I would like to replace the CFL outdoor spots we have with LEDs...the CFL ones take a good 10 min. to reach full brightness in cold weather (about the only time I use them...to illuminate the driveway when plowing snow). Right now they're way too pricey.

The 2700k LED's work just fine for me now. As far as the outdoor floods, I've gone with the Halogen floods. I also only use mine for short periods when blowing snow in the winter. Other then that they rarely get used. No need for energy saving lights out there. The indoor floods get used a lot, that's why I went with the LED's.

 

[crazyal]

I hear ya. I just put a 5000k LED bulb in my kitchen light. It's BRIGHT!, but is also rather harsh. I'll probably switch to something warmer and put this one in the garage or something.

Hopefully, they can tone down the harshness of white LEDs. We have clear Christmas lights strung around the perimeter of our living room for accent lighting. Thought I'd replace them with LED lights to save on electricity, but again too bright and harsh for the room...sticking with the incandescents.

I would like to replace the CFL outdoor spots we have with LEDs...the CFL ones take a good 10 min. to reach full brightness in cold weather (about the only time I use them...to illuminate the driveway when plowing snow). Right now they're way too pricey.

I made the mistake of getting a couple of cool white LED Christmas lights and they are just too harsh on the eyes. I've been slowly replacing them with warm white ones. They have just enough yellow in them.

 

[crazyal]

My Cree LED bulbs were in ceiling fixtures over a breakfast bar. Some were hanging down while others were mounted flush. My step father has one outside that only works when the temp is about 40f. I think Cree fixed the problem with the bulbs. The new ones are vented so maybe it's an issue with heat damaging something in the base and because they are hanging the heat rises towards the base, don't know.

I took two apart, one that worked and one that would just flicker. The globe is glass with something that feels like a rubber coating on it. The globe was glued to the base with silicone caulk. Was very easy to remove. Once off the LEDs are visible. They are tiny yellow squares in the pictures. There's a white clip that easily removes and then the LED assembly just slides off. I swapped LED assemblies between the two and that's what's bad. One of the LEDs (if you look closely at the LED assembly that's not on the base you can see it just below it) came right off as soon as I touched it while the others were stuck on and didn't come off. Maybe that was the problem and the newer bulbs being vented help remove the heat.

 

[ultrarunner]

All of the ones I have put in are open... several bulb up and the rest horizontal as they are in 1950's ceiling lights...

No can lights in Mom's house.

The only one that is bulb down is over the table where she reads the morning paper... it is a CREE and similar to the flood lamp style... on a lot and the fixture is large and well vented...

Interesting about the one that fell apart.