LED Reliability

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networkn

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#222925 4-Sep-2017 12:00

So, we were very early adopters in my house hold, buying up LED e27's to replace pretty much everything in our home.

I would have to say however, that whilst the power consumption will inevitably be better, the reliability isn't better in my opinion.

I would say 30% of our bulbs have failed. Usually, it seems to the controller, as often a bulb will flash on and off quite a few times before eventually staying on.

We bought from a variety of places so warranty is a PITA.

Wondering on other peoples experiences?

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#1858048 4-Sep-2017 12:10

We've had LED integrated units in our bathroom for 5 years. Two of the five units failed within two years. The vendor, lighting direct, sent an electrician to replace them no charge - great service.

We haven't had other LED lights long enough to comment.

NZSpides

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#1858049 4-Sep-2017 12:11

I have replaced all but a couple of lights in our house with LED ones over a year ago now, and have had zero failures yet.

Probably about 30+ lights, all still going strong with no signs of failure.

networkn

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#1858055 4-Sep-2017 12:15

NZSpides:

I have replaced all but a couple of lights in our house with LED ones over a year ago now, and have had zero failures yet.

Probably about 30+ lights, all still going strong with no signs of failure.

What kind of bulbs?

iistudio

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#1858058 4-Sep-2017 12:18

I bought a bulk of LED E27 bulbs from EcoPoint Wellington.

the bulbs used in common area like kitchen, lounge all failed after about 1 year....

ecopoint did sent some replacements but then another year or so they failed again.... cant be bothered to ask them again

so now I have replaced them from other brands so we shall see how long they last......

networkn

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#1858062 4-Sep-2017 12:25

The problem I find, is that I like a LOT of light. I would be buying the brightest bulbs I can get my hands on, and the "premium" brands don't do super bright bulbs. This leads me to having to buy lesser known brands. I am sure that is part of the issue.

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#1858064 4-Sep-2017 12:29

networkn:

The problem I find, is that I like a LOT of light. I would be buying the brightest bulbs I can get my hands on, and the "premium" brands don't do super bright bulbs. This leads me to having to buy lesser known brands. I am sure that is part of the issue.

I recently got 1400 lumen LED bulbs from Philips. Countdown / Miter Ten. Four of them in a moderate sized kitchen is pretty bright.

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#1858065 4-Sep-2017 12:30

networkn:

I would say 30% of our bulbs have failed. Usually, it seems to the controller, as often a bulb will flash on and off quite a few times before eventually staying on.

Are you sure it's the bulb at fault? We recently had these symptoms on our hall light (with incandescent bulbs). I was told by an electrician that typically this is caused by the switches wearing out, or getting bits of grit in the contacts. I duly replaced both switches, without improvement. When I took the light socket itself down, one of the contact pins fell out. Replaced the fitting, and all good now. On reflection, each time I had swapped the bulb, it seemed to come right, for a while... I guess that changing the bulb jiggled the loose pin into better contact for a while.

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networkn

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#1858069 4-Sep-2017 12:35

frankv:

networkn:

I would say 30% of our bulbs have failed. Usually, it seems to the controller, as often a bulb will flash on and off quite a few times before eventually staying on.

Are you sure it's the bulb at fault? We recently had these symptoms on our hall light (with incandescent bulbs). I was told by an electrician that typically this is caused by the switches wearing out, or getting bits of grit in the contacts. I duly replaced both switches, without improvement. When I took the light socket itself down, one of the contact pins fell out. Replaced the fitting, and all good now. On reflection, each time I had swapped the bulb, it seemed to come right, for a while... I guess that changing the bulb jiggled the loose pin into better contact for a while.

No, I am not sure, but then I'd expect that a light fitting with a bulb should be static, so I wouldn't expect unless there was movement the pins or contacts should be getting broken etc?

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#1858081 4-Sep-2017 12:53

networkn:

No, I am not sure, but then I'd expect that a light fitting with a bulb should be static, so I wouldn't expect unless there was movement the pins or contacts should be getting broken etc?

What can I say? I didn't expect that either.

Inphinity

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#1858083 4-Sep-2017 12:58

We replaced pretty much all our lights, including some fluorescent tubes, with LED equivalents about 3 - 4 years ago. Thus far, have not had to replace any LEDs.

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#1858088 4-Sep-2017 13:08

When we built our house, about 5 years ago now, I imported the LED downlights from Australia.

The light fittings themselves are excellent but we've had a few of the drivers die, and I think a couple more are on their way out too.

The lights start out flickering at random times, so you almost don't notice it, then it slowly gets worse, and they stay off for longer before coming back on, and then eventually stopping altogether.

I think about 5-6 of the drivers have had to be replaced so far, out of the 50 that we installed, with a couple more perhaps in the not too distant future.

Opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.

scuwp

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#1858092 4-Sep-2017 13:13

Just replaced 60 down-lights in our place with single unit LED's. Had 1 dead out of the box and another lasted 1 week, but other than that fingers crossed. They came with a 3 year in house warranty (they will come and fix it) and 2 more years return to shop, so in total 5 years.

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KrazyKid

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#1858094 4-Sep-2017 13:17

I purchased Cheap LEDs from Aliexpress for my house about 6-7 years ago. When I say cheap , they were $2 a bulb or less. They seemed to last very well. I can't recall the shop.
Then 2 years ago a moved and purchased as new household worth of LED lights from Aliexpress. Repeated by $2 price point. In the last 2 years maybe 20-30% have failed.

I now buy Philips LED locally. They have come down a lot in price, and I have purchased a 3000 Lumen bulb for one room that had a very tinted lampshade that I was not allowed to replace :)
Generally Philips also seem brighter than the equivalent Aliexpress one. Basically they have good QA and accurate labelling.

Mitre 10 and Bunnings stock the high Lumen LED Philips lights and the supermarkets sell the rest.

mattwnz

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#1858099 4-Sep-2017 13:30

networkn:

So, we were very early adopters in my house hold, buying up LED e27's to replace pretty much everything in our home.

I would have to say however, that whilst the power consumption will inevitably be better, the reliability isn't better in my opinion.

I would say 30% of our bulbs have failed. Usually, it seems to the controller, as often a bulb will flash on and off quite a few times before eventually staying on.

We bought from a variety of places so warranty is a PITA.

Wondering on other peoples experiences?

Are some combined LED fittings/bulbs, or are they all just builbs? Also what brands, or are they house brands?

I have also been an early adopter of bulbs and have trialed a lot of different brands. Philips are the standout in terms of reliability, haven't had a single one fail. Also never had Panasonic fail, although only had a few of those. I however purchased a lot of a big box retail brand about a year ago, which were reduced from $10 a bulb, down to $3 a bulb (a mixture of e27 and b22). Over the last year almost all of those have blown. I regularly take them back to the retailer to be replaced, but even the replacements have blown. They then told me that they only have a 1 year warranty, which was annoying for them to say that. I said the box says 15,000 hours, which is at least 7 years of normal use, so they replaced them again. The staff then actually told me that I should buy philips bulbs because they are better quality!

But I do wonder if the life expectancy some companies are advertising on the boxes are wrong, or the quality of some bulbs is just rubbish..

mattwnz

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#1858112 4-Sep-2017 13:51

frankv:

networkn:

I would say 30% of our bulbs have failed. Usually, it seems to the controller, as often a bulb will flash on and off quite a few times before eventually staying on.

Are you sure it's the bulb at fault? We recently had these symptoms on our hall light (with incandescent bulbs). I was told by an electrician that typically this is caused by the switches wearing out, or getting bits of grit in the contacts. I duly replaced both switches, without improvement. When I took the light socket itself down, one of the contact pins fell out. Replaced the fitting, and all good now. On reflection, each time I had swapped the bulb, it seemed to come right, for a while... I guess that changing the bulb jiggled the loose pin into better contact for a while.

E27 bulbs shouldn't have problems with contacts as they are screwed in. The main bulbs that have that problem are the small MR16 halogen type ones . It is a well known problem for those to have that sort of problem.

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