The lack of such info being taught to the public is criminal. ^^ Given how such electronics works, this makes perfect sense - I just never thought about it, so far... Thank you ❤
When the prices have come down dramatically, how are you getting cheated with a lesser quality bulb? I started installing LEDs in my customer's houses about 15 years ago to move away from the CFL bulbs. Back then, the LEDs were very heavy incorporating a huge heat sink and you could see why they were more than an incandescent bulb or CFL. I was paying around $30-$35 per bulb back then for standard bulbs and much more for flood lights, specialty bulbs and outdoor rated bulbs (up to $70 per bulb). Now you can get LEDs at the dollar store and get a bulk pack of LEDs for $6-$10 at Costco. How are you getting cheated when the bulbs are approaching the cost of cheap incandescents?
This helps soooo much. i for the life of me could not figure out why my LED bulbs were failing after 1-2 years. I mean they are supposed to last for ever? I was switching out light switches thinking they were the cause of my issues, or that as a DIYer i got something wrong. I settled on that i had faulty bulbs, but this video trully helps to show that they are built differently then what we as consumers have been lead to believe.
I have dissected several dead LED bulbs to see what died. It is rarely the LED's themselves. There is an electronic circuit inside that regulates the amount of current flowing through the LED's. It uses several components, but there will be one or two "electrolytic capacitors." Good quality capacitors have lifetime vs operating temperature specs, and often the temperature for the specified lifetime is included on the outer heat shrink label. The common numbers are 85C and 105C. I have never seen a temp rating on the capacitors used inside an LED bulb, probably because they are poor quality. Every dead bulb that I opened had a dead capacitor, often dead enough to be leaking its electrolytic paste. Bulbs that are mounted upside down are worse case as the heat from the LED's rises to cook the circuit board. LED's do generate a little heat. The bulb here on my desk had 24 small LED's mounted on a thin circuit board that was attached to an aluminum heat spreader. It lived for almost 8 years in a ceiling can upside down before dying of dead capacitor syndrome.
Now this is a helpful, informed, evidence-based comment! I really appreciate the work you went to and willingness to share it. To highlight your finding, bulbs installed upside down will fare worse due to heat.
Yep. If you're handy and can do some basic electronic work, you can change those low rated parts for higher quality ones. My Samsung flat-screen TV fried the electrolytic caps in the power supply about a week out of the one year warranty. I tore the thing apart and replaced those caps with some upgraded ones. It's about 15 years later now and I have been watching it with no problems. The kick in the teeth with the LED lights is that the LEDs are still good. It's the other components in the power circuit that are failing. This is an outrageous abuse of consumer interest and trust. We are doing our part to help 'save the environment' by using more efficient lighting. But the manufacturers push obsolescence in favor of their profit margin and then thumb their noses at the extremely unnecessary waste they create in the process. The actual parts cost is fairly negligible. They know that they won't sell as many light bulbs if they build them too well! What they are doing is creating a waste stream of mainly still functioning electronic parts, some aluminum, and a lot of plastic.
Yours explains the reason why the LED bulb in a lighting fixture in my basement keeps dying despite the fact that it is fully exposed. The problem is exactly what you have described - the LED bulb is upside down with the circuit board on top. I need to change its orientation to at least sideway.
LED expert here, 20 years in the industry. What kills these are two factors: 1. Heat due to lack of good heatsinking and 2. On/off cycling due to the bond wire expanding and contracting. Regarding #2, that's the wire that connects the LED die to the metal solder pad. These are usually "2835" style LEDs that are incredibly cheap and use a very short wire. The heat cycling on and off makes this bond break quite fast. They will actually last longer if you leave them on 100% of the time (assuming no overheating as stated in #1).
#2 shouldn't be a problem if the LED is cool enough. LEDs don't get 'used' by switching. They are diodes. The diodes in any rectifier will switch 50/60 times per second and they last for years. So #1 and #2 are the same problem. That is not existing with a good thermal design.
We have a chicken farm and use about 250 60W equivalent LED bulbs for lighting the barns. They are all on 100% of the day, about 75% total time. We write the date on them when installed. In 2016 we started using Philips non-dimmable, and they lasted around 5.5-6 years. (About 35000 hours) Then the same bulbs installed in about 2020 started only lasting 2-2.5 years. (About 12000-15000hrs) 'Same' bulb, but lasts only half as long. Still longer than the rated 10000 hours.
From Norway here, I also write dates on the bulbs when installing :). Non of my bulbs have lasted anything near what is advertised, no matter what kind of lamp they are in.
Philips bulbs are much better than average bulbs. They have a better color spectrum and last longer. Been using them for about 10 years now. I likewise observed, that the more recent ones seem to die more frequently than in the past. Bulbs that are getting hotter due to lack of airflow also die much sooner, usually with discolored plastic. But on average the Philips bulbs are very good, and I am satisfied if they reach at least 10000 hours.
We use Philips non-dimmable LED bulbs at work, LOTS of them. Same results as yours. We have experimented with numerous bulbs/manufacturers, with same results. The old CREE bulbs use to last a very long time, but they were costly. Fast forward several yrs, most LED bulbs are crap. Lighter in weight, cheaper capacitors, and less efficient heat sinks. The only people making (saving) $$$$$, are the manufacturers, not the end users.
I had Philips bulbs that kept flickering...some bases cracked...some died completely after not more than 6mos-1year. . After I complained, they sent me a case to replace the ones I had bought. It's been over a year now and no issues. They must have had a bad batch.
Was wondering similar about the building I reside in. I'm going to re-read the packaging and inspect the bulbs I just got with a new eye for this verbiage written somewhere.
I was fortunate in reading the fine print so added air gaps to all my enclosed fixtures like the ceiling 'blister' type. I also added airflow holes into the bases of any mounted inside cup-shaped glass ceiling fan shades. So far they've lasted several years w/o failure vs barely 9mo in the fans before I drilled holes.
I think it is also always highly dependent on which one you buy. I had one fail after a month, my parents have some Phillips LED bulbs that are on every day and long since we bought them about 10-12 years ago and they are working just fine. In closed fixtures btw.
I want my incandescent bulbs back. They were easy on the eye and cast a lovely soft glow. These LED bulbs make me feel like I’m living on a Star Trek set.
As an electrician who has had to tackle many LED "outdoor" LED commercial fixtures that died after only a few months, What goes bad is the actual DRIVERS in these. The actual LED diodes usually are fine but I have had to replace the driver / power pack and then they work again till the next overheating failure. You are right about these being so hyped up and over rated with life estimates of 20 years but in the real world....nope. So many customers try to warranty the bad drivers with the Chinese companies and like I tell them, Good luck with that. They spend $300 for a LED pole light head that works less than 1 year and just get the run around about any "warranty" and have me just replace the driver pack in them and it is half the price of a new light ! Great channel with so much helpful honest info , Keep up the great research and info to us.
In the real world these bulbs can last 20 30 40 years The problem is they don't want bulbs that last that long so instead of trying to educate people and encourage them to use lower wattage multiple configurations they make what people expect and they continue to teach people to expect that high wattage point source bulbs and then of course when they lower the quality of the components you're still making your money back on the energy savings of the LED bulb even when you factor into purchase price so people don't care and that just pisses me off because it's wasteful The way we solve this at our business was I would install two outdoor LED light fixtures everywhere that I needed one and then I would derate the bulbs to half their original wattage so if I had two 30 watt units I ran both of them at 15 watts each I just got a variak and I lowered the voltage until the wattage was one half and get this the lumen for what efficiency actually goes up so the two fixtures at 15 w each still 30 Watts were brighter than the single fixture at 30 Watts so I would decide looking around do I need this much light if not I lowered it even more and if the light was useful I left it there either which way we never had to replace another driver or bulb again :-)
cheap driver is only part of the puzzle, the bulb manufacturers regularly drive the LED's themselves at higher than what they are rated for causing them to fail prematurely as well
@ChrisD4335 I don't see too much of that most of them are driving them after rated current however that rating assumes adequate cooler and that's where a lot of bulbs fail inadequate coolant it's a little bit different with modern bulbs but I know with older LED technology the assumption was 9 square centimeters of passive cooling surface area per watt and basically none of them have that which is why I turn to like you for watt and lower wattage bulbs
@@dr.jonpierson5655 😒 #1. The video is 3:30. Have you used UA-cam? That’s super quick/efficient for a video like this. #2. You can’t just spout off a statement. You have to explain why that is the case in order for people to decide if it’s valid and accurate. Otherwise someone has to do the research after anyway. 🙄
Thanks for the heads up. I had an LED bulb in an enclosed fixture and it started flashing -- on and off. So I replaced it and thought it was dead. But then I wondered if it was just heat sensitive. So I put it in an open fixture and turned it on to see how long it would last. It's been running 24/7/365 for the last 3 years with no issues.
Do you actually believe government wants to make your life better?? No government pushed for cheap LED bulbs. They want them cheap, then they banned incandescent. If LEDs were expensive, people wouldn't have accepted the banning of incandescent. So the government pushed them to cheap garbage. Remember, government is always corrupt and politicians only care about self preservation (keeping their job) and increasing their power. Bigger government doesn't mean stuff gets better for you, rather it means corruption grows and you the tax payer have to support that larger government that wants more power by taking that power from you.
I purchased two LED fixtures from Home Depo with sealed LED lights inside, much like the enclosed light fixture in the video. Just the manufacture sealed the lights inside. They stated it would last for 50,000 hours, however, they only lasted 2 years as a bathroom light. My takeaway from this is to purchase LED lights with replaceable bulbs. I had to purchase and rewire new fixtures instead of being able to replace bulbs. Great video and thanks for the information.
Same here. I purchased a sealed LED ceiling light for my son's bedroom. Lasted maybe 2 years before it started flickering. I thought it was a wiring issue. Replaced it with a conventional fixture that I can replace the bulbs in.
It doesn't matter whether or not the LED is sealed. What matters is whether or not the bulb is designed for enclosed fixtures. So I guess, read the package information to see if it says "For use in enclosed fixtures" or whether it says "Not for use in enclosed fixtures."
@@mikemccormick6128 I'm talking about an LED fixture that was a sealed unit. Like the LEDs were built into it. Not changeable bulbs. When it failed, I had to change the entire light fixture/assembly.
The problem now is that a LOT of things are becoming proprietary like that. To make matters worse, you can't find replacements for older non-proprietary/universal compatibility models. I have a ceiling fan light fixture break from dropping it and I can't replace the fixture, the glass globes, or even the ceramic parts inside that you screw the bulbs into. Not dropping $200-$400 for new ceiling fans, either.
In terms of heat, the LED efficiency is actually really important. I have a 7W Lights of America bulb that generates 450 lumens, so I get 64 Lumens/watt. If you assume the electronics are 80% efficient, the LEDs are receiving 5.6W which has an efficiency of 20%. So adding up all the useful light we have 7W * 80% * 20% = 1.12W of optical power and 7W - 1.12W = 5.88W of heat. The heat sink on this light is incredibly large to compensate. I'd use a dimmer and bring the heat down, get a low power non-dimmable LED, or literally solder on the most efficient LEDs I can get my hands on, which usually involves hacking up the bulb...
Great video. I only clicked on it because it was short and glad I did now. I've had LED bulbs in my house for 10 years and none have failed. If I need to buy new ones I'll watch out for the newer bulbs that might overheat.
@@lyndaniel3369 I haven't heard of 14 minutes. The breakpoint used to be 10 minutes - videos above that were allowed to have ads during the video so it increased monetization. Videos less than 10 minutes could only have an ad before the video.
Technology connections has a video stating the same thing about the compact fluorescent bulbs. They don't last in enclosed or upside down spaces either.
Sixty years ago we became aware of PLANNED obsolescence where manufacturers deliberately put in at least one component that was expected to fail shortly after the warranty ran out. Forcing you to throw away whole expensive items and buy another. My original microwave bought 45 years ago is still working fine. Many newer ones have failed since then. I know that there is an incentive to build things more cheaply because the customers demand it. But the customer does not KNOW what is inside and why they should pay more for one thing over another. There is a need for good honest information so the customer can choose to reward a good company vs a dodgy one.
Yep, planned obsolescence is everywhere these days. Another good example is refrigerators. Mine is 34 years old, and except for the tubing for a water and ice dispenser getting brittle after 20 years and cracking and leaking, everything still works like new. I know many people who have bought more recent units for much more money than mine, and they don't last 5 years. Same with washers and dryers, everything is crap these days.
My Phillips Hue bulbs turned 12 years old a couple months ago. The best part is that I didn’t pay for them at full price. They were going for $2 each at a bins return store because people that bought them didn’t know that it needs a bridge for all features. Sometimes it might be worth it to go after the more expensive LED bulbs.
The government and bulb company's lied when mandating these blue light bulbs. The incans were healthier multi spectrum and you could buy full spectrum. Incans would heat your room and save on the gas bill.
Thank you!! We built our home 8 years ago, with LED everywhere. Not a single LED failed, except those in the floor, which all fail again and again after some months. These bulbs are sealed in (IP65) as the lamp is designed to be used outdoors on the ground. Finally, after years, I have learned how to fix this problem. Thank you!!! :-)))
In 2012 I bought some Switch led bulbs. The bulbs had mineral oil like stuff for heat sink and weight a pound. Well the company went out of business due the cheaper LED in 2014. So I bought up enough to take care of all lights, inside, outside, everywhere, plus 12 45W and 12 60W extras. Since then I have replaced one bulb that was fully closed on my front porch in South Tx.
Cheaper is cheap. VHS vs Betamax. Somehow the lowest common denominator always seems to win and it sucks. Nice that you got in early and made an investment.
I bought my LEDs in 2012 as well, still using them. Easily going on 10000+ hours now each. They're almost never off except at night and when I'm at work. But they were $15 a bulb ($12 each if you bought a 5-pack) so they went out of business in 2014. I knew then that eventually the super cheap ones that were terrible would take over and they have. I really should've bought a lot more than I did.
Literally writing this after removing 2 of 3 bad led bulbs from my bathroom. I checked box and receipt, only exactly 1 year old! Least they have 3 year warranty. Time to call and cash in on that offer
I used to work in the appliance parts industry. You'd be appalled at how many appliances are trashed because the manufacturer "no longer makes the board." I'm not big on government regulation, but in my opinion they should require that manufacturers who use circuit boards in appliances have replacements available for a good amount of years. p.s. I also once worked at a store that repaired lawn and garden equipment. The dumpster would be full of weed trimmers because the carbeurators and fuel lines would get gummed up from ethanol in gasoline and the cost to repair them wasn't worth it to people. Ethanol is not environmentally friendly!
@@PhilipCouncilor Government regulation is why Auto Parts exist for at least 10 years after the model is no longer being produced... I'm not for government either, but in these cases yes.
@@PhilipCouncilor I beg to differ, ethanol can be environmentally friendly because it's a renewable fuel that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and tailpipe emissions in automobiles. Overall, ethanol is considered to be better for the environment than traditional gasoline. For example, ethanol-fueled vehicles produce lower carbon dioxide emissions. Oh and by the way, you do know that ethanol is also known as grain alcohol, the kind you can drink.
@@PunchBuggyDreams Ethanol takes more energy to produce than it puts out. I can also tell you from real-world experience that it provides far worse mpg than gasoline. I'm all for truly environmentally friendly alternatives to gas, but ethanol is not it. I have heard that it might not even be a "thing" if it weren't for the Iowa caucuses and vote pandering.
I have the same type of 'carriage lamp' type porch fixture that is shown in the video (closed on all four sides and the top). What I did was remove the glass panel closest to the house (so it wouldn't be too obvious that it was gone) which allows cooler air to enter the bottom of the fixture, go past the bulb, and exit out the side closest to the house. While the porch lights of my neighbors are having to be replaced every few months, mine has been working from dusk to dawn for over 4-years so far with no signs that it's going to quit anytime soon. The trick is to simply keep that bulb from getting too warm. My ceiling fixtures are similar to the fully enclosed (round dome one) that is shown so what I did was I went to my local Home Depot and bought a couple of slightly convex 12' round glass light diffuser's and replace the fully enclosing glass domes with them, which effectively turned the fully enclosed ceiling light fixture into one that now has open sides. It still looks great and the bulbs should last as rated. Another thing that one should take notice on the bulb packaging is the little manufacturers [fine print] blurb that says they rate the bulb life on using it 3-hrs a day - I guess that's fine if you live where it only gets dark 3-hours a day 🙂
I went to a thrift store and bought slightly convex square light diffusing glass covers to replace the hideous "boob" style glass covers of my ceiling lights in my rented apartment just because I could not tolerate the appearance of those. Nice to know I'm additionally preserving the light bulbs!!!
@@capmidnite - Porch lights that typically have an open bottom would let insects fly in 'n out of the lamp anyway so taking one side-pane out gives the bulb-warmed air somewhere to go (and probably an escape route for flying insects as well).
My experience is the total opposite. Paid 40$ for lightbulbs that failed every 4 weeks from low use. This actually pushed me away from LED lighting for more than a decade. I just started to get back into it because of how it's the only option.
they cant take the cold either. my dad was so happy and bragging when he bought me a case of 32 of these light-bulbs. "you'll never have to buy light-bulbs again, son!" they went so fast, much faster than an old fashioned
I bought one in 2015 and I use it a lot, especially here in Finland in winter time it is virtually on all the time and it is still working perfectly fine after 9 years.
it can be many things, in cheap leds, the electronic fail even before the led burn , i even got some , if you give a choc to the bubble the led fall out the circuit, they forgot to weld them or what
I replaced 12 8ft shop light bulbs 18 months ago and over half the LEDs are already dead. This isn't an example of lifespan problems due to overheating because they're not enclosed. So some problems are certainly manufacturing/quality related.
Now that LED lighting is ubiquitous, manufacturers give them a shorter service life by overrunning the components. Higher than optimal current means more brightness but shorter life. If you can install bulbs that are brighter than what your application requires and then dim them, they will last far longer. What we really need is for every nation to have the famous "Dubai lamps" that are built to run within component specs.
Yeah, the bulbs in my ceiling fan in my "media room" are "80 watt equivalent" smart bulbs... that I then dim down to 5% and they have the ceiling fan right above them, so they stay even cooler.
Like any electrical or mechanical component, running at 100% reduces lifespan and quality of operation. "Why make cars that can drive at 150 mph if you never drive that fast?" Same thing. You don't want a car that maxes out its engine at 70 mph, or run your computer processor at 100% all day... or run your bulb at 100%. Then throw in planned obsolesence, potentially even with a literal timer or on/off counter...
I wrote the installation date on my first LED bulb, over six and a half years later it still glows nice and bright in a small glass shade. Love the Bright Stik, I'm glad I have a lifetime supply.
Literally was just saying to myself last night looking at a bulb that was out in my ceiling fan that led lights don't seem to last very long anymore, maybe even worse than traditional light bulbs now.
@@davidparker9676 people said Rush Limbaugh was crazy for piling them up when the first curly florescent(CFL) bulbs were touted to be the future. One of those leaked and the smell was so bad we said f that and went back to incandescent
@@bobertjones2300 On a serious note, research has shown that LED light reduces fertility rates so maybe the Light bulbs will hasten the birthrate collapse.
Yes, Now-a-days there's lots of cheap LED bulbs, usually from China, that don't last more than a few months. But there are some quality LED around also. You get what you pay for.
You also still get what you pay for. I work as an IBEW Wireman at a major regional airport and have seen the transition to LED firsthand. We used to have over 20 outages of inground runway lighting nightly. Now maybe 20 a year. These have 777s landing directly on them and there are first gen leds out there still kicking. We swapped a giant parking garage over to led from 600w mhs all on ot. A year per floor. The first month operational they made their $ back from our ot pay. They are far superior to any out now.
As a retired commercial and industrial electrical contractor I can assure you that electrical contractors and “owners” will buy their LED’s from large lighting suppliers or electrical supply houses. These are usually top quality products. Compare that to LEDs bought from a box store or even a discount store. The quality is not there as they’re trying to compete for sales.
The problem is trying to obtain quality ones now. I've tried them all, even Cree...all fail almost as frequently as the halogen/incandescent lights they're supposed to replace. I don't mind paying more $, but that's no guarantee.
Guess I got lucky. I just checked the ones I have and one states: Suitable for Enclosed Fixtures and the other says: Must Be Used in Enclosed Fixture Outside. Great informational video!
@@joeshmoe9978 The ones that say Ideal for totally enclosed fixtures in the specifications & on the box are: Unbranded 60 watt, Non- dimmable, daylight. They are 12.98 for 8 bulbs at Home Depot. The others I have are Great Value Brand & the box says: Must be used in enclosed fixture outside..so that makes them safe.
Yeah, another problem with LEDs is they shouldn't be used in wet environments unless they're in completely sealed glass bulbs. Hence the "must be used".
Same goes with today's automobile engines. Have you ever noticed how much heat is produced under the hood? And look at the hood's insulation which is there to protect the hood surface and paint. This hood insulation acts like an oven holding or baking the engine and all it's plastic and rubber components under the hood. Heat ages things faster even for motor oil! That's one of the reason's why oil changes are required even with a high quality motor oil. I always pop up my hood after a drive, especially a long out of town drive, until the engine compartment has cooled down below 100 degrees which is a safe range for most plastics and rubber. I also turn off my engine if I'm at a long stopping point.
Regarding 1:57: Two bulbs in a fixture will of course generate significantly more heat and shorten the lives of the bulbs even more. But they will NOT "fight against each other and that heat will destroy the other bulb, one of the bulbs will die quickly and the other will last much longer" as claimed in this video. Sure, one bulb will fail first (they're not going to fail at the exact same moment). But the other will be failing very soon afterward. The idea that the excess heat generated affects one bulb more than the other is nonsense.
@@blinkybill2198 A 100W incandescent light bulb turns 2W into light, and 98W into heat. They get very hot. A 100W equivalent LED bulb turns 2W into light and 13W into heat. They still get hot. They just don't get as hot as incandescents did. And if you put them in an enclosed fixture, that heat can't dissipate and they get even hotter.
Even in open fittings, they fail. They seem to me to last no longer than tungsten bulbs. In fact, I’ve still got tungsten bulbs in a couple of fixtures that must have been there for ten years, and still work.
@@CarlGerhardt1 i hope they do that What I hate is that I am forced to buy crap, while they try to brainwash me into thinking its great and amazing Let me think: I need a bulb that will not flicker, use as little components as possible, work with standard dimmers, not produce Radio frequency interference while running and work in enclosed fixture So far, I was not able to find a led that would do that. Its eather filament and doesnt produce radio frequency interference but flickers like crazy or its flicker free, and produces RF interference
@@CarlGerhardt1of you could just pay a little more for the bulbs with good quality components. Thanks to energy savings, you will still end up ahead after just a couple years compared to incandescent.
Filament bulbs give off heat and therefore are inefficient. The time when indoor lighting is used generally corresponds to when domestic heating is in use. Therefore the heat is not lost. I’m not convinced about a lot of so called ‘progress’ these days.
Basic incandescent bulb are horrible now too. They used to last quite a long time. Now they burn out in a very short time. No I haven't time them but compared to years ago, they do. I remember when I could get a few free replacement bulbs when I went to the hardware store to pay the electric bill! That was in the 60's !!! Cheers!
No wonder my enclosed lights die so fast! Mine tend to flicker for weeks before getting dimmer and dimmer. Now I know why. I covet old fashioned bulbs ,hard to find now though. Thanks for info .👍
Fortunately I have never experienced this. The first LED bulb was installed in my house over 14 years ago, and it's still going strong and providing good light. Many have been in service in my house for a decade. But I do always buy quality brands - Cree, GE, Philips. I'm delighted with LED bulbs, and my bulb replacement cost has fallen to virtually nothing. Of course, I do use the bulbs that cost more to start with - probably avoiding the cheap components you're discussing here.
seems that if you installed LEDs early on, the bulbs last way longer.....they have purposely fudged them since then so they can continue to sell bulbs.....
Do keep in mind that older LEDs were designed much more robustly. Every brand's quality has dropped significantly (as have the prices.) We're long past the stage of "early adoption."- the period where they were expensive as sin, but they catered towards the energy-conscious upper middle class. I too have many early LEDs in my home, particularly from the likes of Feit Electric (Costco carried ONLY Feit LEDs from around 2015 onward.) Feit's early A19s (standard medium base / shape) were atrocious and would go out strobing, but their BR30 (recessed can lights) were some of the best in the industry. I haven't had a single one of their BR lamps die in the 8 years I've lived in my home, and they went in as soon I moved in as the previous owner had those terrible BR30 CFL floods that took 6.8 business days to warm up. Also, our kitchen is lit with recessed can retrofits from Cooper Lighting / Halo (prior to the Signify buyout) and one of the 4inch lights is on 15hrs a day (nightlight) for the past 7 years. Still works to this day!
I saw a tutorial of someone who removed the practice dome and it did help it stay much cooler. They also went and added holes to the bottom plastic casing and that helped even more. Gotta try this.
When has it ever been different? Buyer beware, always. Maybe a better solution would be absolute government regulation. Let's just got to a fully planned economy. I wonder what we could call that kind of system???
@@PelicanNorth Why do you act like there are only 2 options? Have the government regulate stuff like this so it performs better in the situations most people will be using it. That's not a planned economy; that's common sense.
@@pendlera2959 The government pretty much forced us to go LED. They are banning manufacture and import of incandescent bulbs and the mercury in the fluorescent bulbs is not a good thing to have around or dispose of either. Since the government mandated energy efficient bulbs, utility bills have increased so there is no cost savings to the consumer. All of the utilities got more expensive due to more efficient homes. The government regulation just increases costs to the consumer. Buyer beware is the best way. Consumers need to educate themselves on the products they buy and not depend on a corrupt official to vouch for it. If you buy your stuff off of TEMU, don't complain when it breaks 10 seconds later.
@@pendlera2959 Phillyfatheads original post was stated as an absolute - "everything". Reinforced with another "everything." I think absolutes are a sign of poor thinking, and to show that, I made another absolute statement that you find to be poor reasoning - which was my intent! My statement was facetious, but Philly's was not. If you think I was "acting like that" it is because I was pretend acting. Of course there is a middle ground!
Old incandescent bulbs became so cheaply built that they rarely lasted more than a few months and sometimes not even a few weeks. If you remember, Congress even passed a law that forced GE to make better quality incandescent bulbs.
@@myvenusheeler I actually miss the warmth they gave off. I know that was all wasted energy but there’s nothing like a bit of reading on a winter day with the warmth of those bulbs on my bald head.
I was wondering what was going on. I have bought so many bulbs over the years it's ridiculous. Now i know what to look for. Thank you for making this video.
I haven't had a bulb last more than a year even with open fixtures, not one! I have taken several bulbs apart and have discovered that some of the connections are pinch connections, not soldered connections. I don't know if it's the heat or what that causes these connections to loosen up and fail. In some cases it is one of the led mini bulbs that fail. In these cases, if one knows how, you can bypass the light and get it working again. The pinch connection problem is just a little more difficult to repair, but it can be done rather than buying a new bulb. Even doing theses repairs I haven't have a bulb last more than three years! Thought you would like to know😊
i try to repair some too, bud bad luck , they put so much glue to open it that i dommage it most of the time, and even you manage to repair, you can't put it back correctly and it will over heat
This is super helpful. Thank you. We were using LED bulbs in an enclosed fixture (ceiling) and couldn't figure out why they were not lasting more than a year.
I have seen other LED failure videos in which the diodes are wired one-to-another (in series not parallel) and if one diode fails then the circuit is broken and none of the others work. This is much like how older cheap Christmas light strings work. These videos also may show you how to remove a diode or alternately bypass the diode to make the bulb work again.
That's how LEDs are always used. The LEDs have manufacturing variance leading to different voltage drops so you want independent current regulation on every parallel branch. LEDs in series will all have the same current. It probably also simplifies things to have the overall DC load be higher voltage lower current. It's pretty much never an LED that fails in these things but the power conversion or board assembly itself.
That's exactly what I thought of. From best I can tell this is the industry that invented planned failure instead so ofc I'm not surprised. And now that the gov has outlawed a major competing type of bulb why would they care.smdh
FYI, the conspiracy didn't work because even before the ink dried, the conspirators were already scheming to exploit its loopholes to screw up each other.
So I broke the globe in my kitchen light and just left the bulb bare because it was so much brighter, and now that I think about it, I haven't changed it in a couple years. Thanks for the info!
The Home Depot EcoSmart warranty has been good to me over the years. Usually they issue a $5 gift card if you have one fail. But also still have some bulbs probably 12 years old with visible outward facing heatsink working great.
Horrible RF-noisy things, imho. Creates lots of interference, especially during the holidays. :D Ah well, one gets good at RF interference mitigation. My experience as far as quality with these things go seems to be hit-n-miss. Excessive heat kills electronics. Thanks for another informative video!!
Interesting: I had no idea about the RFI. But I realized that, these days, I basically have no RF to be Ied with When I was a kid, I was an SWLand later a ham, but that was over 50 years ago. LEDs were barely making into the panel indicator space. Since then, when I had TV it was mostly cable, and broadcast radio was mostly replaced over time with cassettes and CDs. Now I have Wifi at home, and cellular on the go, but I don't use anything RF below a GHz. That may not be typical yet, sut I suspect it's quite common. So most of that RFI is silently absorbed and turned into heat to contribute to climate change 🙂
Genie makes quiet RFI bulbs. Many people switched to LED bulbs for garage door openers and found the opener no longer worked. Genie found a niche market for this type of bulb and charges people appropriately (high).
I bought my house six years ago and replaced bulbs all with LEDs from the dollar store. All are still working. They aren't on all the time. However, since i have 16 foot ceilings in part of the house, I have a large table lamp on top of a high shelf that has had one of these dollar bulbs burning contentiously for the past six years. the only time it's been off would be the odd power outages from the weather or hurricane. It continues to work but I've noticed it's dimmer in the last couple of years. Meanwhile, I've recently bought a few other LEDs for various lamps and had a few fail within a year.
Built my house 3 years ago and it was filled with LEDs throughout. Fast forward to today I’ve had about 6-7 separate bulbs of different types as well as integrated LED fixtures all fail. Beyond frustrating but I will look for this in the future, thank you!
That makes a lot of sense. We put leds in our can lights and they have only been lasting about 6 months but I never noticed this fine print, it explains so much
While working for the railroad, I replaced all incandescent bulbs on all the crossings in my territory and replaced them with LED's. Had to change them out at the same rate as incandescent bulbs, especially on the gate arms. The main lamps started to have several arrays go out. I think incandescents are just as good.
I noticed the phrase "Not for use in totally enclosed or recessed luminaires", asked around and no answer. Thank you for finally answering my question! I figure the lower cost makes up for the shorter life.
@@manofkent4472 No, incandescent bulbs don't produce significant amounts of ultraviolet light. But they generate a lot of infrared, which is also important for health.
I had 2 three bulb Home Depot led packs. Both were completely finished in 4 months. They advertised 13 Years! If you can’t use in a fixture that’s enclosed, what good are led’S. GO BACK TO tungsten filaments! Yeah!
@@mernokimuvek I have a couple 70W HID (metal halide) lamps for shits, giggles and the light therapy during the winter, along with Philips electronic ballasts. They're indeed fun.
I've had this issue with LED bulbs too. I stockpiled incandescent , halogen, and CFL bulbs before they were removed from the marketplace. I've gone back to halogen bulbs in enclosed fixtures with dimmers, and CFL's in enclosed fixtures without dimmers. I've had good luck with LED bulbs in table lamps, and PAR38 LED's in outdoor fixtures.
Did the video cut off early? I was hoping for some recommendations, you usually have solid recommendations. Would love a follow-up video! We've had this issue, and it has been surprisingly hard to find quality LEDs that are designed to fit in enclosed spaces. So for some of our fixtures we just go without the enclosure. The second problem is finding LEDs that are OK with moisture (e.g. in the bathroom, where they die 10x faster than even the enclosed bulbs).
I have had good luck with GE Reveal LED globe lights and 60w bulbs in my bathroom fixtures. Reveal bulbs come in 3 “styles,” I prefer the ones that are HD Daylight. These mimic the color spectrum, and are warmer looking than Cool White or other options. Best of luck.
Further to the video, look at integrated LED lights that don't use bulbs. Instead of putting a bulb into an application where it will struggle, install the right fixture.
If you watch until the end you can see he shows you can just search for bulbs for enclosed fixtures. Giving a recommendation beyond that is silly because a particular brand might switch from enclosed to not for enclosed and there would be no way to fix the video
I only have one enclosed fixture in my apartment, and I use an old CFL bulb on that. When I moved into my apartment, they had CFLs in all the fixtures. I immediately switched them all to Edison style LEDs, except in the dining room where I used a CFL because it's covered. When that eventually goes out, I have a whole closet full of CFLs that I can swap in one at a time.
@@lelandsmith2320 Light bulbs are bulbs that produce light. Glad I could clarify that for you. If you learn to read and follow basic instructions, you can avoid the issues shown in this video. The original commenter clearly says he didn't read the box, and you are complaining about the light bulb. Let that sink in!!!
@@jamescady723 To be fair, those fridges that lasted longer were also significantly less efficient and used refrigerants that were terrible for the environment. They were also quite expensive for their time.
@@Diviance There's no reason we can't build more durable fridges with safer coolants and more efficient designs. Companies just don't want to. I'm sure there are many engineers who are frustrated by how many corners they are forced to cut in their designs and they know exactly how well fridges could work if they were truly made to last.
@@pendlera2959 We _can._ But the cost would be quite high. Because the components cost a lot. Steel fridges with high quality, durable insulation and high quality electronics for efficiency and so on... I imagine not a whole lot of people would be buying $5k-8k fridges.
@@pendlera2959 There are reasons. We are in late stage capitalism. They literally have no reason to make fridges like that. People need fridges. They will buy them either way. So... according to how capitalism works, it is in their best interest to make them as shoddy as they can while still working long enough that people will continue buying replacements.
I noticed the “not for enclosed fixtures” on a bulb a year or so ago and then discovered it’s really hard to find ones that are. I finally found some on Amazon by Sylvania but it took a lot of reading the fine print in the description to do so. It’s good to know why there’s a difference 😊
I live in Europe. My LED light bulbs have lasted me for 8 years now. I'm literally typing this while sitting under an 8 year old LED bulb. I used to have to replace incandecent bulbs every few months. Since switching to LEDs, I've only replaced two, and they were both in the same, fully enclosed ceiling fixture. Gonna change that fixture next week!
In my experience, heat isn't the only contributor to premature failures. I live in an area that has colder winters (below freezing most days) with an unheated garage. I replaced some incandescent bulbs in there with your typical off the shelf LED bulbs. Most failed within a year, usually when it was cold out, which resulted in some flickering, then heavy flickering and finally complete failure. During the warmer months the bulbs didn't have any issues, however if they were turned on during the colder months, it was only a matter of time before they would start flickering and fail. After this, I moved to 72W halogen lamps which handle the heat and cold perfectly fine given how they work and the lack of electronics. I still use LEDs in climate controlled areas of my home, but I don't plan on using LEDs anymore in areas exposed to outdoor temperatures.
I was an early adapter of LEDs. The old ones weighed about a pound, they all got moved to the garage as fancy slimmer bulbs came out. Old ones still going strong in the garage, newer bulbs fail all the time.
Lowest common denominator. The capacitor. I've CFL's that have outlasted led WHILE enclosed. Used hours a night for 8 years now. These are shop rated Phillips CFL,
I'd been aware of the issue of enclosed fixtures with LED bulbs when we replaced our old overhead lighting. Rather than putting LEDs inside our "boob light" fixtures, I got those flat, flush-mount LED fixtures with no bulb. So far, a great success! Did it over 5 years ago, and all fixtures are working fine. They look nicer than the enclosures, are very bright, and I never have to replace a bulb. 🤞
@@cloudnine5651 The point is that they don't fail. I have lots of fixtures with LED light bulbs in them, which also haven't failed in years. Why go to the trouble of building a fixture whose structure is predicated on the failure of a component which isn't going to fail? Just silly. BTW, you seem to have a lot of anger issues, what with the personal attacks. You might want to get help on that.
Good video. I thought I was just buying Chinese junk as my bathroom LEDs would blow way too fast. I never thought about heat as LEDs don't generate the heat as an old-fashioned bulb. I did research and found out the heat issue. Installed the correct lamps and after a year they are still going strong.
It’s called “built-in obsolescence”, a modern day phenomenon where products are designed and built to intentionally fail early on in order to generate repeat business at a high frequency, inspired by nothing more than plain old greed.
Economics dictate that if people value a better-quality and longer-lasting bulb, they will be willing to pay more for it and a company will be able to take market share. The problem is actual consumer behaviour is almost always to just buy the cheapest option. Which will almost always be of poorer quality. Educating consumers is part of the solution, as they need to learn that the long-term cost of poor quality products is usually higher than paying more up front for quality.
Even worse is the light temperature of early LEDs. They finally came around to making "warmer" lights ("soft" or "warm" white - between 2,700 and 3,000 Kelvins (K) - the typical color range you get from old-style incandescent bulbs) but a lot of people have no aesthetic sense and are still using those glaringly bright blue/white bulbs. They wash out colors and make things (and people) look terrible. Also, not sure how much money we're saving with LEDs as the old bulbs didn't cost that much to run anyway. An incandescent bulb costs about $6.22 per year to use, while an LED bulb costs about $1.04 per year. Most people don't have enough bulbs on long enough for that to really matter.
I'd say this applies to other bulb types too, they're just a lot less sensitive to it. I've encountered incandescent bulbs that fail in less than a year because of being enclosed. Theoretically, fluorescent lights will degrade from the extra heat but they're also built to be somewhat self-regulating. The real stupid thing is, it's not hard to make an LED last longer. Basically, you just include more LEDs and operate them at a lower voltage. Modern bulbs push the LEDs to their limits.
I may have to try some "for enclosed fixtures" ones. 3:22 Ironically though the LED's that have lasted second longest at our house are the ones most enclosed and on the longest....and even that has been undee a year. The only ones to last longer are the ones missing cover in bathroom. We are on our 5th round in 3 years in kitchen and they are not enclosed.
They are! The govt recently stopped restricting them again. The problem is that all the big manufacturers dried up, so all you can find now are garbage tier bulbs from Mexico.
I love my LED bulbs but I hate getting cheated - Hope this video helps explain it more
thank you for this mine in the kitchen keep going out I thought I had a electrical problem I think the heat from cooking is burning them out
The lack of such info being taught to the public is criminal. ^^
Given how such electronics works, this makes perfect sense - I just never thought about it, so far...
Thank you ❤
When the prices have come down dramatically, how are you getting cheated with a lesser quality bulb?
I started installing LEDs in my customer's houses about 15 years ago to move away from the CFL bulbs. Back then, the LEDs were very heavy incorporating a huge heat sink and you could see why they were more than an incandescent bulb or CFL. I was paying around $30-$35 per bulb back then for standard bulbs and much more for flood lights, specialty bulbs and outdoor rated bulbs (up to $70 per bulb).
Now you can get LEDs at the dollar store and get a bulk pack of LEDs for $6-$10 at Costco.
How are you getting cheated when the bulbs are approaching the cost of cheap incandescents?
@@vicentee2687 Yes, they do not like the heat. Go back to incandescent or fluorescent bulbs for the range lights.
This helps soooo much. i for the life of me could not figure out why my LED bulbs were failing after 1-2 years. I mean they are supposed to last for ever? I was switching out light switches thinking they were the cause of my issues, or that as a DIYer i got something wrong. I settled on that i had faulty bulbs, but this video trully helps to show that they are built differently then what we as consumers have been lead to believe.
I have dissected several dead LED bulbs to see what died. It is rarely the LED's themselves. There is an electronic circuit inside that regulates the amount of current flowing through the LED's. It uses several components, but there will be one or two "electrolytic capacitors." Good quality capacitors have lifetime vs operating temperature specs, and often the temperature for the specified lifetime is included on the outer heat shrink label. The common numbers are 85C and 105C. I have never seen a temp rating on the capacitors used inside an LED bulb, probably because they are poor quality. Every dead bulb that I opened had a dead capacitor, often dead enough to be leaking its electrolytic paste. Bulbs that are mounted upside down are worse case as the heat from the LED's rises to cook the circuit board. LED's do generate a little heat. The bulb here on my desk had 24 small LED's mounted on a thin circuit board that was attached to an aluminum heat spreader. It lived for almost 8 years in a ceiling can upside down before dying of dead capacitor syndrome.
Now this is a helpful, informed, evidence-based comment! I really appreciate the work you went to and willingness to share it. To highlight your finding, bulbs installed upside down will fare worse due to heat.
Yep. If you're handy and can do some basic electronic work, you can change those low rated parts for higher quality ones. My Samsung flat-screen TV fried the electrolytic caps in the power supply about a week out of the one year warranty. I tore the thing apart and replaced those caps with some upgraded ones. It's about 15 years later now and I have been watching it with no problems.
The kick in the teeth with the LED lights is that the LEDs are still good. It's the other components in the power circuit that are failing. This is an outrageous abuse of consumer interest and trust. We are doing our part to help 'save the environment' by using more efficient lighting. But the manufacturers push obsolescence in favor of their profit margin and then thumb their noses at the extremely unnecessary waste they create in the process. The actual parts cost is fairly negligible. They know that they won't sell as many light bulbs if they build them too well! What they are doing is creating a waste stream of mainly still functioning electronic parts, some aluminum, and a lot of plastic.
Yours explains the reason why the LED bulb in a lighting fixture in my basement keeps dying despite the fact that it is fully exposed. The problem is exactly what you have described - the LED bulb is upside down with the circuit board on top. I need to change its orientation to at least sideway.
Any LED lightbulbs that don’t have a current reducing ballast? 😄
Just use incandescent 😄
LED expert here, 20 years in the industry. What kills these are two factors: 1. Heat due to lack of good heatsinking and 2. On/off cycling due to the bond wire expanding and contracting. Regarding #2, that's the wire that connects the LED die to the metal solder pad. These are usually "2835" style LEDs that are incredibly cheap and use a very short wire. The heat cycling on and off makes this bond break quite fast. They will actually last longer if you leave them on 100% of the time (assuming no overheating as stated in #1).
Yep fluorescent bulbs also …..but leaving them on Quite ridiculous unless it’s in a store…..or public area…..
That would explain why my porch bulb {always on} has outlasted all the others from the same box by more than a year.
#2 shouldn't be a problem if the LED is cool enough. LEDs don't get 'used' by switching. They are diodes. The diodes in any rectifier will switch 50/60 times per second and they last for years. So #1 and #2 are the same problem. That is not existing with a good thermal design.
Do you have a go-to manufacturer or bulb preference? Thanks
Mr Technicks,
Please see my comment at the top of comment section!
Real life 6 year continuous use! Still lighting strong!
Right to the point, zero fluff, zero self-promotion, useful, and interesting. Subscribed 🔔
We have a chicken farm and use about 250 60W equivalent LED bulbs for lighting the barns. They are all on 100% of the day, about 75% total time. We write the date on them when installed. In 2016 we started using Philips non-dimmable, and they lasted around 5.5-6 years. (About 35000 hours) Then the same bulbs installed in about 2020 started only lasting 2-2.5 years. (About 12000-15000hrs) 'Same' bulb, but lasts only half as long. Still longer than the rated 10000 hours.
Yes, Philips is very reliable, look like just different batch, but still good.
From Norway here, I also write dates on the bulbs when installing :). Non of my bulbs have lasted anything near what is advertised, no matter what kind of lamp they are in.
Philips bulbs are much better than average bulbs. They have a better color spectrum and last longer. Been using them for about 10 years now. I likewise observed, that the more recent ones seem to die more frequently than in the past.
Bulbs that are getting hotter due to lack of airflow also die much sooner, usually with discolored plastic. But on average the Philips bulbs are very good, and I am satisfied if they reach at least 10000 hours.
We use Philips non-dimmable LED bulbs at work, LOTS of them. Same results as yours. We have experimented with numerous bulbs/manufacturers, with same results. The old CREE bulbs use to last a very long time, but they were costly. Fast forward several yrs, most LED bulbs are crap. Lighter in weight, cheaper capacitors, and less efficient heat sinks. The only people making (saving) $$$$$, are the manufacturers, not the end users.
I had Philips bulbs that kept flickering...some bases cracked...some died completely after not more than 6mos-1year. . After I complained, they sent me a case to replace the ones I had bought. It's been over a year now and no issues. They must have had a bad batch.
This is huge. I have been thinking I had wiring issues in my house because my LEDs in enclosed fixtures keep failing. This is a top 5 channel on YT.
This is why you read the product you buy
Was wondering similar about the building I reside in. I'm going to re-read the packaging and inspect the bulbs I just got with a new eye for this verbiage written somewhere.
I was fortunate in reading the fine print so added air gaps to all my enclosed fixtures like the ceiling 'blister' type. I also added airflow holes into the bases of any mounted inside cup-shaped glass ceiling fan shades. So far they've lasted several years w/o failure vs barely 9mo in the fans before I drilled holes.
I dislike LEDs. They don’t seem to be as bright as incandescent bulbs. They affect my eyes
I think it is also always highly dependent on which one you buy. I had one fail after a month, my parents have some Phillips LED bulbs that are on every day and long since we bought them about 10-12 years ago and they are working just fine. In closed fixtures btw.
I want my incandescent bulbs back. They were easy on the eye and cast a lovely soft glow. These LED bulbs make me feel like I’m living on a Star Trek set.
It's weaponized lighting due to the frequencies they give off 🤔
Wow. I just had to replace LED bulb other day; thinking no way this lasted 20 years. Now I know why. Thanks.
Average LED lasts about 5 years, not enclosed. 20 years is called lying.
Put six in my bathroom. Within four years, I've had four of them fail on me. Ridiculous.
Same here..new house and also change in bathroom many times.
Will you are correct Ridiculous..
What brand are you installing?
Don't worry the solid state light bulb is on the way! 🤣
Boycott electricity. Bring back the candle and lanterns
A simple video going straight to the point, in this day and age, what a gem!
Thank you!
As an electrician who has had to tackle many LED "outdoor" LED commercial fixtures that died after only a few months, What goes bad is the actual DRIVERS in these. The actual LED diodes usually are fine but I have had to replace the driver / power pack and then they work again till the next overheating failure. You are right about these being so hyped up and over rated with life estimates of 20 years but in the real world....nope. So many customers try to warranty the bad drivers with the Chinese companies and like I tell them, Good luck with that. They spend $300 for a LED pole light head that works less than 1 year and just get the run around about any "warranty" and have me just replace the driver pack in them and it is half the price of a new light ! Great channel with so much helpful honest info , Keep up the great research and info to us.
In the real world these bulbs can last 20 30 40 years The problem is they don't want bulbs that last that long so instead of trying to educate people and encourage them to use lower wattage multiple configurations they make what people expect and they continue to teach people to expect that high wattage point source bulbs and then of course when they lower the quality of the components you're still making your money back on the energy savings of the LED bulb even when you factor into purchase price so people don't care and that just pisses me off because it's wasteful
The way we solve this at our business was I would install two outdoor LED light fixtures everywhere that I needed one and then I would derate the bulbs to half their original wattage so if I had two 30 watt units I ran both of them at 15 watts each I just got a variak and I lowered the voltage until the wattage was one half and get this the lumen for what efficiency actually goes up so the two fixtures at 15 w each still 30 Watts were brighter than the single fixture at 30 Watts so I would decide looking around do I need this much light if not I lowered it even more and if the light was useful I left it there either which way we never had to replace another driver or bulb again :-)
cheap driver is only part of the puzzle, the bulb manufacturers regularly drive the LED's themselves at higher than what they are rated for causing them to fail prematurely as well
@ChrisD4335 I don't see too much of that most of them are driving them after rated current however that rating assumes adequate cooler and that's where a lot of bulbs fail inadequate coolant it's a little bit different with modern bulbs but I know with older LED technology the assumption was 9 square centimeters of passive cooling surface area per watt and basically none of them have that which is why I turn to like you for watt and lower wattage bulbs
Very good video! I had no idea about this. Not to mention the video was short and to the point yet explained very effectively! Thanks.
Short and to the point would be "increased heat will reduce the life of an LED bulb".
@@dr.jonpierson5655 😒 #1. The video is 3:30. Have you used UA-cam? That’s super quick/efficient for a video like this. #2. You can’t just spout off a statement. You have to explain why that is the case in order for people to decide if it’s valid and accurate. Otherwise someone has to do the research after anyway. 🙄
@@adamhodgson8851 Nice illustration!
@@dr.jonpierson5655 Thanks ? … I guess.
Thanks for the heads up. I had an LED bulb in an enclosed fixture and it started flashing -- on and off. So I replaced it and thought it was dead. But then I wondered if it was just heat sensitive. So I put it in an open fixture and turned it on to see how long it would last. It's been running 24/7/365 for the last 3 years with no issues.
It's about time someone explained this phenomenon. It's also ashamed our government allows manufacturers to rip us off like this.
Allow? Hell, they encourage it while making non LED bulbs harder to get/less affordable.
Ha ha, you must be young....as if the gummint cared or were competent to do anything about it, but make it worse.
Who do you think is paying the government to look the other way?
Govt is not the answer.
Do you actually believe government wants to make your life better?? No government pushed for cheap LED bulbs. They want them cheap, then they banned incandescent. If LEDs were expensive, people wouldn't have accepted the banning of incandescent. So the government pushed them to cheap garbage.
Remember, government is always corrupt and politicians only care about self preservation (keeping their job) and increasing their power. Bigger government doesn't mean stuff gets better for you, rather it means corruption grows and you the tax payer have to support that larger government that wants more power by taking that power from you.
I purchased two LED fixtures from Home Depo with sealed LED lights inside, much like the enclosed light fixture in the video. Just the manufacture sealed the lights inside. They stated it would last for 50,000 hours, however, they only lasted 2 years as a bathroom light. My takeaway from this is to purchase LED lights with replaceable bulbs. I had to purchase and rewire new fixtures instead of being able to replace bulbs. Great video and thanks for the information.
Same here. I purchased a sealed LED ceiling light for my son's bedroom. Lasted maybe 2 years before it started flickering. I thought it was a wiring issue. Replaced it with a conventional fixture that I can replace the bulbs in.
It doesn't matter whether or not the LED is sealed. What matters is whether or not the bulb is designed for enclosed fixtures. So I guess, read the package information to see if it says "For use in enclosed fixtures" or whether it says "Not for use in enclosed fixtures."
@@mikemccormick6128 I'm talking about an LED fixture that was a sealed unit. Like the LEDs were built into it. Not changeable bulbs. When it failed, I had to change the entire light fixture/assembly.
The problem now is that a LOT of things are becoming proprietary like that. To make matters worse, you can't find replacements for older non-proprietary/universal compatibility models. I have a ceiling fan light fixture break from dropping it and I can't replace the fixture, the glass globes, or even the ceramic parts inside that you screw the bulbs into. Not dropping $200-$400 for new ceiling fans, either.
In terms of heat, the LED efficiency is actually really important. I have a 7W Lights of America bulb that generates 450 lumens, so I get 64 Lumens/watt. If you assume the electronics are 80% efficient, the LEDs are receiving 5.6W which has an efficiency of 20%. So adding up all the useful light we have 7W * 80% * 20% = 1.12W of optical power and 7W - 1.12W = 5.88W of heat. The heat sink on this light is incredibly large to compensate.
I'd use a dimmer and bring the heat down, get a low power non-dimmable LED, or literally solder on the most efficient LEDs I can get my hands on, which usually involves hacking up the bulb...
Great video. I only clicked on it because it was short and glad I did now. I've had LED bulbs in my house for 10 years and none have failed. If I need to buy new ones I'll watch out for the newer bulbs that might overheat.
I love short videos, but for a long time YT insisted the videos HAD to last at least fourteen minutes.
@@lyndaniel3369 I haven't heard of 14 minutes. The breakpoint used to be 10 minutes - videos above that were allowed to have ads during the video so it increased monetization. Videos less than 10 minutes could only have an ad before the video.
Great info. I did not know about the enclosed fixture warning or that there are bulbs rated for enclosed fixtures. Thanks for sharing Chris!
Technology connections has a video stating the same thing about the compact fluorescent bulbs. They don't last in enclosed or upside down spaces either.
Sixty years ago we became aware of PLANNED obsolescence where manufacturers deliberately put in at least one component that was expected to fail shortly after the warranty ran out. Forcing you to throw away whole expensive items and buy another. My original microwave bought 45 years ago is still working fine. Many newer ones have failed since then. I know that there is an incentive to build things more cheaply because the customers demand it. But the customer does not KNOW what is inside and why they should pay more for one thing over another. There is a need for good honest information so the customer can choose to reward a good company vs a dodgy one.
There's a video called l, "The Lightbulb Conspiracy" that talks about the planned obsolescence of the lightbulbs in the past.
@@Some_One_One From veritasium?
@@Some_One_One If that is the one that references the Chicago Firehouse light bulb still burning over 100 years - yeah. Good video.
Yep, planned obsolescence is everywhere these days. Another good example is refrigerators. Mine is 34 years old, and except for the tubing for a water and ice dispenser getting brittle after 20 years and cracking and leaking, everything still works like new. I know many people who have bought more recent units for much more money than mine, and they don't last 5 years. Same with washers and dryers, everything is crap these days.
It isn't planned obsolescence, it's planned failure, and it's a scam.
My Phillips Hue bulbs turned 12 years old a couple months ago.
The best part is that I didn’t pay for them at full price. They were going for $2 each at a bins return store because people that bought them didn’t know that it needs a bridge for all features.
Sometimes it might be worth it to go after the more expensive LED bulbs.
Philips also makes the best ones, of the popular brands, but don't go for their cheapest ones. GE and others just aren't as good.
I was about to say did you take out a mortgage for those bulbs but holy crap $2 for Philips hue bulbs That's a nice deal
These piss me off. I have replaced more LED bulbs over the past 15 years than incandescent bulbs.
😀😆
Truth. I tried the LED "filament" type but they fail in a different way, flickering.
The government and bulb company's lied when mandating these blue light bulbs. The incans were healthier multi spectrum and you could buy full spectrum. Incans would heat your room and save on the gas bill.
Same. We used 100watt halogen bulbs to help heat our well house during really cold winters, but of course, you can’t find those anymore.
Oh but LEDs are soooo much better for the environment. Just like EVs are saving us from climate change. 😝
Super helpful thank you. Also your narrative in both ease of comprehension and tone was perfect! 🥇🏆🥇
Thank you!!
We built our home 8 years ago, with LED everywhere. Not a single LED failed, except those in the floor, which all fail again and again after some months. These bulbs are sealed in (IP65) as the lamp is designed to be used outdoors on the ground.
Finally, after years, I have learned how to fix this problem. Thank you!!! :-)))
Maybe a dimmable light with just one or 2 steps lower brightness will work good there.
In 2012 I bought some Switch led bulbs. The bulbs had mineral oil like stuff for heat sink and weight a pound. Well the company went out of business due the cheaper LED in 2014. So I bought up enough to take care of all lights, inside, outside, everywhere, plus 12 45W and 12 60W extras. Since then I have replaced one bulb that was fully closed on my front porch in South Tx.
Cheaper is cheap. VHS vs Betamax. Somehow the lowest common denominator always seems to win and it sucks. Nice that you got in early and made an investment.
Switch bulbs were the best.
I bought my LEDs in 2012 as well, still using them. Easily going on 10000+ hours now each. They're almost never off except at night and when I'm at work. But they were $15 a bulb ($12 each if you bought a 5-pack) so they went out of business in 2014. I knew then that eventually the super cheap ones that were terrible would take over and they have. I really should've bought a lot more than I did.
Literally writing this after removing 2 of 3 bad led bulbs from my bathroom. I checked box and receipt, only exactly 1 year old! Least they have 3 year warranty. Time to call and cash in on that offer
There needs to be regulations around making this clearer to the consumer to prevent un-necessary E-waste... Thanks so much!
I used to work in the appliance parts industry. You'd be appalled at how many appliances are trashed because the manufacturer "no longer makes the board." I'm not big on government regulation, but in my opinion they should require that manufacturers who use circuit boards in appliances have replacements available for a good amount of years.
p.s. I also once worked at a store that repaired lawn and garden equipment. The dumpster would be full of weed trimmers because the carbeurators and fuel lines would get gummed up from ethanol in gasoline and the cost to repair them wasn't worth it to people. Ethanol is not environmentally friendly!
@@PhilipCouncilor Government regulation is why Auto Parts exist for at least 10 years after the model is no longer being produced... I'm not for government either, but in these cases yes.
@@PhilipCouncilor I beg to differ, ethanol can be environmentally friendly because it's a renewable fuel that reduces greenhouse gas emissions and tailpipe emissions in automobiles. Overall, ethanol is considered to be better for the environment than traditional gasoline. For example, ethanol-fueled vehicles produce lower carbon dioxide emissions. Oh and by the way, you do know that ethanol is also known as grain alcohol, the kind you can drink.
@@PunchBuggyDreams Ethanol takes more energy to produce than it puts out. I can also tell you from real-world experience that it provides far worse mpg than gasoline. I'm all for truly environmentally friendly alternatives to gas, but ethanol is not it. I have heard that it might not even be a "thing" if it weren't for the Iowa caucuses and vote pandering.
Regulations? Trump's in charge now, you can forget about that.
I have the same type of 'carriage lamp' type porch fixture that is shown in the video (closed on all four sides and the top). What I did was remove the glass panel closest to the house (so it wouldn't be too obvious that it was gone) which allows cooler air to enter the bottom of the fixture, go past the bulb, and exit out the side closest to the house. While the porch lights of my neighbors are having to be replaced every few months, mine has been working from dusk to dawn for over 4-years so far with no signs that it's going to quit anytime soon. The trick is to simply keep that bulb from getting too warm.
My ceiling fixtures are similar to the fully enclosed (round dome one) that is shown so what I did was I went to my local Home Depot and bought a couple of slightly convex 12' round glass light diffuser's and replace the fully enclosing glass domes with them, which effectively turned the fully enclosed ceiling light fixture into one that now has open sides. It still looks great and the bulbs should last as rated.
Another thing that one should take notice on the bulb packaging is the little manufacturers [fine print] blurb that says they rate the bulb life on using it 3-hrs a day - I guess that's fine if you live where it only gets dark 3-hours a day 🙂
I went to a thrift store and bought slightly convex square light diffusing glass covers to replace the hideous "boob" style glass covers of my ceiling lights in my rented apartment just because I could not tolerate the appearance of those. Nice to know I'm additionally preserving the light bulbs!!!
Doesn't it let in the insects though?
@@capmidnite - Porch lights that typically have an open bottom would let insects fly in 'n out of the lamp anyway so taking one side-pane out gives the bulb-warmed air somewhere to go (and probably an escape route for flying insects as well).
12 ' lights! Impressive. Lol
@@onedayiwillmakesomecontent - Oops! Yeah, I guess that would be pretty impressive at that 🤔😂
My experience is the total opposite. Paid 40$ for lightbulbs that failed every 4 weeks from low use. This actually pushed me away from LED lighting for more than a decade. I just started to get back into it because of how it's the only option.
they cant take the cold either. my dad was so happy and bragging when he bought me a case of 32 of these light-bulbs. "you'll never have to buy light-bulbs again, son!" they went so fast, much faster than an old fashioned
Well it's a good thing big gov. decided to outlaw the incandescents. Another idea so good that it had to be mandated.
@@atlucas1 omg i had no idea that they did that! no wonder i haven't seen them!
He bought cheap inexpensive 🗑 🚮 🗑 🚮 🗑 🚮 🗑 🚮 🗑 TRASH led bulbs. Ours last now over 22 years
@@IronMike-f8i You clever boy
No issue here with cold. They must've been junk bulbs.
I bought one in 2015 and I use it a lot, especially here in Finland in winter time it is virtually on all the time and it is still working perfectly fine after 9 years.
@@cloudnine5651 I think the reason why my lamp works that long is that in 2015 they were still making these LED lamps with quality.
@@cloudnine5651 OK, then. Have a blessed day ahead.
@@cloudnine5651 "mental gymnastics at its best right here"
Clarify, please. Yours or his?
All of the earlier ones were better quality. That is how they talked us out of what we made in Europe and the US and into what China makes.
Best bit of information I'm likely to find on the youtubes all week.
Light bulb suicide is a serious issue that really deserves more attention.
Yes, these corporations want to go green but also love filling landfills with greedy engineering
I'm glad that I came across this video because I have had LED bulbs fail relatively fast, and I didn't know why. Thank you!
Huh?
it can be many things, in cheap leds, the electronic fail even before the led burn , i even got some , if you give a choc to the bubble the led fall out the circuit, they forgot to weld them or what
Thanks! I've been wondering why my kitchen Leds keep dying all the time and now you provided me with the much needed answer!
As usual you give us top notch information!!
That is very kind of you to say. Thank you
This video explains the frustrations I have with these bulbs. They are not cheap and only pay off if they last the 20yrs.
Thank you much. Very helpful
Keep your package and receipts.. 😅
I replaced 12 8ft shop light bulbs 18 months ago and over half the LEDs are already dead.
This isn't an example of lifespan problems due to overheating because they're not enclosed.
So some problems are certainly manufacturing/quality related.
The 'LED' may last 20 years, but the supporting electronics made no such claim.
Now that LED lighting is ubiquitous, manufacturers give them a shorter service life by overrunning the components. Higher than optimal current means more brightness but shorter life. If you can install bulbs that are brighter than what your application requires and then dim them, they will last far longer.
What we really need is for every nation to have the famous "Dubai lamps" that are built to run within component specs.
Yeah, the bulbs in my ceiling fan in my "media room" are "80 watt equivalent" smart bulbs... that I then dim down to 5% and they have the ceiling fan right above them, so they stay even cooler.
Those Dubai lamps were brilliant! I wish we had them!!!
Like any electrical or mechanical component, running at 100% reduces lifespan and quality of operation.
"Why make cars that can drive at 150 mph if you never drive that fast?" Same thing. You don't want a car that maxes out its engine at 70 mph, or run your computer processor at 100% all day... or run your bulb at 100%.
Then throw in planned obsolesence, potentially even with a literal timer or on/off counter...
As a nerd obsessed with plasma, the 4th state of matter I will just continue to use discharge lamps like fluorescent and HID. And plasma globes too.
Not just higher brightness but they are actually less efficient than a bulb that drives more LEDs at lower voltage.
I wrote the installation date on my first LED bulb, over six and a half years later it still glows nice and bright in a small glass shade.
Love the Bright Stik, I'm glad I have a lifetime supply.
Literally was just saying to myself last night looking at a bulb that was out in my ceiling fan that led lights don't seem to last very long anymore, maybe even worse than traditional light bulbs now.
Save the old bulbs because one day they will be gone from the stores.
@@davidparker9676 people said Rush Limbaugh was crazy for piling them up when the first curly florescent(CFL) bulbs were touted to be the future.
One of those leaked and the smell was so bad we said f that and went back to incandescent
The Internet of Things is now reading minds, probably through LED bulbs.
@@bobertjones2300 On a serious note, research has shown that LED light reduces fertility rates so maybe the Light bulbs will hasten the birthrate collapse.
Yes, Now-a-days there's lots of cheap LED bulbs, usually from China, that don't last more than a few months. But there are some quality LED around also. You get what you pay for.
You also still get what you pay for. I work as an IBEW Wireman at a major regional airport and have seen the transition to LED firsthand. We used to have over 20 outages of inground runway lighting nightly. Now maybe 20 a year. These have 777s landing directly on them and there are first gen leds out there still kicking. We swapped a giant parking garage over to led from 600w mhs all on ot. A year per floor. The first month operational they made their $ back from our ot pay. They are far superior to any out now.
As a retired commercial and industrial electrical contractor I can assure you that electrical contractors and “owners” will buy their LED’s from large lighting suppliers or electrical supply houses. These are usually top quality products. Compare that to LEDs bought from a box store or even a discount store. The quality is not there as they’re trying to compete for sales.
The problem is trying to obtain quality ones now. I've tried them all, even Cree...all fail almost as frequently as the halogen/incandescent lights they're supposed to replace. I don't mind paying more $, but that's no guarantee.
Don't compare runway lights to residential. We don't get our money's worth
@@NikoBellaKhouf2 are they as expensive as the certified bulbs we have to use in aircraft?
@@grayrabbit2211 the point was to not compare apples to oranges
That's basically every fixture made. Thanks for getting involved FED GOV.
Guess I got lucky. I just checked the ones I have and one states: Suitable for Enclosed Fixtures and the other says: Must Be Used in Enclosed Fixture Outside. Great informational video!
Do you know what brand those were?
@@joeshmoe9978 The ones that say Ideal for totally enclosed fixtures in the specifications & on the box are: Unbranded 60 watt, Non- dimmable, daylight. They are 12.98 for 8 bulbs at Home Depot. The others I have are Great Value Brand & the box says: Must be used in enclosed fixture outside..so that makes them safe.
Yeah, another problem with LEDs is they shouldn't be used in wet environments unless they're in completely sealed glass bulbs. Hence the "must be used".
This video is so helpful. Now I understand what's going on with my light bulbs. THANK YOU!!!
you are few to really able to understand what what these Video tell you many still just complain .
Same goes with today's automobile engines. Have you ever noticed how much heat is produced under the hood? And look at the hood's insulation which is there to protect the hood surface and paint. This hood insulation acts like an oven holding or baking the engine and all it's plastic and rubber components under the hood. Heat ages things faster even for motor oil! That's one of the reason's why oil changes are required even with a high quality motor oil. I always pop up my hood after a drive, especially a long out of town drive, until the engine compartment has cooled down below 100 degrees which is a safe range for most plastics and rubber. I also turn off my engine if I'm at a long stopping point.
Regarding 1:57: Two bulbs in a fixture will of course generate significantly more heat and shorten the lives of the bulbs even more. But they will NOT "fight against each other and that heat will destroy the other bulb, one of the bulbs will die quickly and the other will last much longer" as claimed in this video. Sure, one bulb will fail first (they're not going to fail at the exact same moment). But the other will be failing very soon afterward. The idea that the excess heat generated affects one bulb more than the other is nonsense.
Exactly. I found that segment weirdly, obviously in defiance of simple logic
But LEDs are not meant to heat up
@@blinkybill2198 A 100W incandescent light bulb turns 2W into light, and 98W into heat. They get very hot. A 100W equivalent LED bulb turns 2W into light and 13W into heat. They still get hot. They just don't get as hot as incandescents did. And if you put them in an enclosed fixture, that heat can't dissipate and they get even hotter.
@stargazer7644 i just touched my led bulbs in my lounge that have been on all night. They are barely warm, just above room temperature.
@@blinkybill2198 if you remove the plastic cover and touch the led directly you will brun your finger
Even in open fittings, they fail. They seem to me to last no longer than tungsten bulbs. In fact, I’ve still got tungsten bulbs in a couple of fixtures that must have been there for ten years, and still work.
I was using candelabra LEDs in my fluted ceiling fan fixtures, but they failed every few months. (I seldom run the fan though.)
Hopefully, the new Trump administration will re-legalize incandescent bulbs.
@@CarlGerhardt1 i hope they do that
What I hate is that I am forced to buy crap, while they try to brainwash me into thinking its great and amazing
Let me think: I need a bulb that will not flicker, use as little components as possible, work with standard dimmers, not produce Radio frequency interference while running and work in enclosed fixture
So far, I was not able to find a led that would do that. Its eather filament and doesnt produce radio frequency interference but flickers like crazy or its flicker free, and produces RF interference
@@CarlGerhardt1of you could just pay a little more for the bulbs with good quality components. Thanks to energy savings, you will still end up ahead after just a couple years compared to incandescent.
Filament bulbs give off heat and therefore are inefficient. The time when indoor lighting is used generally corresponds to when domestic heating is in use. Therefore the heat is not lost. I’m not convinced about a lot of so called ‘progress’ these days.
Basic incandescent bulb are horrible now too. They used to last quite a long time. Now they burn out in a very short time. No I haven't time them but compared to years ago, they do. I remember when I could get a few free replacement bulbs when I went to the hardware store to pay the electric bill! That was in the 60's !!! Cheers!
No wonder my enclosed lights die so fast! Mine tend to flicker for weeks before getting dimmer and dimmer. Now I know why. I covet old fashioned bulbs ,hard to find now though. Thanks for info .👍
Fortunately I have never experienced this. The first LED bulb was installed in my house over 14 years ago, and it's still going strong and providing good light. Many have been in service in my house for a decade. But I do always buy quality brands - Cree, GE, Philips. I'm delighted with LED bulbs, and my bulb replacement cost has fallen to virtually nothing. Of course, I do use the bulbs that cost more to start with - probably avoiding the cheap components you're discussing here.
seems that if you installed LEDs early on, the bulbs last way longer.....they have purposely fudged them since then so they can continue to sell bulbs.....
Do keep in mind that older LEDs were designed much more robustly. Every brand's quality has dropped significantly (as have the prices.) We're long past the stage of "early adoption."- the period where they were expensive as sin, but they catered towards the energy-conscious upper middle class.
I too have many early LEDs in my home, particularly from the likes of Feit Electric (Costco carried ONLY Feit LEDs from around 2015 onward.) Feit's early A19s (standard medium base / shape) were atrocious and would go out strobing, but their BR30 (recessed can lights) were some of the best in the industry. I haven't had a single one of their BR lamps die in the 8 years I've lived in my home, and they went in as soon I moved in as the previous owner had those terrible BR30 CFL floods that took 6.8 business days to warm up.
Also, our kitchen is lit with recessed can retrofits from Cooper Lighting / Halo (prior to the Signify buyout) and one of the 4inch lights is on 15hrs a day (nightlight) for the past 7 years. Still works to this day!
I saw a tutorial of someone who removed the practice dome and it did help it stay much cooler. They also went and added holes to the bottom plastic casing and that helped even more. Gotta try this.
Everything is predatory on the “ consumer “, everything!
When has it ever been different?
Buyer beware, always.
Maybe a better solution would be absolute government regulation. Let's just got to a fully planned economy. I wonder what we could call that kind of system???
@@PelicanNorth Why do you act like there are only 2 options? Have the government regulate stuff like this so it performs better in the situations most people will be using it. That's not a planned economy; that's common sense.
@@pendlera2959 The government pretty much forced us to go LED. They are banning manufacture and import of incandescent bulbs and the mercury in the fluorescent bulbs is not a good thing to have around or dispose of either.
Since the government mandated energy efficient bulbs, utility bills have increased so there is no cost savings to the consumer.
All of the utilities got more expensive due to more efficient homes. The government regulation just increases costs to the consumer. Buyer beware is the best way. Consumers need to educate themselves on the products they buy and not depend on a corrupt official to vouch for it. If you buy your stuff off of TEMU, don't complain when it breaks 10 seconds later.
@@pendlera2959 Phillyfatheads original post was stated as an absolute - "everything". Reinforced with another "everything."
I think absolutes are a sign of poor thinking, and to show that, I made another absolute statement that you find to be poor reasoning - which was my intent! My statement was facetious, but Philly's was not. If you think I was "acting like that" it is because I was pretend acting. Of course there is a middle ground!
Welcome to capitalism!
I just changed my second LED bulb of the week this morning and these things are scarcely a year old.
I loved the old incandescent bulbs.
Old incandescent bulbs became so cheaply built that they rarely lasted more than a few months and sometimes not even a few weeks. If you remember, Congress even passed a law that forced GE to make better quality incandescent bulbs.
@@charlesschmidt849 Fwiw, as one who earned his living in the electrical trades all my incandescent were heavy duty 130 volt and they did hold up.
@@myvenusheeler I actually miss the warmth they gave off. I know that was all wasted energy but there’s nothing like a bit of reading on a winter day with the warmth of those bulbs on my bald head.
@@charlesschmidt849 Didnt happen in this country, they lasted forever,
My LED recessed lighting is going strong at 7 years.
I was wondering what was going on. I have bought so many bulbs over the years it's ridiculous. Now i know what to look for. Thank you for making this video.
A bulb that lasts 20 years doesn’t make the company any more money🤷🏽♀️
I haven't had a bulb last more than a year even with open fixtures, not one! I have taken several bulbs apart and have discovered that some of the connections are pinch connections, not soldered connections. I don't know if it's the heat or what that causes these connections to loosen up and fail. In some cases it is one of the led mini bulbs that fail. In these cases, if one knows how, you can bypass the light and get it working again. The pinch connection problem is just a little more difficult to repair, but it can be done rather than buying a new bulb. Even doing theses repairs I haven't have a bulb last more than three years! Thought you would like to know😊
Fluctuations in power will kill the electronics too.
i try to repair some too, bud bad luck , they put so much glue to open it that i dommage it most of the time, and even you manage to repair, you can't put it back correctly and it will over heat
This is super helpful. Thank you. We were using LED bulbs in an enclosed fixture (ceiling) and couldn't figure out why they were not lasting more than a year.
Short, to the point, THANKS. Great video
I have seen other LED failure videos in which the diodes are wired one-to-another (in series not parallel) and if one diode fails then the circuit is broken and none of the others work. This is much like how older cheap Christmas light strings work. These videos also may show you how to remove a diode or alternately bypass the diode to make the bulb work again.
That's how LEDs are always used. The LEDs have manufacturing variance leading to different voltage drops so you want independent current regulation on every parallel branch. LEDs in series will all have the same current. It probably also simplifies things to have the overall DC load be higher voltage lower current.
It's pretty much never an LED that fails in these things but the power conversion or board assembly itself.
Man that's crazy. I've still got a set of the 1st gen Phillips Hue lights from 10 or 12 years ago that are still going.
That finally explains why I must replace the bulbs in my closet every year.
Well you certainly don't need a cover in your closet.
There's a video called l, "The Lightbulb Conspiracy" that talks about the planned obsolescence of the lightbulbs of the past.
That's exactly what I thought of. From best I can tell this is the industry that invented planned failure instead so ofc I'm not surprised. And now that the gov has outlawed a major competing type of bulb why would they care.smdh
LEDs don't have that problem
The Phoebus cartel isn't actually a good example of planned obsolescence. Technology Connections did a fairly decent video on that a while ago.
FYI, the conspiracy didn't work because even before the ink dried, the conspirators were already scheming to exploit its loopholes to screw up each other.
@@cloudnine5651 wdym? a law of rights like case law or statute, or an unwritten law that spontaneously emerged?
So I broke the globe in my kitchen light and just left the bulb bare because it was so much brighter, and now that I think about it, I haven't changed it in a couple years. Thanks for the info!
The Home Depot EcoSmart warranty has been good to me over the years. Usually they issue a $5 gift card if you have one fail. But also still have some bulbs probably 12 years old with visible outward facing heatsink working great.
The old ones with the heat sink were well made and the price reflected it.
Horrible RF-noisy things, imho. Creates lots of interference, especially during the holidays. :D
Ah well, one gets good at RF interference mitigation. My experience as far as quality with these things go seems to be hit-n-miss. Excessive heat kills electronics.
Thanks for another informative video!!
Interesting: I had no idea about the RFI. But I realized that, these days, I basically have no RF to be Ied with When I was a kid, I was an SWLand later a ham, but that was over 50 years ago. LEDs were barely making into the panel indicator space. Since then, when I had TV it was mostly cable, and broadcast radio was mostly replaced over time with cassettes and CDs. Now I have Wifi at home, and cellular on the go, but I don't use anything RF below a GHz. That may not be typical yet, sut I suspect it's quite common. So most of that RFI is silently absorbed and turned into heat to contribute to climate change 🙂
I put an LED lamp in a garage door opener and it interfered with the remote operator range, changed brands, no more interference.
@@rantalbott6963 Interesting reply. Yeah, it was a different RF world 50 years ago. 😄
As a nerd obsessed with plasma, the 4th state of matter I will just continue to use discharge lamps like fluorescent and HID. And plasma globes too.
Genie makes quiet RFI bulbs. Many people switched to LED bulbs for garage door openers and found the opener no longer worked. Genie found a niche market for this type of bulb and charges people appropriately (high).
Thanks. I wondered why our LED bulbs keep dying so quickly, and now I know.
I bought my house six years ago and replaced bulbs all with LEDs from the dollar store. All are still working. They aren't on all the time. However, since i have 16 foot ceilings in part of the house, I have a large table lamp on top of a high shelf that has had one of these dollar bulbs burning contentiously for the past six years. the only time it's been off would be the odd power outages from the weather or hurricane. It continues to work but I've noticed it's dimmer in the last couple of years.
Meanwhile, I've recently bought a few other LEDs for various lamps and had a few fail within a year.
Built my house 3 years ago and it was filled with LEDs throughout. Fast forward to today I’ve had about 6-7 separate bulbs of different types as well as integrated LED fixtures all fail. Beyond frustrating but I will look for this in the future, thank you!
That makes a lot of sense. We put leds in our can lights and they have only been lasting about 6 months but I never noticed this fine print, it explains so much
Thanks for the info! BTW your audio is excellent. Even in that wind. Could you show us how?
While working for the railroad, I replaced all incandescent bulbs on all the crossings in my territory and replaced them with LED's. Had to change them out at the same rate as incandescent bulbs, especially on the gate
arms. The main lamps started to have several arrays go out. I think incandescents are just as good.
Do you work all the live long day doing this?
I noticed the phrase "Not for use in totally enclosed or recessed luminaires", asked around and no answer. Thank you for finally answering my question! I figure the lower cost makes up for the shorter life.
I don't think they're the best invention. I miss the bright, clear light of incandescents. But you're right, they don't last as long as claimed.
Also, incandescent bulbs give off ultra violet light, it may be a small amount but you absorb it to produce vitamin D.
@@manofkent4472 just be outside for 30 minutes a day... should not be too hard, right?
As a nerd obsessed with plasma, the 4th state of matter I will just continue to use discharge lamps like fluorescent and HID. And plasma globes too.
@@manofkent4472 No, incandescent bulbs don't produce significant amounts of ultraviolet light. But they generate a lot of infrared, which is also important for health.
@@mernokimuvek Why did you spam this comment everywhere? Reported.
I had 2 three bulb Home Depot led packs. Both were completely finished in 4 months. They advertised 13 Years! If you can’t use in a fixture that’s enclosed, what good are led’S. GO BACK TO tungsten filaments! Yeah!
As a nerd obsessed with plasma, the 4th state of matter I will just continue to use discharge lamps like fluorescent and HID. And plasma globes too.
@@mernokimuvek I have a couple 70W HID (metal halide) lamps for shits, giggles and the light therapy during the winter, along with Philips electronic ballasts. They're indeed fun.
Very helpful. I have been wondering about this for years. You finally answered my questions. Thanks for the very informative video.
I've had this issue with LED bulbs too. I stockpiled incandescent , halogen, and CFL bulbs before they were removed from the marketplace. I've gone back to halogen bulbs in enclosed fixtures with dimmers, and CFL's in enclosed fixtures without dimmers. I've had good luck with LED bulbs in table lamps, and PAR38 LED's in outdoor fixtures.
Did the video cut off early? I was hoping for some recommendations, you usually have solid recommendations. Would love a follow-up video! We've had this issue, and it has been surprisingly hard to find quality LEDs that are designed to fit in enclosed spaces. So for some of our fixtures we just go without the enclosure. The second problem is finding LEDs that are OK with moisture (e.g. in the bathroom, where they die 10x faster than even the enclosed bulbs).
I have had good luck with GE Reveal LED globe lights and 60w bulbs in my bathroom fixtures. Reveal bulbs come in 3 “styles,” I prefer the ones that are HD Daylight. These mimic the color spectrum, and are warmer looking than Cool White or other options. Best of luck.
Further to the video, look at integrated LED lights that don't use bulbs. Instead of putting a bulb into an application where it will struggle, install the right fixture.
If you watch until the end you can see he shows you can just search for bulbs for enclosed fixtures. Giving a recommendation beyond that is silly because a particular brand might switch from enclosed to not for enclosed and there would be no way to fix the video
As a nerd obsessed with plasma, the 4th state of matter I will just continue to use discharge lamps like fluorescent and HID. And plasma globes too.
I only have one enclosed fixture in my apartment, and I use an old CFL bulb on that. When I moved into my apartment, they had CFLs in all the fixtures. I immediately switched them all to Edison style LEDs, except in the dining room where I used a CFL because it's covered. When that eventually goes out, I have a whole closet full of CFLs that I can swap in one at a time.
Wow I've never read the carton. Lol Explains a lot! Thanks.
It's almost like that text is there for a reason.
@person880 I know I know. 👍🏼
Yep, light bulbs ain't light bulbs anymore.
@@lelandsmith2320 Light bulbs are bulbs that produce light. Glad I could clarify that for you. If you learn to read and follow basic instructions, you can avoid the issues shown in this video.
The original commenter clearly says he didn't read the box, and you are complaining about the light bulb. Let that sink in!!!
As a nerd obsessed with plasma, the 4th state of matter I will just continue to use discharge lamps like fluorescent and HID. And plasma globes too.
I put new LED lights in our bathroom ceiling light - 3 bulbs in separate fixtures, open at the bottom. Light was great; they all failed within 4 days.
I hope you got a refund
Ours does that in the kitchen, we are going to replace the fixture, seems the LED don't like it no matter the brand.
As a nerd obsessed with plasma, the 4th state of matter I will just continue to use discharge lamps like fluorescent and HID. And plasma globes too.
I have honestly never known this. Thanks for the lesson.
Good to actually learn something new.
Mine in open fixtures 25-50% still fail at about 2 years. It called planned obsolescence! Not early ones “ over built”.
Glad someone is paying attention. Heaven forbid we go back to building a refrigerator that lasts 30 years. 😉
@@jamescady723
To be fair, those fridges that lasted longer were also significantly less efficient and used refrigerants that were terrible for the environment.
They were also quite expensive for their time.
@@Diviance There's no reason we can't build more durable fridges with safer coolants and more efficient designs. Companies just don't want to. I'm sure there are many engineers who are frustrated by how many corners they are forced to cut in their designs and they know exactly how well fridges could work if they were truly made to last.
@@pendlera2959
We _can._ But the cost would be quite high. Because the components cost a lot.
Steel fridges with high quality, durable insulation and high quality electronics for efficiency and so on... I imagine not a whole lot of people would be buying $5k-8k fridges.
@@pendlera2959
There are reasons.
We are in late stage capitalism. They literally have no reason to make fridges like that. People need fridges. They will buy them either way. So... according to how capitalism works, it is in their best interest to make them as shoddy as they can while still working long enough that people will continue buying replacements.
Excellent info! Never realized this.
I noticed the “not for enclosed fixtures” on a bulb a year or so ago and then discovered it’s really hard to find ones that are. I finally found some on Amazon by Sylvania but it took a lot of reading the fine print in the description to do so. It’s good to know why there’s a difference 😊
Thank you I did not know that about LEDs.
0:28 Phoebus cartel 2.0 😀
I live in Europe. My LED light bulbs have lasted me for 8 years now. I'm literally typing this while sitting under an 8 year old LED bulb.
I used to have to replace incandecent bulbs every few months. Since switching to LEDs, I've only replaced two, and they were both in the same, fully enclosed ceiling fixture.
Gonna change that fixture next week!
In my experience, heat isn't the only contributor to premature failures. I live in an area that has colder winters (below freezing most days) with an unheated garage.
I replaced some incandescent bulbs in there with your typical off the shelf LED bulbs. Most failed within a year, usually when it was cold out, which resulted in some flickering, then heavy flickering and finally complete failure.
During the warmer months the bulbs didn't have any issues, however if they were turned on during the colder months, it was only a matter of time before they would start flickering and fail.
After this, I moved to 72W halogen lamps which handle the heat and cold perfectly fine given how they work and the lack of electronics. I still use LEDs in climate controlled areas of my home, but I don't plan on using LEDs anymore in areas exposed to outdoor temperatures.
I was an early adapter of LEDs. The old ones weighed about a pound, they all got moved to the garage as fancy slimmer bulbs came out. Old ones still going strong in the garage, newer bulbs fail all the time.
Lowest common denominator. The capacitor.
I've CFL's that have outlasted led WHILE enclosed. Used hours a night for 8 years now. These are shop rated Phillips CFL,
CFLs last longer if they're left on for long times,if on for only a short time,they fail sooner. the start filaments blow on surges.
As a nerd obsessed with plasma, the 4th state of matter I will just continue to use discharge lamps like fluorescent and HID. And plasma globes too.
@mernokimuvek low pressure sodium is a crazy light source i have one.
@@voltare2amstereo I have an 18 W SOX lamp too. Sadly Philips stopped making them in 2019.
This was so educational, thanks. Normally i consider this type of stuff but didnt in the case of LED's and was thinking it was a con.
I'd been aware of the issue of enclosed fixtures with LED bulbs when we replaced our old overhead lighting. Rather than putting LEDs inside our "boob light" fixtures, I got those flat, flush-mount LED fixtures with no bulb. So far, a great success! Did it over 5 years ago, and all fixtures are working fine. They look nicer than the enclosures, are very bright, and I never have to replace a bulb. 🤞
you wont eventually be replacing the bulb, you'll be replacing the whole fixture...
@@strayspark1967 Had them for years, never had to replace one.
@@jamesheartney9546 The day is coming.
@@cloudnine5651 The point is that they don't fail. I have lots of fixtures with LED light bulbs in them, which also haven't failed in years. Why go to the trouble of building a fixture whose structure is predicated on the failure of a component which isn't going to fail? Just silly.
BTW, you seem to have a lot of anger issues, what with the personal attacks. You might want to get help on that.
I have incandescents that have lasted longer than modern LED’s
I was always curious why my led bulbs died so prematurely. Thank you for this video.
Good video. I thought I was just buying Chinese junk as my bathroom LEDs would blow way too fast. I never thought about heat as LEDs don't generate the heat as an old-fashioned bulb. I did research and found out the heat issue. Installed the correct lamps and after a year they are still going strong.
And humidity. electronics hate humidity
It’s called “built-in obsolescence”, a modern day phenomenon where products are designed and built to intentionally fail early on in order to generate repeat business at a high frequency, inspired by nothing more than plain old greed.
Economics dictate that if people value a better-quality and longer-lasting bulb, they will be willing to pay more for it and a company will be able to take market share. The problem is actual consumer behaviour is almost always to just buy the cheapest option. Which will almost always be of poorer quality. Educating consumers is part of the solution, as they need to learn that the long-term cost of poor quality products is usually higher than paying more up front for quality.
Even worse is the light temperature of early LEDs. They finally came around to making "warmer" lights ("soft" or "warm" white - between 2,700 and 3,000 Kelvins (K) - the typical color range you get from old-style incandescent bulbs) but a lot of people have no aesthetic sense and are still using those glaringly bright blue/white bulbs. They wash out colors and make things (and people) look terrible. Also, not sure how much money we're saving with LEDs as the old bulbs didn't cost that much to run anyway. An incandescent bulb costs about $6.22 per year to use, while an LED bulb costs about $1.04 per year. Most people don't have enough bulbs on long enough for that to really matter.
I'd say this applies to other bulb types too, they're just a lot less sensitive to it. I've encountered incandescent bulbs that fail in less than a year because of being enclosed. Theoretically, fluorescent lights will degrade from the extra heat but they're also built to be somewhat self-regulating.
The real stupid thing is, it's not hard to make an LED last longer. Basically, you just include more LEDs and operate them at a lower voltage. Modern bulbs push the LEDs to their limits.
You also use capacitors with a higher heat rating. That is a big one.
I may have to try some "for enclosed fixtures" ones. 3:22
Ironically though the LED's that have lasted second longest at our house are the ones most enclosed and on the longest....and even that has been undee a year. The only ones to last longer are the ones missing cover in bathroom. We are on our 5th round in 3 years in kitchen and they are not enclosed.
We live in a disposable society. Everything is built to fail.
Bought Phillips bulbs a decade ago still going strong in enclosed outdoor fixtures
Make incandescent bulbs legal again
They are! The govt recently stopped restricting them again. The problem is that all the big manufacturers dried up, so all you can find now are garbage tier bulbs from Mexico.
@whistlingsage9817 oh cool. I see a business opportunity...
Also, incandescent bulbs give off ultra violet light, it may be a small amount but you absorb it to produce vitamin D.
You can still find them in thrift stores
just because you don't read your electric bill doesnt make electricity free.