Harbor Freight 4 Foot, 5000 Lumen Braun LED Shop Light?

I just got a New Harbor Freight Coupon Book that lists a light that I have not seen before.

It is described as a BRAUN 5000 Lumen LED Hanging Shop Light, Item 64410

Price is $19.99 with coupon(regular $29.99)

I went to HF website and tried to find the light, both by description, and by item #, and did not find it.

Anyone have any info about it?

If it is a good light, that is a lot of Lumens for $20

Considering it appears to be a single “tube” design and they give no wattage or amp specs.......I would be a skeptic.

That $20-30 price point is pretty common on two “tube” fixtures at many other outlets with 4000-5000 lumens.

Edit.......Menards has a single “tube” fixture similar 5000 lumens 55 watt $29 not on sale but 11% off right now.

I just got the Email version(paper version came in today's mail) of the HF Inventory Closeout Coupons through 10/31/18

When I click on "BUY NOW" it takes me to an Electric Chainsaw.

Well something has changed. Now when I click on "BUY NOW" it goes to product info for the light, but not much info is provided and there are NO reviews.

There are now 36 reviews with 4.9(out of 5) rating.

I stopped at a HF store last week, but did not see any of these.

I called my local HF and they had 7 in stock. So I figured for $19.99, what the heck. Printed the $10 off coupon and picked up 4 (limit of 4 on the coupon) for less than $80 (before tax). Figured I would unbox 1 and see if I liked it.

I'm actually surprised at the construction. This light is very light in weight at slightly over a pound. The "bulb" area is mounted to a single piece extruded aluminum shell that is very well made. The plastic shroud over the LED's is not flimsy and is frosted to aid in light spread. There is clearly a good sized circuit board inside as you can see the screws where it's mounted. Manual says not to mount directly on drywall, but I don't see that heat would be a problem in the time I let one run on my kitchen table. Yes it gets warm, but not hot, and you can hold it in your hand all day long from what I observed, so heat does not appear to be a problem. The construction is clean, and looks very good. It's a lot better than I expected for $20 and most likely being China made. It is ETL certified and stamped that is is made to UL standards (but I presume it is not UL certified). Not a sign of flickering, no hum or noise at all. Even tried a video of the light to see if the camera caught fast AC flickering as it sometimes does with fluorescents, but none seen with the LED. With there being signs of a control board mounted, it appears this is not a 120v direct drive LED setup, but is using a driver control board.

Not sure how to rate the light output as I don't have one of the other 4000 lumen LED shop lights to compare it to. It's pretty dang bright (single unit). I would call the light temp in a daylight range probably around 5k. Where I'm going to use them the ceiling height is about 12.5' and open floor joists above so the lack of surface mounting option is not an issue.

I did an unscientific measurement using a free ft candle app for my cell phone. My kitchen overheat 2 bulb florescent light gave a reading of 39.5 ft cd at table height which was 5 1/2' from the light in my 8' tall kitchen. So I laid the Braun light sideways on the counter and measured off 5 1/2' feet and took a reading with the same phone and app. Got 80.5 ft cd. So I'm pretty certain once I get 4 of these in the same area of my basement, there will be very decent lighting for a $20 fixture.

The power cord does come out the top of the light and there is no provision to chain multiple lights together. The power cord is a nice thick cord with a grounded plug on the end. Chain is decent quality. I will be using these in a switched outlet configuration so the pull chain is irrelevant to me. There is a stud mounted on each end of the top of the light where an "S" hook attaches the chain. You can see one of these studs in the last photo below next to the screw on the right side of the photo.

I have considered popping the control board end cap off, to see if I can figure out a way to direct mount these to the open floor joists above. However unlike the twin LED strip lights there is no space in which to drill for mounting once I determine there are no wires in the path of the drilling. With the light weight, I'm thinking just take a 4 to 6" piece of 1/8" aluminum and drill and tap two small holes in the light frame to mount the short piece of aluminum. Then use that added tab as a bracket to mount to the floor joists. Or keep it simple and just hang the dang things (which is what I'll probably do.

So for for $20 a light. I think these are a decent deal and appear to be better than the average Harbor Freight item quality. Of course the true measure will be how long they last before the control board frys.

https://www.harborfreight.com/4-ft-led-hanging-shop-light-64410.html

Forgot to post the $10 off coupon - good through October 31, 2018 with a limit of 4 per coupon. I'll see if I can find my Kill-a-watt and try to get a wattage measurement tomorrow.

https://www.hfqpdb.com/best_coupon/BRAUN+5000+LUMENS+LED+HANGING+SHOP+LIGHT

Ive been wanting to get one of these for my basement shop and try to
brighten it up down there.

https://www.1000bulbs.com/product/2...IViIdpCh2TdQQ6EAEYASABEgL4IvD_BwE#detail-tabs

Looks VERY similar. I'm guessing same light with a different label.

Saw a similar looking light at my local Costco for $8 something over the weekend.

I picked up a couple to compare to the older Costco 3700 lumen lights. Have not had a chance yet to do the direct comparison.

FYI, if you order online, you can use the coupon for up to 9 lights, and shipping is only $6.99. Comes to $20.77 per light delivered. I have not ordered from HF, so don't know if they charge sales tax.

Marty

mdurbanc said:

I picked up a couple to compare to the older Costco 3700 lumen lights. Have not had a chance yet to do the direct comparison.

FYI, if you order online, you can use the coupon for up to 9 lights, and shipping is only $6.99. Comes to $20.77 per light delivered. I have not ordered from HF, so don't know if they charge sales tax.

Marty

Click to expand...

They do depending on your state.

Interested

just as a point of info to take..... I do some work with LEDs in commercial applications.

The variable factors with LED's is that based on the cost, you can get efficiency, reliability and power draw. With low cost, you will not get all....

So while it may look good when it is first new, it will probably experience a fairly quick degradation of light output. This depends on the current they are running thru the LED based on the current driver, etc. Efficiency is also based on what power supply they chose.

LED's are improving over time to get lower cost, better efficiencies, and better output, but you still get what you pay for....

Having said that, for home use, put them up and move on, but adjust your expectation for long life based on the amount of time you have them on. They will dim over the life of them.

For anyone interested in this light I just posted a review on youtube. It is a very nice light for $20.00.

I also did a small modification to it so I can mount it flush and I check the current and wattage usage it consumes.

BRAUN
4 Ft. LED Hanging Shop Light Youtube review

Anyone have further experience with these?

Cleaning out a section of basement and need new lighting. Don't need anything awesome just basic lights. Area is approx 25x11 and would hang a pair.

Other suggestions are good too! Went to Lowe's a few days ago & they didn't have ****.

MarvinBerry said:

Anyone have further experience with these?

Cleaning out a section of basement and need new lighting. Don't need anything awesome just basic lights. Area is approx 25x11 and would hang a pair.

Other suggestions are good too! Went to Lowe's a few days ago & they didn't have ****.

Click to expand...

I have one of these in my 10x10 shed, and a few more at a shared shop space. It's plenty of light for my needs in the shed (I have a few other lights in there, definitely overkill). Hard to photograph with my phone camera, but it is bright. I wired in an outlet box run off switched power. I actually like the pull chain because sometimes I don't need all that light.

While I was at HF, I bought some 3 wheel furniture dollies because we wanted an "up" light for when we have a car on the lift. Some folks mount lights to the lift arms or the lift columns, but this can be moved anywhere we need. Note, the eye-stud for the hook mounts is not captive in the extrusion...you can unscrew it, but then the backing nut will fall loose. The end caps pry off pretty easily. I took mine out, countersunk some holes in the bottoms of the furniture dollies, and put them back in with blue loctite. For $28 total (including dollies), I don't really care if it stops being quite as bright in a few years, we will have gotten our money worth.

bimmer1980 said:

just as a point of info to take..... I do some work with LEDs in commercial applications.

The variable factors with LED's is that based on the cost, you can get efficiency, reliability and power draw. With low cost, you will not get all....

So while it may look good when it is first new, it will probably experience a fairly quick degradation of light output. This depends on the current they are running thru the LED based on the current driver, etc. Efficiency is also based on what power supply they chose.

LED's are improving over time to get lower cost, better efficiencies, and better output, but you still get what you pay for....

Having said that, for home use, put them up and move on, but adjust your expectation for long life based on the amount of time you have them on. They will dim over the life of them.

Click to expand...

Good info, thanks for the input. But as you know, most of us will not listen....sad but true...I bought one last night myself before reading this.

It'll be interesting to see how they hold up. I'm going back and getting a few more...

bimmer1980 said:

just as a point of info to take..... I do some work with LEDs in commercial applications.

The variable factors with LED's is that based on the cost, you can get efficiency, reliability and power draw. With low cost, you will not get all....

So while it may look good when it is first new, it will probably experience a fairly quick degradation of light output. This depends on the current they are running thru the LED based on the current driver, etc. Efficiency is also based on what power supply they chose.

LED's are improving over time to get lower cost, better efficiencies, and better output, but you still get what you pay for....

Having said that, for home use, put them up and move on, but adjust your expectation for long life based on the amount of time you have them on. They will dim over the life of them.

Click to expand...

This explains why the Phillips 100w equivalent LED bulbs I've bought were SUPER bright when I first installed them but are now about the same as an 60w bulb. I didn't know they'll degrade over time.

bimmer1980 said:

So while it may look good when it is first new, it will probably experience a fairly quick degradation of light output.

Click to expand...

^^He speaks the truth.
This is the #1 difference between commercial lighting products and big box or internet junk. And it's a huge secret.
It's hard to blame folks that aren't in the lighting business for not knowing these things. They're used to living with "light bulbs" and for the most part, they were all the same. So, when they see one LED product that costs $100 and a very similar one that costs $25, they think that they must be pretty much the same. They're not.
Steep lumen drop off is one of the biggest differences. A while back, one company that I'll not mention (Feit) was sued by the CPSC for false claims. Their products were tested and demonstrated an 80% lumen drop off after just 1000 hours!! That's criminal.
Also remember that when the lumens drop off, the watts DONT. So you'll have fixtures that are less efficient than the old incandescents.
Products that will demonstrate this lumen drop off include big box shop lights, linkable strips, deformable screw-ins, corn lamps, super cheap highbays and UFO's.
You'll often see my posts where I point out products that are junk. This is one of the main reasons why.
CD

The question with anything HF - How long does it last? As a shop light that plugs in and unchains, probably not a whole lot of risk here.. But for lighting in my garage, we'll be using fixed lights - and what we're all trying to work around with the old tube lighting is failure rates of the ballast and associated tubes..

cybrdyke said:

^^He speaks the truth.
This is the #1 difference between commercial lighting products and big box or internet junk. And it's a huge secret.
It's hard to blame folks that aren't in the lighting business for not knowing these things. They're used to living with "light bulbs" and for the most part, they were all the same. So, when they see one LED product that costs $100 and a very similar one that costs $25, they think that they must be pretty much the same. They're not.
Steep lumen drop off is one of the biggest differences. A while back, one company that I'll not mention (Feit) was sued by the CPSC for false claims. Their products were tested and demonstrated an 80% lumen drop off after just 1000 hours!! That's criminal.
Also remember that when the lumens drop off, the watts DONT. So you'll have fixtures that are less efficient than the old incandescents.
Products that will demonstrate this lumen drop off include big box shop lights, linkable strips, deformable screw-ins, corn lamps, super cheap highbays and UFO's.
You'll often see my posts where I point out products that are junk. This is one of the main reasons why.
CD

Click to expand...

Found this graph, would it be considered reasonable?

I just rewired my 8ft lights to 8 LED from fluorescent. From the graph it appears they all degrade over time.

That chart is skewed.
Rated life of an incandescent bulb, your standard 60w soft white, is 750 hours. Thats from brand new until death. In that short of a period, lumen depreciation is minimal.
Rated life of a fluorescent lamp, like a T8, is around 30,000 hours. Thats from brand new until death. Lumen depreciation over that time is about 15-20%.
Rated life of a 400w Metal Halide lamp is about 15,000 hours. That's from brand new until death. Lumen depreciation over that time is about 40%.
Industry standard for LED's is done differently because they keep glowing long after their usefulness has passed. We use 70% as our benchmark. When the lamps are only 70% as bright as the day they were installed, we call them dead. That's referred to as "life at 70%, or L70". Typical L70 of a quality LED product is 50,000 hours. I would use this as a MINIMUM baseline for selecting products as technology has gotten so much better. There are highbays out there rated at 200,000 hours to L70. Yes, they cost more. But these are the differences between pro-grade stuff and big box stuff.
CD

cybrdyke said:

That chart is skewed.
Rated life of an incandescent bulb, your standard 60w soft white, is 750 hours. Thats from brand new until death. In that short of a period, lumen depreciation is minimal.
Rated life of a fluorescent lamp, like a T8, is around 30,000 hours. Thats from brand new until death. Lumen depreciation over that time is about 15-20%.
Rated life of a 400w Metal Halide lamp is about 15,000 hours. That's from brand new until death. Lumen depreciation over that time is about 40%.
Industry standard for LED's is done differently because they keep glowing long after their usefulness has passed. We use 70% as our benchmark. When the lamps are only 70% as bright as the day they were installed, we call them dead. That's referred to as "life at 70%, or L70". Typical L70 of a quality LED product is 50,000 hours. I would use this as a MINIMUM baseline for selecting products as technology has gotten so much better. There are highbays out there rated at 200,000 hours to L70. Yes, they cost more. But these are the differences between pro-grade stuff and big box stuff.
CD

Click to expand...

thanks for the reply. I also just read about the L70 as that is when you'll usually notice a difference apparantly. This is all good to know as these are my first use of LED bulbs. I also bought one of these HF shop lights as a supplement over my work bench. 1st one was DOA and I had to go back to the store to exchange it. While there I asked them to plug in the replacement to make sure it worked. I bought a 12 pack of 8ft LEDs, they all worked out of the box.

cybrdyke said:

^^He speaks the truth.
This is the #1 difference between commercial lighting products and big box or internet junk. And it's a huge secret.
It's hard to blame folks that aren't in the lighting business for not knowing these things. They're used to living with "light bulbs" and for the most part, they were all the same. So, when they see one LED product that costs $100 and a very similar one that costs $25, they think that they must be pretty much the same. They're not.
Steep lumen drop off is one of the biggest differences. A while back, one company that I'll not mention (Feit) was sued by the CPSC for false claims. Their products were tested and demonstrated an 80% lumen drop off after just 1000 hours!! That's criminal.
Also remember that when the lumens drop off, the watts DONT. So you'll have fixtures that are less efficient than the old incandescents.
Products that will demonstrate this lumen drop off include big box shop lights, linkable strips, deformable screw-ins, corn lamps, super cheap highbays and UFO's.
You'll often see my posts where I point out products that are junk. This is one of the main reasons why.
CD

Click to expand...

Would you have any recommendation for a better quality light that is similar design to these? I have a couple of places that I can get by with a cheaper fixture, but I am also a value buyer and don't mind paying more if I get more for my $$$. I do have other applications that the light quality is going to be important to me over time in that location. I have plenty of outlets in this area, but don't want to hardwire as I don't spend a ton of time there and don't need ALL of the lights on. The previous owner had some 4' lights that he cut the ends off and wired to a switch...the electrical inspector required it all to be pulled out when we remodeled.

I bought three of these HF lights at Black Friday for 17.99 each. The descriptions above are very accurate. I put three of them over my workbench and they are great. I have (5) 4’ 4K LED lights on the ceiling of this single bay with White walls and floors. These HF lights are far brighter than my ceiling lights.

I wish they could be daisy chained, but I do like them.

I just woke up and came up to the shop.

I just did as I said I'd do.....I went back and bought 4 more tonight. The Winterville, NC store was out, so I went to Goldsboro, NC store. I did as OccupantRJ suggested, I looked up the stock number, checked availability and called be fore I went....then I asked them to hold 4 for me. LOL, the guy said they showed 172 in stock, but he'd "hold" four for me in case they sold out before I got there!

I plan to use them in some "unconventional ways"....who knows how they'll hold up. I plan to power one and see how it likes a Vanner 300W pure sine wave inverter. I plan to install it inside of an outdoor "run-in shed" for the horses. I'll use a rotary mechanical timer wired to the remote on/off circuit to turn the inverter on/off and leave the inverter switched on plugged into the HF 5000 Lumen light. I guess I need to figure out how long to safely run the inverter without "smoking" the battery as it will need to be charged every so often. The Light says 1.1A draw. I'll see if I can figure out what the inverter will require. That'll determine what/which battery/batteries I'll use.

It'd cost a small fortune to run a 15-20A circuit to the building. and I Really do not want to take a $300-$500 set of Solar panels and MPPT charge controller I have to just keep a POS battery charged so she can see how to pick up "road apples" in the dark.