Blinking LED Lights

[Lindy911]

I have had LED flood lights in the ceiling of our family room for over 2 years. Recently, one started blinking rapidly not long after being turned on. Now 3 others are doing the same thing, but very sporadically. I removed the first light and examined the contacts for the bulb and fixture, and they looked fine.

Any thoughts on next steps? Thanks, Hugh

 

[rlitman]

Sounds like either the power supply in the light is failing, or there is something wrong with your dimmer switch.

 

[dogdog]

Sounds like either the power supply in the light is failing, or there is something wrong with your dimmer switch.

^^^
that... I have the cheap HD/Sams club LED bulbs that does that till it finally dies, I opened it up and the chip inside is burn, one of the the LED has gotten so hot that it falls off the circuit board ...

So just change it out.

 

[CJ7VFR]

I have had LED flood lights in the ceiling of our family room for over 2 years. Recently, one started blinking rapidly not long after being turned on. Now 3 others are doing the same thing, but very sporadically. I removed the first light and examined the contacts for the bulb and fixture, and they looked fine.

Any thoughts on next steps? Thanks, Hugh

To test to see if it is the bulbs or the switch, take the bulbs out and put them in another light fixture to see if they blink in there too.


If they do, the bulbs are going bad. If not, then the switch might be going bad, or if the switch is old, it could be that it can't be used with LED bulbs. Some older switches, dimmers especially, don't play nice with new LED bulbs and can make the LED's blink or flash.

What some people do to help fix that is remove just one new LED and put in one regular incandescent bulb of the same color and approximate wattage into one of the light fixtures that is controlled by the same older switch. This sometimes helps cut down on the LED's blinking and flashing.

Jim

 

[Lindy911]

Thanks for the help. I'll put the lights in different fixtures and see what happens.

 

[fourjeepin]

I had this happen recently and moved the bulbs to fixtures without dimmers.

 

[CitadelBlue]

Sounds like your 14 year bulb only lasted 2 years.....

 

[CJ7VFR]

Sounds like your 14 year bulb only lasted 2 years.....

Yeah, the life expectancy claims of any LED bulb manufacturer is just that, a claim. None of them have been around long enough to say that any of their bulbs will last 14 years. It is just a claim they make from running tests.

No test simulation, run on a bench or outside in the environment or whatever, will ever replace what happens to a product in the real world from years and even decades of actual use.

But as with the OP's case, it could be the LED's are no longer playing nice with the older existing light switch/dimmer.

Jim

 

[rlitman]

Yeah, the life expectancy claims of any LED bulb manufacturer is just that, a claim. None of them have been around long enough to say that any of their bulbs will last 14 years. It is just a claim they make from running tests...

Too often, it seems that the bulb manufacturer's marketing department just rubber stamps the life expectancy of the LED module onto the bulb. That's like saying that your car should last 50 years without maintenance, because your steering wheel's leather coating is just that good.

In real life, the LED module almost never fails before some other component of the bulb (usually a part in the driver).

We're also entering an era where utility power quality is in rapid decline. Not at all any fault of the utilities, but because of our increasing power efficiency demands. Energy Star devices are all abound, and everything now has inverter and switching power supplies. These devices not only cause harmonic currents, but also flood our power distribution with low energy surges that are hell on the very electronics they're made from.