Non Name-Brand LED Bulbs

[thaxboyd]

Having some bad experiences with non name-brand LED bulbs, meaning bulbs other than Sylvania, GE or Philips.

I have been buying these at Home Depot and using them in normal areas of the house and really don’t see more than 6-9 months of use.

What have your experiences been?

 

[mike in tucson]

First, anything that is the "Lights America" brand are trash and not worth bringing home. I have been buying bulbs from SuperBrightLEDs.com for a couple of years and they sometimes get bad lots of bulbs....I email them if the bulb dies and they replace them. Also, I try to buy only Cree LEDs regardless of the brand of light they are mounted into. Cree stuff seems to be of better quality.

 

[ishiboo]

Some are good, some are bad... seems pretty proportional to the price, like many things.

A lot of the off-brands are higher-end, for example a lot of the EcoSmart stuff is/was Cree and I've had good luck with all of my EcoSmart stuff. (Cheap lights can still use Cree diodes, but the rest of the light is ****.) My biggest concern is with light quality and dimmer compatibility. I like a nice warm LED I can dim to very low levels.

It's kind of a case-by-case basis. You get what you pay for.

 

[Williamtell]

I changed my whole house over to Wal-Mart branded 40 and 60 watt replacement led. They were 7.97 for 4 bulbs and have a 22 year life rating. They have bulbs that are rated less than the 22 years for less so look at the package before purchase.

They are rated for enclosures.

I've had mine for about a year and zero failures, I have them inside and out, even replaced them in my freezer and fridge.

 

[IndyGarage]

My house has a ton of can lights and I started changing them over to the Sylvania soft white (yellow box) 65W equivalent flood bulbs about 3 years ago. I hated Compact Florescent lights because of the warm up time.

I started finding them on sale at Lowes for about $10 apiece and started replacing all of the ones in my house about 10 at a time starting with the most used ones first. I now can find them on sale for $6 apiece.

I now have more than 60 of them installed. I take a sharpie and write the installation month and year on the base as I install them. Not a single one of the LED's has gone out. They provide plenty of light and come on instantly. I would recommend them highly.

 

[GirchyGirchy]

I've only bought Phillips LED bulbs. Zero failures after ~20.

 

[reader2580]

I have GE, Philips, and Cree LED light bubs in my house. No failures in two plus years. My first floor is 100% LED. The basement has a few regular bulbs because they rarely get used. The basement will get LED bulbs in a month as part of remodel.

 

[themiller]

I use Cree and Philips exclusively. The cheap CFLs lasted long enough to pay for themselves in savings (especially since most were free after rebate) but I *really* like not having to change bulbs or stock replacements. My house is probably 50% CFL/45% LED and 5% incandescent. Shooting for 95% LED but it will be a few years. The cheap CFLs seem to last 2-6 years in places traditional bulbs would last 6 months (outdoor disk to dawn) - I have yet to replace a LED...

 

[Casey69]

i've had decent luck with the off-brand led's from menards; they had a sale on the recessed-type lightbulbs, 4 for $9 - can't remember the brand. i bought 19 of them & haven't lost one.

i think the walmart brand led's are gtg & pretty reasonable.

 

[Falcon67]

We have a bunch of Utilitech incandescent looking bulbs around the house. Have lost 2 in the last 18 months or so, not bad for a cheap LED bulb.

Not sure about Lights of America LED units, but have 3 of their T8 fixtures. No fails and have had a couple longer than 7 years.

 

[Tfue]

My house is 100% outfitted with the Walmart brand led lights. Ameren our electric company does an in store discount at our Walmart. A 4 pack of 60w equivilant bulbs is under $3. I'm about 6 months in and they are all good to go.

 

[hedgehog]

Ii loke the philips bilbs myself. The flat ones go on sale all the time at my home depot, combine that with my provinces energy savimgs program i pay 1$ each

 

[Major Ramifications]

We have Utilitech from Lowes, 89 cents each on Black Friday last year, but all of ours came from the 99 cent Black Friday sale the year before.
NO complaints whatsoever! Great product, stupid low price.

 

[classic boost]

i have bad luck with home depot ecosmarts. they last 2-3 months for me.

 

[tthornto]

I have had good luck with all but the ecosmart 60 watt equivalent candelabra with the small e-12 base. I put them in all of our ceiling fan light fixtures. Out of 12 total 3 have burnt out in about 6 months.

 

[jsherid1]

We are all LED here--lots of high ceilings and my days of OSHA violation ladder rigs are behind me. We have Utilitech bulbs in all of our can lights (we must have 80 of them) and have only lost one since we moved into the house in July of 2014. In floor lamps, bathroom vanity lights and our coach lamps we used the Philips LED bulbs that look like flat lightbulbs (best way I can think to describe them) and have not had (knock on wood) one failure. For the outside low voltage lighting I went with MR16 bulbs from SuperbrightLEDs and they have been great as well.

 

[My Old Tools]

I have a ton of Feit PAR 30 and PAR 38 bulbs from Costco with no failures. I just put in 40+ of the EcoSmart PAR 38's in the new house because they were cheaper. I'm saving the receipts. They all came from HD.

 

[cory58]

CRRE LED bulbs used to be "assembled in USA." Just bought a CREE exterior flood and multi-pack of standard 60w lamp replacements at HD - both made in China. Boo!

 

[mike in tucson]

And to think...when they introduced CFL bulbs and were phasing out incandescent stuff, I stocked up on 100W bulbs.....and promptly installed LED bulbs everywhere.....some day, I will sell all my 100W resistive bulbs to a collector...I hope.

 

[dogdog]

1 failed CREE brand bulb 80 watt in open LAMP fixture, after less than 300 hours of usage (HD ones),1 failed FEIT 60 watt equivalent so far. is about 1.5 years of usage, in a sealed fixture.

The GE 100WATT equivalent light stick is really nice so far 1.5 years,

the Sylvania or something Brande from BJ **** **** but still works and only bulb that fits in the light fixture, (light flickers when seen by camera, naked eye feel tired from the light color is really bad).....

 

[finn]

So what ever happened to all the doomsayers here on Garage Journal that were hoarding incandescent bulbs a few years back.

I assume they still have closets full of now worthless and obsolete energy hog incandescent light bulbs.

 

[anuccite]

I'm sure enough have used the Bee's Diva Light....... Thoughts / experience?

 

[jgregt]

I only use Cree LEDs. IMO, they have the best soft/warm white color rendition for indoor use. (I also use floods outdoors.) I did have one bulb fail last year. I took a photo of the serial numbers and emailed the company. They sent me a replacement.

 

[Blue XJ]

My builder used dimmable Feit LED bulbs in my recessed lights. Been in the house a month, already had to replace a couple that quit working. Went with Philips, we'll see if they last longer.

 

[yeldogt]

The dimming bulbs are still a work in progress -- they need the correct control .. still have issues. Most of the retrofits don't put out as many luminous .. and they don't mimic incandescent (get yellow as they dim)

 

[JJ13]

I've been watching for an inexpensive, QUALITY bike light for MTB night rides next summer. As with most everything, the Chinese are now making LEDs that look like CREE diodes but are not the same quality. One of them is LatticeBright and they are tricky to tell apart. Many of the flashlights and bike lights are marketed as having CREE diodes when they are not so buying the inexpensive lights is a **** shoot...probably the same with the less expensive LED bulbs for home use.

Buying from a well known manufacturer and paying the extra price is about the only way to get quality products.

 

[American Locomotive]

The dimming bulbs are still a work in progress -- they need the correct control .. still have issues. Most of the retrofits don't put out as many luminous .. and they don't mimic incandescent (get yellow as they dim)

The only real way to get an LED light that changes color temperature as it dims is to use a RGB (red - green - blue) LED. These lights tend to suffer efficiency and light quality issues. The RGB system also adds expense.

 

[zendriver]

i have some "Honeywell" brand tubes which like the rest of the brand names, mostly meaningless, since they just put names on Chinese made LEDs.

Seems to be working fine, so far.

could not tell you the "brand name" of any of the many screw ins.

Never lost one yet.

 

[cybrdyke]

.. and they don't mimic incandescent (get yellow as they dim)

Lots of lamps now have the warm dim feature. It goes by many names...WarmDim, CCT dimming, Dim to Warm...etc. Easy enough to find at the big box store. They'll cost a couple bucks more than a regular dimming LED lamp.

These lamps have an additional amber diode inside that brightens as the white ones dim. Fully bright, they'll be at 2700k and will dim to 2200k. Done correctly, you can make them dim to warm at the same rate as an incandescent. The good ones are pretty impressive. You should be able to find them in regular bulb style (A-line lamps), BR30, MR16, and even some PAR lamps.
Good luck,
CD